Selected Papers.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE USE OF SILVER IN THE MANUFAC

TURE OF Looking glĄSSES.

It was in 1856, or possibly a year or so earlier or later, that old King Louis, of Bavaria, then deposed, while on one of his informal visits to the laboratory of Baron Justus Von Liebeg (into which he was in the habit of dropping as frequently, sometimes, as twice or thrice a week, always coming in by the back way entirely unannounced), asked the great che.nist if it were not possible to so modify the mercurial amalgam process of making looking-glasses, then the only one known or in general use, so as to prevent the terrible effects of the process, on not only those actually working in the shops, but their families, and all living in the villages and in their surroundings.

The writer, then a young student in Liebig's laboratory, and under his especial care, was standing close by the table in the Baron's library (which opened directly into the laboratory), at which he and the ex-King were sitting. Liebig looked earnestly at King Louis, and said deferentially, yet familiarly, "Tell me something about it, your Majesty. "Why," replied Louis, "do you not know the

condition of the people at Fuerth (a town near Nuremberg), both the village and the Bezirk (district or arrondissement)? You should go and see for yourself, my dear Baron. It is dreadful, terrible?" --and then he proceeded to tell Liebeg of the horrible necrosis that afflicted the workmen, the stunting of the children, the terrible mortality, and the early doom that all met.

The result of this chance conversation was a visit, paid by Liebeg and some of his pupils, to Fuerth and its neighborhood. The writer was one of the party, and even at this late day, more than forty years afterward, the memory of the scenes witnessed is like a nightmare, or a vision out of Dante's Inferno.

Fuerth (the town) was at that time the centre of the amalgam mirror industry, in which nearly the entire population, men, women and children, were engaged, the output, however, being mostly mirrors of the smaller and cheaper grades-hand glasses, soldiers' mirrors, etc., though some of the larger and more costly were also turned out.

Those who have witnessed a bad case of mercurial salivation, in the "good old days" when physicians prescribed for nearly everything, "calomel and jalap, pro re nata, until the gums are touched," can form some faint idea of the appearance of a community working in amalgam, and living in and constantly breathing an atmosphere charged with mercurial

vapors. The utmost limit of the imagination, however, would fall far short of the horrors of the general and all-pervading mercurial intoxication that existed among this wretched population.

The heart of Liebig was touched as I had never before, and never afterward, seen it touched, and he had scarcely reached home before he commenced experiments in the line of supplanting mercurial amalgam by pure silver as a backing for mirrors. He was familiar with the experiments and process of Drayton, the English chemist, who, in 1840, showed that silver could be precipitated, in its pure metallic state, from solutions of its salts, by the use of various reducing agents-glucose, tannic acid, the essential oils, etc. Each of these agents was tried and abandoned as unfit for use in manufacture on a commercial scale-though these experiments proved that mirrors could be made by them, not only more economically, but that they made a better mirror every way, one reflecting a much larger amount of light (nearly 40% more), and the process was absolutely free from any evil effects upon the health of those operating in it.

Without following Liebig's experiments, we will say that he finally fixed on aldehyde ammonia as the reducing agent, and the nitrate as the best silver salt for use in the process, whether on a small or on a commercial scale. Everybody in the laboratory, from Liebig to the youngest student and assistant, was set to work making mirrors for the exposition then about opening in Munich. These were of all sizes and shapes, from a little hand mirror up to a cheval glass, which latter was subsequently presented to the ex-Queen of Naples (the wife of "Bombalino").

These mirrors demonstrated, as said before, that the silvering process was far cheaper than that by amalgam With silver then at $1.15 an ounce, the cost of silvering, including the. other chemicals used, was about 31⁄2 (3.46) cts. a square foot. Accurate photometric tests showed that while the amalgam mirror, made on the best glass, reflected but 65% of the light received, the same glass, covered with pure silver, threw back 94%-or, in other words, it rereflected nearly one-half more light than the amalgam mirror. One defect, or claimed defect, was noticed -the light from the silver mirror was yellowish in hue, while that from the mercurial amalgam is white. Liebeg counteracted this defect, however, subsequently, by brushing over the silvered surface with a solution of the double cyanide of mercury and potassium, which instantly converts the pure silver into an amalgam, which adheres to the glass with great tenacity. This produces a bluish reflection, which combines with the yellow to make a light exactly resembling that reflected by an amalgam mirror.

By the time that the factory built by some commercial men to carry out Liebig's process was com

pleted, the civil war had broken out in America, and had called American students home, and with the subsequent history of the process, as a commercial venture, the writer is not familiar.

It was, however, many years before the silver mirror began to make any headway against the mercurial amalgam, and the reason for this fact discloses one of the strangest phenomena of the human mind, one that has puzzled philosophers and baffled the efforts of philanthropists in all ages--the opposition of those engaged in any deadly trade or vocation to any and all projects, the object of which is to remove the dangers attending the handicraft in which they are engaged. The mercurial or amalgam process was, as stated, terribly destructive to life, an early, certain and painful end being assured to all engaged in it. Not only this, but the little span of life vouchsafed to them was rendered a curse instead of a blessing. Long before the end came, they were objects more loathsome than lepers or syphilitics; every breath was a labor, every movement caused a pain. For all this, they clung to their dangerous and deadly trade, and offered the fiercest opposition to every effort to ameliorate their condition, regarding with hatred and malice those whose benevolence led them to interfere in their behalf.

A parallel case to this of the amalgam workers is afforded by the behavior of the class of cutlery workers at Sheffield, known as "dry-grinders," in the early part of the present century. These men sat in front of a grind-stone revolving toward them, and applied the cutlery to the surface in such a manner that a constant stream of sparks, consisting of minute fragments of the steel, mingled with dust from the stone, was thrown against their faces and chests. The consequences of the constant inhalation of these particles of solid mattor is the cause of a lung affection, which ends in a rapid consumption and an early death. Many years ago a device, now, we believe, in almost universal use in the trade, was invented and given free to the master cutlers by the philanthropic inventor, which device, in operation, deflected the stream of solid matter and thus prevented its inhalation by the grinders. The attempt at the introduction of the device, the operation of which guaranteed the workmen a new lease of life, instead of being welcomed by them, was most violently opposed. The men tore them away from the grinding frames and smashed them to atoms. Further attempts at their introduction precipitated strikes and riots, which required the utmost efforts of the authorities to quell. The introduction was, however, completed some years later, under an Act of Parliament. The objection of these workmen was based solely on the fact that rendering their occupation safe and healthy would reduce their enormous wages down to something like a parity with

Selected Papers.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE USE OF SILVER IN THE MANUFAC

TURE OF LOOKING GLASSES.

It was in 1856, or possibly a year or so earlier or later, that old King Louis, of Bavaria, then deposed, while on one of his informal visits to the laboratory of Baron Justus Von Liebeg (into which he was in the habit of dropping as frequently, sometimes, as twice or thrice a week, always coming in by the back way entirely unannounced), asked the great che.nist if it were not possible to so modify the mercurial amalgam process of making looking-glasses, then the only one known or in general use, so as to prevent the terrible effects of the process, on not only those actually working in the shops, but their families, and all living in the villages and in their surroundings.

The writer, then a young student in Liebig's laboratory, and under his especial care, was standing close by the table in the Baron's library (which opened directly into the laboratory), at which he and the ex-King were sitting. Liebig looked earnestly at King Louis, and said deferentially, yet familiarly, "Tell me something about it, your Majesty. "Why," replied Louis, "do you not know the

condition of the people at Fuerth (a town near Nuremberg), both the village and the Bezirk (district or arrondissement)? You should go and see for yourself, my dear Baron. It is dreadful, terrible?" —and then he proceeded to tell Liebeg of the horrible necrosis that afflicted the workmen, the stunting of the children, the terrible mortality, and the early doom that all met.

The result of this chance conversation was a visit, paid by Liebeg and some of his pupils, to Fuerth and its neighborhood. The writer was one of the party, and even at this late day, more than forty years afterward, the memory of the scenes witnessed is like a nightmare, or a vision out of Dante's Inferno.

Fuerth (the town) was at that time the centre of the amalgam mirror industry, in which nearly the entire population, men, women and children, were engaged, the output, however, being mostly mirrors of the smaller and cheaper grades-hand glasses, soldiers' mirrors, etc., though some of the larger and more costly were also turned out.

Those who have witnessed a bad case of mercurial salivation, in the "good old days" when physicians prescribed for nearly everything, "calomel and jalap, pro re nata, until the gums are touched, can form some faint idea of the appearance of a community working in amalgam, and living in and constantly breathing an atmosphere charged with mercurial

vapors. The utmost limit of the imagination, however, would fall far short of the horrors of the general and all-pervading mercurial intoxication that existed among this wretched population.

The heart of Liebig was touched as I had never before, and never afterward, seen it touched, and he had scarcely reached home before he commenced experiments in the line of supplanting mercurial amalgam by pure silver as a backing for mirrors. He was familiar with the experiments and process of Drayton, the English chemist, who, in 1840, showed that silver could be precipitated, in its pure metallic state, from solutions of its salts, by the use of various reducing agents-glucose, tannic acid, the essential oils, etc. Each of these agents was tried and abandoned as unfit for use in manufacture on a commercial scale-though these experiments proved that mirrors could be made by them, not only more economically, but that they made a better mirror every way, one reflecting a much larger amount of light (nearly 40% more), and the process was absolutely free from any evil effects upon the health of those operating in it.

Without following Liebig's experiments, we will say that he finally fixed on aldehyde ammonia as the reducing agent, and the nitrate as the best silver salt for use in the process, whether on a small or on a commercial scale. Everybody in the laboratory, from Liebig to the youngest student and assistant, was set to work making mirrors for the exposition then about opening in Munich. These were of all sizes and shapes, from a little hand mirror up to a cheval glass, which latter was subsequently presented to the ex-Queen of Naples (the wife of "Bombalino"). These mirrors demonstrated, as said before, that the silvering process was far cheaper than that by amalgam With silver then at $1.15 an ounce, the cost of silvering, including the. other chemicals used, was about 31⁄2 (3.46) cts. a square foot. Accurate photometric tests showed that while the amalgam mirror, made on the best glass, reflected but 65% of the light received, the same glass, covered with pure silver, threw back 94%-or, in other words, it rereflected nearly one-half more light than the amalgam mirror.

One defect, or claimed defect, was noticed -the light from the silver mirror was yellowish in hue, while that from the mercurial amalgam is white. Liebeg counteracted this defect, however, subsequently, by brushing over the silvered surface with a solution of the double cyanide of mercury and potassium, which instantly converts the pure silver into an amalgam, which adheres to the glass with great tenacity. This produces a bluish reflection, which combines with the yellow to make a light exactly resembling that reflected by an amalgam mirror.

By the time that the factory built by some commercial men to carry out Liebig's process was com

pleted, the civil war had broken out in America, and had called American students home, and with the subsequent history of the process, as a commercial venture, the writer is not familiar.

It was, however, many years before the silver mirror began to make any headway against the mercurial amalgam, and the reason for this fact discloses one of the strangest phenomena of the human mind, one that has puzzled philosophers and baffled the efforts of philanthropists in all ages-the opposition of those engaged in any deadly trade or vocation to any and all projects, the object of which is to remove the dangers attending the handicraft in which they are engaged. The mercurial or amalgam process was, as stated, terribly destructive to life, an early, certain and painful end being assured to all engaged in it. Not only this, but the little span of life vouchsafed to them was rendered a curse instead of a blessing. Long before the end came, they were objects more loathsome than lepers or syphilitics; every breath was a labor, every movement caused a pain. For all this, they clung to their dangerous and deadly trade, and offered the fiercest opposition to every effort to ameliorate their condition, regarding with hatred and malice those whose benevolence led them to interfere in their behalf.

A parallel case to this of the amalgam workers is afforded by the behavior of the class of cutlery workers at Sheffield, known as "dry-grinders," in the early part of the present century. These men sat in front of a grind-stone revolving toward them, and applied the cutlery to the surface in such a manner that a constant stream of sparks, consisting of minute fragments of the steel, mingled with dust from the stone, was thrown against their faces and chests. The consequences of the constant inhalation of these particles of solid mattor is the cause of a lung affection, which ends in a rapid consumption and an early death. Many years ago a device, now, we believe, in almost universal use in the trade, was invented and given free to the master cutlers by the philanthropic inventor, which device, in operation, deflected the stream of solid matter and thus prevented its inhalation by the grinders. The attempt at the introduction of the device, the operation of which guaranteed the workmen a new lease of life, instead of being welcomed by them, was most violently opposed. The men tore them away from the grinding frames and smashed them to atoms. Further attempts at their introduction precipitated strikes and riots, which required the utmost efforts of the authorities to quell. The introduction was, however, completed some years later, under an Act of Parliament. The objection of these workmen was based solely on the fact that rendering their occupation safe and healthy would reduce their enormous wages down to something like a parity with

the pay of other skilled workmen.

Like the mirror makers, they preferred a short and miserable existence, with big pay, to a longer and more pleasant life, with ordinary remuneration.

To return to the silver mirror- -we can say that the original process of Liebeg has long since been discarded for simpler and more efficient methods, and that to-day the use of pure silver is slowly, but surely, driving the amalgam processes (in which there have also been many and notable improvements) out of existence, and it will be but a few years before the last mercurial mirror is manufactured.-National Druggist.

COMMON-SENSE VIEWS.

BY CHARLES G. KLINE.

The only way possible to secure and retain the physician's support is to be a pharmacist in every sense of the word, and then to treat the physician in a common-sense sort of a way. We will never secure it by keeping up "a howl" about the doctors dispensing. We must recognize the fact once and for all time that they have a legal right to dispense all the medicine they want to in their own practice. They will always dipense more or less as long as they live, the quantity depending very greatly on how we treat them.

We have no legal or moral right to prescribe unless we happen to have a medical diploma, and in that case the other physicians would very likely want to patronize a druggist who is not an M D. No sensible physician objects to our giving relief doses for headache or colic if we have sense and knowledge enough to give the proper thing; what they have a right to object to is our attempting to treat the

causes.

We should do everything possible to encourage their writing prescriptions. We should show them that we have a stock of drugs and chemicals necessary, and that we always fill their prescriptions just as they want them filled. Grant them the freedom of the store. Let them come behind the prescription case and in the laboratory if they are so inclined; occasionally invite them to if they are diffident or have a feeling of delicacy about it. Let them see us filling their prescriptions or manufacturing our tinctures, elixirs, etc. It won't shake their confidence in us if we are what we claim to be; but instead it will be an object-lesson that they will remember when handing a patient a prescription and hearing the oftrepeated query, Where shall I take it?

If a prescription for elixir bromide potassium (Jones) is received, it doesn't do anybody any good to fly off at a tangent, say mean things about the doctor to his patient, and so on! Consider that

Jones sent a high-priced gentleman probably five hundred miles to see the doctor, especially to tell him about the preparation and to leave a good-sized sample with him. We have lived within two blocks of his office for years and never have been there except to ask his permission to substitute in a prescription just received.

Is it any wonder that he specified Jones? He did not know we could make a preparation certainly equal.

Go over the National Formulary with them, and if they express a desire to try something that you don't keep made up, make up a generous sample for them. Call their attention to any of the N. F. preparations whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Keep posted on the new remedies and preparations, and have literature on them at hand in case the physicians want to know about them. Let them get in the habit of thinking us interested in progress, and cognizant of the new discoveries and the like. They will then grow to depend on us more as aids. Don't hesitate to stock a small quantity of some new remedy that the doctors are using, and let them know it. If they want a preparation of any sort not in stock, get it.

Supply them with the medicine they dispense at a close margin. Better sell at cost than to let the supply houses furnish them. Protect the doctor from his patients, who very often have a habit of passing his prescriptions around among their friends. Our duty is very plain in the matter. Druggists, too, are often consulted about different physicians or by people who think of making a change, but in such cases we must observe a position of strict neutrality, unless it is an occasion where the services of a specialist are needed.

I know that there are some who, having read this far, will be thinking that the physician owes something to the druggist. I think so, too, but it is not my business to say how the doctor ought to treat the druggist. I am only telling one side of the story, and I think if we live up to our opportunities we will gain fair treatment a good deal quicker than by yelling "dispensing doctor" every time we have a spell of the blues and think the drug business has gone to the devil.

We have no business to cut on the price of standard preparations and then try to make up the loss by overcharging on prescriptions. It is the duty of the physician to see that his patient is not paying more than a reasonable price, and an honest doctor is willing the druggist should be paid for his skill as well as his drugs.

Let us work harder to be better pharmacists, more worthy of our calling. It will be better for us, for the doctor, and for the public.

I have said nothing about the patent medicine