The Seaforth News, 1950-01-12, Page 11ree * Flies, Powder ,d Rhubarb,
l�asiad Cuttlefish Bone"
Studeenta at the Ontario College
of Pharmacy nen in a world of
glossy green Hies, powdered rhu-
barb, ground extttlefivh bone, and
some 8,000 other items which are
the tools of their profession.
'fine flies, laboriously collected
In Spaiti, are for blistering plas-
ters. The rhubarb is for tonics, the
cuttlefish bone for canaries.
The undergraduate trust heroine
familiar with the Chinese beetle
and many another insect; tree baric
such as cascara wood and cinchona
(which yields quinine); and a wel-
ter of liquids, oils and chemical
salts from which pills, emuleious,
tinctures and infusions are made,
So complex Inas pharmacy become
that the course now demands four
years of intensive effort htatead of
the three months considered long
enough in 1882,
The College of Pharmacy is at-
Hliated with the University of Tor-
onto, Cureicula, admission stand-
ards, and examiners are under the
jurisdiction of the University Sen-
ate. Many lectures are given by
Varsity professors.
Located near the junction of
Gerrard. and Church, the three-
storey College is In a one-time
"fashionable' area which has be-
come part of busy downtown Tor-
onto, Students have a tight •sailed -
Me of about 28 hours a week of
labs and lectures, In addition to
studies during the academic year,
students must work 18 months in
a store or a plant as "interns"
(usually during the summer
months), After they graduate
many will spend seven or eight
years in retail stores before they
can afford to start in husiuess for
themselves,
Womeu who graduated from the
College in 1906 are still among
Canada's 4,000 practising pharma-
eists and 50 women are enrolled
this year. In 1948 the first and
second prize winners were worsen,
something stale graduates of that
year would rather not discuss,
The College is proud of its high
standards. At most of the 69 au -
credited collages of pharmacy in
the United States, the entrance re-
quirement is junior matriculation,
In Ontario it is third class honours
in senior matriculation,
Students in pharmacy spend half
their time in University buildings
taking such subjects as botany,
pharmacology, chennistry, ,physics,
zoology and English. At the Col-
lege itself they take various courses
in pharmacy, teharmaceutieal cheta-
istry and tttaferie nnedica. The last
ie a grouping of courses in physiol-
ogy, first aid, the study of animal
and plant sources that yield crude
drugs, and the study of biological
products.
Also taught, of course, is the ab-
breviated Latin that makes up the
language of the prescription. The
scrawled note a Canadian doctor
hands his patient makes easy read-
ing for a druggist because there
are only about 200 abbreviations to
Memorize.
Orders from overseas aren't so
siunple. A good many people rat
Central Europe are sanding pre-
scriptions for relativist' to have filled
here and Ontario druggists ' are
having quite a time with theta. And
ie. some Ontario communities mid.
Europeans buy ae many as 100
leeches a month at $1.50 a leech
front one store alone. The leeches
(bloodsuckers) are used to reduce
the swelling in black eyes,
Pharmacists fill prescriptions that
stay range in price from less than
a cent to $4 for a single pili.
Ingredients coupe front all over the
world and students are taught to
pick them out at sight. "No two
humans look exactly alike and
neither do any two of the sub-
stances we tier,' pharmacists say,
though to the layman many of the
bottle9 carefully stacked side by
side seotn to contain She sante met-
er1a1, After fist becoming familiar.
with their materials, pltarrnsey stu-
dents work in a lab where the
bottles are numbered. If a strident
isn't sure, he ran cross to the other'
side of the room where a list iden-
tities the substances. However, the
number system.. trains his power of
observation and after a while he
• knows at a glance tvltat a bottle
contains.
The College iuusetun has a 159-
cinating -display of old utensils,
prescription books and preparations,
l"or instance, there's a packaged
conuuernial product of the early
part of the uinetetettl century
known as 'Electric Beans". The
legend on the package says hearts
Create Rich Red Blood. Pills were
potent in the old [lays; One patent
medicine was labelled "Anti -Pill
Cure." Then there's •a poison regis-
ter kept by a Toronto druggist iu
1877. At the top of one page, in.
a long straight hand, is the Sig-
nature of Sir John A. Macdonald,
l'he first Father of Confedera-
tion bought an eyewash solution,
one ingredient of which was a
['Mena.
--Front Varsity Graduate
a
Trees That Weep
Priceless Tears
.Perhaps the greatest dollar -earn-
ing asset it' the Empire is rubber,
most of it from troubled Malaya, a
British possession, There the rubber
trees weep to bring in 00 trillion
pounds worth of dollars a year.
Tltis most versatile and widely -
applied of all the earth's natural
products is indispensable to twen-
tieth century civilization, and in a
world plagued with shortages it 15
almost the only essential commodity
of which there is an. ab indent sup-
ply. One can hardly count its present
uses, or set bounds to its possible
future use, so fast are we lindieg
new ways of employing it.
During the war alone, ser eral hun-
dred new uses were discovered,
ranging from "plioftlat," which pro-
tected aircraft engines seat to dis-
tant battlefields, to conveyer belts
now used by the utile. in up-to-date
mines.
'Che United States uses well over
a half of the whole world's produc-
tion, for' natural rubber is one of the
few commodities she has found it
impossible to produce herself.
The. rubber plant is not a native of
British Malaya. It came originally
front the New World—ore of the
first products of America to be
noted by explorers and one of the
last to be exploited.
C'ohtmbus himself, during Inc see -
mut visit there, was astonished to
see native 1'ndiaus amusing them-
selves by playing with heavy black
balls made from vegetable guns, In
1740 a French scientist, Charles
Marie de la Condamine, sent back
specimens of this amazing "bouncing
guru." IIe called it "caoutchouc," a
variation of the Indian name for
"weeping tree." and caoutchouc it
still remains in the French diction-
ary
rltett in 1770 Joseph Priestley, an
$giish chemist invited attention to
a material which he found to be
"excellently adapted to the purpose
of wiping front paper the market of
a black -lead pencil,"
Englishmen tried it and promptly
gave it the name "rubber. its or-
igin they indicated by the prefix
"India" (meaning front the West
Indies); and thus the label "indian
rubber" carate into being, Samuel
Peal patented a tirocess for staking
waterproof fabric by using rubber
dissolved in turpentine then in tine
1820', 'Thomas Hancock and Charles
"Let's See You Do This"—'.Fritz, the dachshund of the `Ro,1
Miller ftrntil), tries doggedly to make friends with the new
china bulldog Made belonging to one of rite Miller ohildrnn.
The hard-headed bulldog ju8t *he.
When the roadway is a slcidway, beware of rapid acceleration,
quiets stops and sudden swerves, Also deadly are exceeeive speed,'
ceeteeially on teens, and uneven braking.
Ta slow down, pump the brake gen iy; don't hold 1t down steady.
binder skid conditions, never try to stop suddenly, but check your
speed a little at a time.
I9daciutoslt established rubber fac-
tories in London and Glasgow.
Everyone to -day associates the
Scot's name with waterproof gar-
ments.
"Tire tree that weeps" became the
most precious timber in the world,
and Brazil, where it had been first
discovered, still held the monopoly
of supply. But in that country the
natural rubber forests had been
ruthlessly exploited, Many millions
of trees had been "bled" to death,
and the price of rubber rose steadily
as it became necessary to penetrate
deeper and deeper into the Amazon
forests to tap slew supplies.
The Brazilians hung on grimly
and refused to allow the precious
seeds to be taken from the country
so that plantations could be ,laid
down elsewhere.
Several unsuccessful attempts;
were made to emuggla seeds out.
Finally it was left to the resource of
an Englishman, Henry ' Wickham
(who was afterwards knighted), to
go through with it in the good old
Elizabethan way.
He undertook to procure by hook
or by crook a sufficient number of
seeds to ensure the future of rubber.
Chartering a steamer, he succeeded
in snuggling 70,000 seeds out of the
country packed between leaves of
the banana tree, 1 -le reached Liver-
pool, where a special train was wait-
ing to rush the seeds to Kew. There
some of then[ germinated and the
plants were sent out to India, Cey-
Ion, and Malaya.
Total cost of Wickman's expedi-
tion was £1,500. Out of it have
grown 700 million trees, producing'
800,000 tons of rubber annually.
Even to -day we are far from ex-
hausting the possibilities of latex or
rubber "milk." Apart from ite well-
lcnown uses, patents are out for its
use as a perservative for eggs, fruit,
and plants. It is also .exteusively
employed for upholstery, flooring,
road surfacing, wallpapering.
}The tapping, of the rubber trees
for this precious latex still remains
a simple process carried out by num
nal labour. It is useful to reflect how
many of our great industries, which
in later stages depend almost en.
tirely on giant, complicated mach-
ines, rely in the first place on the
work of one man the unskilled
Malay labourer, for whoto there can
he no mechanical substitute,
Itis work enneisls of cutting the
bark and setting a cup to catch the
white latex which runs between
bark and wood. At the end of the
day he collects these cups and pours
their contents into a large tank—a
primitive forts of labour which can
in no way be mechanized or hurried,
Calcium Spurs
Milk Production
A 46 per cent, increase in milk
production as a result of supplying
sufficient calcium in the ration of
dairy cows is reported in a 16 -year
study of R. B. Becker, dairy hus-
bandman of the Florida Experi-
mental Station. Cows given rations
containing too little calcium pro-
duced an average of only 4,886
pounds of milk in 218 lactations,
whereas cows getting sufficient cal-
cium yielded an average of 7,092
pounds of milk in 73 lactations,
Florida and other states where
pastures and other feed crops are
grown on acid, sandy soils may be,
inadequate in lime, which sttpplies
calcium,
To overcome the shortage, Beck-
er and his co-worker, P. T. Dix
Arnold, added two per cent, of
finely ground steamed botemeal to
the dairy concentrates. (n addition,
the heavy milk producers received
a limited amount of alfalfa hay.
These supplements afforded enough
calcium for Jersey cows in commer-
cial herds. More recently, however,
one per refit. each of bonetneal and
kalsite (marble dust) replaced the
two per cent. of bonetneal,
Deficiency of calcium may be
corrected by spreading line on im-
proved pastures. Then, too, lately,
manufacturers of mixed dairy
feeds in the Southeast are making
up for the lack of calcium by in-
cluding boneuteal and finely ground
limestone in their feedstnh'a.
reentry Gentleman.
Ide,. .Brown: "For nlontbs i
couldn't discover where my husband
spent his evenings"
,Mrs. Smith: "How did you find
out?"
"eVell, ane evening 1 went home
and there he was."
Where "Holy Caw"
Isn't Slang
"1loty nowt" ex 151105d my- Amor.,
lean friend casually, not realising
that in India this expression would
not sautid fanny, for to most Hitt.
due the cow le a sacred anginal,
Yet it is surprising how quickly
a young Hindu, when away from
home, starts eating beef and thinks
nothing of it, Mlles away from the
influence of his orthodox elders,
he views the cow as a very useful
auitnal, but fails to see the halo
about its head, writes Chaturi Vas•
want fu The Christian Science Mon-
Iu America, the cow is pastubed
on farms and dairies. In India, It
has as touch right to walk on the
crowded streets of a city a:sr any
person, It is not uncommon to see
a cow holding up traffic while it
nonchalantly crosses the street or
forces pedestrians to detour off the
sidewalk while it gazes at the store
displays _. window shopping as it
were. The cow even wanders into
the crowds at the food market and
helps itself to the food.
" * a:
Now, u'hy does the Lott in in-
dia have privileges that ereu a
human being cannot claim in any
country? Jaywalking, food steeling,
and becoming a hindrance on the
man street are illegal acts. However,
these man -trade laws do not affect
the cow in India, But there, the row
is "sacred" and the num is not,
Economically, the cow and the
bull are the two most valbable ani-
mals in India. The cow furnishes
milk and all its by-products. Farm-
ers harness the bull to plow the
land. India, therefore, depends en-
tireiy on the cow for its food supply
and so treats the cow with a rever-
ence due to the another wlto pro-
vides food for her children. In fact,
the cow is often called' 'mother
cow."
However, the idea of reverence
has in some cases been carried too
far, Temples have been built for the
worship of the cow, Many religious
ceremonies include the feeding of
the cow as one of the important
items of the ritual. Hindu wore('
often ,,start their day by feeding the
cow. Any stray cow is welcome in
their back yards,
The real motive behind this rever-
ence has been forgotten. Being a
useful animal, the cow has to be
perserved for its practical value.
Reverence is one way of protecting
the animal from physical harm by
men who might kill it for [neat.
That is why beef is taboo among the
Hindus, most of whom do not eat
any kind of meat anyway.
But to believe that it is sacri-
legious for a Hindu to use anything
of the cow, including the milk, le
a misconception, Milk is widely used
when available, the cow's skirt is
used for leather, and its horns are
carved into beautiful flguree. for
living -roots decoration,
4 * *
The only real offense against the
cow is killing It for food or for
anything. In some parts of India
the penalty for killing a cow, even
by accident, is a few years in jail,
People have established homes for
the aged cows where they are well
taken care of. That is more then
they clone for human beings.
l ut the times have changed and
the old customs ;cannot continue foe
long.' Tit*' population of the cows,
99- of people, has increased 111991lm
Sell, In India, Not enough fodder is
grows. Moreover, the modern tua-
terlalistie Indihit wot'ke rile atlj t�uil
to the. bone and tries to gel as.ntut
out of it as possible.
One criticient ,levied against the
i•Iindtt is: Why catt't they let some
of these miserable -looking creatures
bq slaufihtered all‘fed to trillions
of starving people?
The attstver to this crrticisnt is
that h is hard to change traditions.
For a people brought tip in tate
tradition of respecting the cow, it
will be years before any change of
attitude is brought abi,ut.
However,•sotne daring young meet
have broken away. They have seers
better cattle and better farming me-
thods in other countries and wise'
India would adopt similar practices,
Theyno longer consider the cow
a sacred animal. Their prejudice
against beef -eating bas vanished,
too. for they eat beef as willingly
as any either meat when tte1Q front
home. For tl,is they have to 111
count to tlieie elders on returning
to India, 13119 they get 50 ay be
saying, -"1\ e were eating .\lnerirae
59119. They aren't ":,'•red.' are
rite}7."
t
Expert Advice
Visiting the farm for the lit.,
trate in her city -bred life. little
eight-year-old Rebecca, the daugh-
ter of a filling station operator, was
thrilled by the many things her
grandfather showed iter. The hi,g
turkey gobbler, soon to he killed.
for Christmas dinner, frightened.
her; and she was astonished to dis-
cover that the ice on the pond was -
thick enough to bear her weight.
Most of all, however, she was
fascinated by the cow. Several
afternoons she went with her
grandfather to the barn and stared
wide-eyed as he milked. On a nippy'
December day when site was
anxious to return to the warmth of
the farm house, she ventured to tato
him on the shoulder and suggested,
"Grandpa, if you'd put alcohol ite
her radiator, you wouldn't have to
drain her faucets every flight!"
"Wool" from Rocks
British geologists engaged in re-
search worlc in the Hawaiian Islands
found a fluffy fiber made of tine
same substance as the roles on the
slopes of the volcano, Since this
fiber was probably produced front
lava during a volcanic eruption, the
British scientists concluded khat
"wool" could be made from other
rocks too. After two years of ex-
periments at the Matlock, England,
works of a British limestone firm,
a method has been evolved whereby
limestone and other silicious rock*
are transformed into a fine wooly
fabatanc5 which is a first -chase hest
and sound ittsulato:an_d js fire-
proof and vermin -proof. The ov000t
will be used primarily in heat its -
sudation, but it is probable that le
will also be used as a heat conserves
itt all building construction.
An infallible way of impressing
people favourably is to let'thertt sot
how much they impress you.
Boy Electrifies Farm—A[ter running the gamut of 16 -year-old
folttinyWilliams' dusting' and counting [machine, gladiQlu,a bulb*
ars carried up bybelt conveyor and dumped onto the seri+eae
itt foreground. oltltny, was one of 35 winners in the 'Better
Methods" electric contest.
JITTER
ER
Ek7R AINatl YIY1041 man iN
ria! scow Ws'59 cAUeao
Tautw"e. Now err ehr TNAT
*Torii, TOLL 7
9855 r,C1l
rnu.
E Arthur Pointer