REMARKS OF D. C. ROBBINS, 
OF NEW YORK, 
Upon the Last Meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Asso- 
ciation, WHICH WAS HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, IN SEPTEMBER, 
AND THE 
CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION 
IN CONNECTION WITH 
Pharmacy in the United States. 
Yor 1sl7 October, 1876. 
||ork: 
Thitciif, ver & Glastaeter, Printers, 14 & 16 Vesey Street. 
1876. To Pharmacists and Druggists 
THROUGHOUT OUR OWN AND OTHER STATES 
Gentlemen :—At the recent meeting of the American 
Pharmaceutical Association in Philadelphia, in Septem- 
ber, following upon the reading of the report upon the 
sophistication of Drugs, and the defective character of 
many Pharmaceutical preparations in market, by Mr. 
Eberbach, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, all of which was 
very proper and valuable so far as it went, I took occa- 
sion to criticise the competency of our Pharmaceutical 
schools for proper analytical work, and denounced the 
practice of many professors committing such work to 
mere youths, without experience, and with no competent 
instructors, as also the publication of such papers in 
journals, like the American Journal of Pharmacy, which 
is published in Philadelphia, because the work of the 
analyst is really the most difficult of any, requiring, (to 
quote the language of one of the most distinguished 
scientists and chemists, Prof. Hoffman, of Berlin), 11 a 
peculiar fitness and special preparation, to which there should 
he supplemented the shill of an expert,” the intention being 
to censure the practice which our schools have, of parad- 
ing their work and their pupils before the public, when 
in fact there did not exist, in my opinion, in most of our 
schools, suitable arrangements or competent teachers to 
conduct such work as it should be done for the public 
eye. 
I was fully prepared for this statement, both because in 
the analytical department of our own establishment, we 
have the services of a gentleman, who first graduated in 
Germany as a Pharmacist, afterwards as a Doctor of 4 
Philosophy, and then served for years as pupil and first 
assistant in the Government Analytical Laboratory in 
Berlin, under Sonnenschein, the celebrated analyst; and 
because occasion had been taken to examine from time to 
time, a number of papers which had appeared in the 
American Journal of Pharmacy. 
Of various papers examined, it was found that those 
of the Philadelphia College were all inferior, and so, to 
make a test case, there was selected, as the best of this 
class, a paper by Mr. Schrank, which took the prize 
in the New York College of Pharmacy in 1875, as the 
best essay of the season, the student himself graduating 
at the head of his class. 
This paper was reviewed by our Mr. Charles A. Bobbins, 
Ph. D., a graduate of the University of Jena, in Prussian 
Saxony, and afterwards carefully examined by two of the 
most competent men in the profession, after which it was 
tendered to the American Pharmaceutical Association for 
reading or publication, and I was informed, at the Con- 
vention, that it could not be published or read because of 
personal remarks in the paper, when it did not contain a 
single offensive personal allusion, being, in fact in entirety, 
a critical and technical scientific examination of the pro- 
cesses and methods, adopted by the pupil, Mr. Schrank, 
which it proved to be worthless, and so by implication, 
only, censured the school which issued the paper and the 
journal which published it. 
This paper at present is the property of the American 
Pharmaceutical Association, to be published if they see 
fit in their forthcoming proceedings, or failing this, it 
will be published elsewhere, as also my remarks at the 
Convention, in full, if they can be obtained, and if not in 
substance, from memory and from notes taken at the 
meeting. 
The subject of this address, was the absolute necessity 5 
of securing a higher grade of instruction in our schools, 
as well as the duty of impressing upon our teachers a 
sense of their responsibilities as teachers, in the wrong 
done to the pupil by persuading him that he had perform- 
ed a work of merit, when in fact his work was valueless. 
This address, which was well received at the meeting, 
and commended, I am told will also not be published, 
for a special Committee was appointed on the last day of 
the session, while I was absent, with instructions to throw" 
out all objectionable matter. 
By a singular coincidence, on the very day this address 
was being delivered in Philadelphia, there was being 
published in London a false and malicious, as well as 
needless statement from the pen of Prof. Remington, of 
Philadelphia, in regard to our exhibit in the Centennial, 
which is so characteristic that it is submitted with cor- 
respondence. 
At some future time, it is intended to collect and pub- 
lish, in pamphlet form, this review of the inaugural essay 
of Schrank, in the New York School of Pharmacy, as also 
my remarks upon the character of present instruction in 
our Pharmaceutical Schools, to which will be added some 
thoughtful and excellent remarks, from Mr. Gehe, of Dres- 
den, Saxony, upon our Centennial display and industrial 
displays in general, Mr. Gehe being recognized as one of the 
leading minds in the Drug trade, as also the head of the 
most extensive establishment of the kind in existence. 
In conclusion, your attention is called to annexed cor- 
respondence, while I remain, 
Very respectfully yours, 
D. C. ROBBINS. 
New York, Oct., 1876. 6 
To the Proprietors of the “Chemist 6f Druggist, T Mo. 44 
Cannon Street, London. 
Gentlemen :—We are in due receipt of your valued 
favor of the 21st ultimo, enclosing circular, which will 
ijave early attention. 
We noticed in your issue of the 15th idem a very sin- 
gular report on our Centennial Exhibition, as it is called, 
by your correspondent, Prof. Remington of Philadelphia, 
which is so full of misstatements of fact and which dis- 
plays such petty malice, that it deserves notice. 
Thus: “McKesson <&* (Robbins, Mew York, have a very 
small display considering the amount of business which 
this firm are reputed to do. The drugs are exhibited in 
ordinary 8 oz. bottles, and fall behind in quality compared 
with many other specimens. They are pushing the sale 
of Coated pills, which they claim to be superior 
to any other kind of coating, but the great majority of the 
trade are not ready to believe gelatine more soluble than 
sugar; hence their suceess is but limited. In this case 
is to be seen some fluid extracts, elixirs, S^c. 
Now, the facts are, that the display made in Philadel- 
phia in the Centennial Exhibition by our house, is very 
nearly the same, in form and in design, as was made in 
the Vienna Exhibition, which took place in 1873, for 
which we were awarded by the Austrian government 
two separate medals of merit: one for the exhibition of a 
full line of specimens of crude vegetable medicinal drugs, 
all of which were indigenous within the United States, 
and the other for Chemical and Pharmaceutical products 
pertaining to or derived from these goods. The main 
intention being to exhibit samples of medicinal products, 
which are peculiar to our country as known in commerce. 
These samples were exhibited in Vienna in bottles of 7 
limited quantities, because, the quantity furnished was 
deemed sufficient for the purpose in view, and because, 
a large, bulky, numerous display of crude drugs was not 
deemed advisable for many reasons. It resulted as fol- 
lows : in Vienna, our house was the only house that made 
any general or similar exhibition of American varieties, 
and in Philadelphia we also stand alone, for, as far its 
we can ascertain, ours is the only house making a full 
display of commercial varieties or otherwise, with the 
single exception of Messrs. Wallace Brothers, of States- 
ville, North Carolina, who make a Scientific and Botanical 
display in great variety, the distinction being that Messrs. 
Wallace Bros, are gatherers and preparers of a large line 
of vegetable drugs, while our house are large general 
dealers in all kinds of drugs and druggists’ articles. 
The assertion then of your correspondent, J. P. Rem- 
ington, that our exhibit of American indigenous drugs 
falls behind in quality compared with many other spec- 
imens, is a willfully erroneous statement. The assertion, 
also, that our house is pushing the sale of Gelatine-Coated 
Pills, under the plea that Gelatine is more soluble than Sugar 
is quite false, because the ready solubility of Sugar in 
either cold or warm water, wdiile Gelatine will only dis- 
solve readily in warm water, is well understood, as also 
the fact, that we consider Gelatine covering to be superior 
to Sugar, because of its less solubility, for the reason that 
Gelatine can be applied to soft mass so as to preserve it, 
while sugar cannot ; also that the objection to sugar coat- 
ing does not consist in the coating of sugar, but in the fact 
that so delicate and brittle and soluble a coating as a thin 
covering of sugar requires the pill mass to be thoroughly 
dried by artificial heat, which is a great injury to delicate 
preparations containing alkaloids and other substances, 
besides rendering the dried mass quite insoluble as 
opposed to soft mass. 8 
We are large manufacturers of Sugar-Coated Pills, as 
well as Gelatine-Coated Pills, and therefore thoroughly 
understand the necessities attending the manufacture of 
both, while from our position, as the largest distributing- 
house in medicinal goods in the country, we are better 
able to state facts about the consumption of goods, than 
our so called Professor of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, who 
is merely a proprietor of a small apothecary shop in that 
city, or our so called Professor Peter W. Bedford of New 
York, another correspondent of yours, whose main busi- 
ness—that for which he receives his principal compensa- 
tion, is that of a traveling salesman or drummer for one 
of our smaller houses in the jobbing trade. 
Sugar-Coated Pills were first introduced in the Amer- 
ican market in quantities, about 20 years since, by Messrs. 
Tilden & Co., of New Lebanon, New York, who are very 
large and respectable manufacturers of these products at 
the present time. 
Gelatine-Coated Pills have only been made in quantity, 
by patented machinery (as each pill requires to be finished 
separately), within the past four years, and may be said 
to be only recently introduced, but they are rapidly 
displacing Sugar-Coated, and coming into general favor 
among distinguished Physicians as well as Pharmacists. • 
In the last American Pharmaceutical Convention, which 
was held in Philadelphia a few days since, a valuable 
paper was read by one of our most distinguished Phar- 
macists, Edward R. Squibb, M. D., on the administration 
of Phosphorus, and Gelatine-Coating was recommended 
for Phosphorus Pills, if a coating was desired. 
The truth is, the condition of Pharmacy, as a science 
or a pursuit, as it exists in our United States, should be 
better understood in Europe than it appears to be. Ours 
is a new country and sparsely settled as compared with 
yours, and so, throughout our vast territory, we are com- 9 
pelled to avail ourselves of such education as can be pro- 
cured, and titles are cheap and common—the usage being 
to call every person a Professor who aspires to the office 
of a teacher—there is no recognized standard of qualifi- 
cation for a Professorship in our country. The Professor, 
with us, is the man who talks or can talk to an audience, 
and while we have many men of superior merit, we have 
the common experience—the consummate talker is apt to 
be more or less of an ignoramus, and quite frequently, a 
consummate Ass. 
About a year since, Prof. Remington, as he is called in 
Philadelphia, for the want of a more scientific subject, 
took upon himself to read an article in the Pharmaceut- 
ical convention in Boston, upon Pills in general, in favor 
of Sugar-Coated Pills in particular; he commenced his 
statement in regard to Gelatine-Coated Pills by remark- 
ing that these should be more properly called Glue-Coated 
Pills, with intent, no doubt, to substitute a disagreeable 
name for a popular scientific term, “Gelatine” while the 
term Glue, as is well known, should only be properly 
applied to impure Gelatine, in which he showed either 
the grossest ignorance of a common term, or the most 
pitiful unfairness and dishonesty. 
In conclusion, you may be assured that your corres- 
pondents, J. P. Remington of Philadelphia and Peter W. 
Bedford of New York, are samples of a class quite too 
common in our, as yet, undeveloped and imperfectly edu- 
cated country, and we only take the pains to inform you, 
because, as the result of 50 years establishment as dealers 
and manufacturers, we have a considerable European, 
as well as American reputation to conserve. Such 
individuals as Remington in Philadelphia and Bedford in 
New York, are very well understood at home, while the 
facts about Pharmaceutical education, as it exists with 10 
us, are not as well understood in Europe as they should 
be, hence this letter, which is very respectfully submitted. 
We remain, gentlemen, 
Yours truly, 
McKesson & robbins, 
New York, 5th Oct., 1876. 
We submit a single extract from Mr. Gelie’s circular, for 
the careful consideration of American Pharmacists. 
“Under the impression that they must do something 
extraordinary, and to attract the attention of the visitor, 
it has been the aim of the mass of exhibitors to erect 
immense constructions, which are entirely useless and 
made onW for the exhibition, or to display large quanti- 
ties of an article, carefully arranged in artistic groups, 
and it is not a rare occurrence to find that these cases, 
&c., cost many times as much as the article exhibited 
in them, and from these facts, one must say that the en- 
couragement of science, which was the original purpose 
of International Exhibitions, is hardly to be noticed.” 
Extract from Mr. Geiie’s Circular. 11 
While writing this pamphlet matter, we have had a 
very interesting interview with two Commissioners from 
the French Government; they came into our establish- 
ment with a memorandum of our exhibit in Vienna, as 
also in Philadelphia, where it seems we have been awarded 
a recognition, and requested the privilege of viewing our 
establishment, and taking some notes. Their visit ap- 
peared to give them much pleasure; in leaving, they 
informed us that it was the particular wish of their Gov- 
ernment, that they should visit in person the establish- 
ments of persons represented in the Centennial, and they 
gave a very humorous account of their visits to many 
places, where the proprietor appeared to have less Capital 
in his business than in the Exhibition. The views of 
these gentlemen were in full accord with those of Mr. 
Gehe, and they left, assuring us that we would be spec- 
ially invited to contribute to the coming French Exposi- 
tion. We were much amused at a trifling circumstance, 
which occurred in presenting themselves ; they exhibited 
with their Credentials, their ticket of Free admission to 
the Centennial, which was literally so riddled with punch 
holes, that an apology was tendered, the gentlemen said 
they had tried Philadelphia but did not like the city, 
they knew the reason why the Centennial was held 
in Philadelphia very well, but it was no place for such 
an Exhibition; New York, said they, is the place, we like 
New York, and we do not like Philadelphia, because it is 
too final, which provoked a smile, but called for no ex- 
planation. We leave the reader to infer what the word 
final probably meant. 12 
The Decadence of Philadelphia Pharmacy. 
There is for Philadelphia an ominous import in this 
description of the discriminating Frenchman, “Philadel- 
phia is too final,” for to become final is to return to the 
embrace of the infinite, and lose our place in this moving- 
world, where unceasing change is the order of nature. 
The Exposition of to-day, in which she glories, and in 
which we all rejoice because as intelligent loreigners say, 
it has introduced us to Europe,—our excellencies as well 
as our defects,—more than ever before, 
is to be her final Exposition. To Philadelphia of the 
past, American Pharmacy owes a debt of grateful recol- 
lection, Philadelphia was, as she is yet called, the Quaker 
City, and out of the training of this sect, came naturally 
her former excellence as a center for Medical and Phar- 
maceutical instruction. This sect was always distinguish- 
ed for its devotion to peaceful pursuits, its religion of hu- 
manity as opposed to dogmatism, its protest against any 
specially educated clergy, its disapproval of all legal con- 
tentions, its practical opposition to all the educated pro- 
fessions, except the single one of medicine and surgery, 
out of which came her excellency in Pharmacy, which is 
only a collateral branch in medication. But Quakerism 
itself is fast becoming a recollection, a finality, because we 
must accept all the tendencies which pertain to excellence 
in any direction. The Quaker sect was the most remark- 
able that came of the ferment of the great reformation, it 
rejected all precedents as well as emblems of worship, and 
relied absolutely upon the sufficiency of spiritual commu- 
nion ; in practical affairs, its code was equally absolute, it 
disclaimed the pristine advice to become all things to all 
men, it asserted that the end never justified questionable 
means. “ The right always before the expedient,” hence 
among all sects, the single record of this sect in our 13 
country, in regard to the institution of slavery, which it 
never condoned. For such a sect, propagandism was an 
essential condition of existence, it must convert mankind 
to its own lofty ideals, or withdraw from the world, and 
pass into isolation, exclusiveness, selfishness, and perish 
as a branch withdrawn from the vine, an instructive 
Commentary on the solidarity of the race. 
Philadelphia was formerly famous for her Schools, 
but to-day it has become a proverb in Europe, when 
an American presents himself with the title of Ph. 
D., (Doctor of Philosophy), which is deemed a high 
honor abroad, that it is safe to enquire whether this title 
means a Philadelphia Doctor, or whether he is really a 
graduate of one of those European Universities who only 
confer this title for scientific discovery in some direction. 
To accept isolation, selfishness, is to invite certain ruin, 
the decline of all manhood, the sure decay of all moral 
worth as well as moral perceptions. A man must 
cherish justice, and follow truth wherever these may lead, 
or he is likely to pass through a course of infamy into 
moral insanity, a loss of all moral perception, than which 
there can be no greater misfortune. 
There can be no real prosperity, where there is no moral 
health, where all sense of common decency appears to be 
lost. It was a painful experience to walk into the rooms 
of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, as a member of 
the American Pharmaceutical Association, and receive a 
Philadelphia pill circular at the door, endorsed by a Phil- 
adelphia professor, and find the same pill proprietor in 
the Chair at the head of the meeting, with the professor 
at his right hand ; but I forbear, because the case is too 
serious for further comment, and we may depend upon 
the coming of the end. Finality,—that ominous word 
which is at once a warning and a refuge. At some future 
period, I propose to speak more individually, of the per- sonnel of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, as it 
exists, for no fact was more clearly exhibited in the last 
Pharmaceutical Convention, than the lamentable inferior- 
ity of the Philadelphia College of to-day, in character— 
in men, for it should be constantly kept in view, that the 
main object of all teaching in all directions—is manhood.