Etidorhpa; or, The End of Earth. Read online

  A VALUABLE AND UNIQUE LIBRARY.

  From the Pharmaceutical Era, New York, October, 1894.

  In Cincinnati is one of the most famous botanical and pharmacallibraries in the world, and by scientists it is regarded as aninvaluable store of knowledge upon those branches of medical science. Sofamous is it that one of the most noted pharmacologists and chemists ofGermany, on a recent trip to this country, availed himself of its richcollection as a necessary means of completing his study in the line ofspecial drug history. When it is known that he has devoted a life ofnearly eighty years to the study of pharmacology, and is an emeritusprofessor in the famous University of Strassburg, the importance of hisaction will be understood and appreciated. We refer to Prof. FrederickFlueckiger, who, in connection with Daniel Hanbury, wrotePharmacographia and other standard works. Attached to the library is anherbarium, begun by Mr. Curtis Gates Lloyd when a schoolboy, in whichare to be found over 30,000 specimens of the flora of almost everycivilized country on the globe. The collections are the work of twobrothers, begun when in early boyhood. In money they are priceless, yetit is the intention of the founders that they shall be placed, eitherbefore or at their death, in some college or university where allstudents may have access to them without cost or favor, and their willsare already made to this end, although the institution to receive thebequest is not yet selected. Eager requests have been made that they besent to foreign universities, where only, some persons believe, they canreceive the appreciation they deserve.

  The resting place of this collection is a neat three-story house at 204West Court street, rebuilt to serve as a library building. On the dooris a plate embossed with the name Lloyd, the patronymic of the brothersin question. They are John Uri and Curtis Gates Lloyd. Every hour thatcan be spent by these men from business or necessary recreation is spenthere. Mr. C. G. Lloyd devotes himself entirely to the study of botany andconnected subjects, while his brother is equally devoted to materiamedica, pharmacy, and chemistry.

  In the botanical department are the best works obtainable in everycountry, and there the study of botany may be carried to any height. Inpoint of age, some of them go back almost to the time when the art ofprinting was discovered. Two copies of Aristotle are notable. A Greekversion bound in vellum was printed in 1584. Another, in parallelcolumns of Greek and Latin, by Pacius, was published in 1607. Both arein excellent preservation. A bibliographical rarity (two editions) isthe "Historia Plantarum," by Pinaeus, which was issued, one in 1561, theother in 1567. It appears to have been a first attempt at the productionof colored plates. Plants that were rare at that time are colored byhand, and then have a glossy fixative spread over them, causing thecolors still to be as bright and fresh as the day that thethree-hundred-years-dead workmen laid them on. Ranged in their sequenceare fifty volumes of the famous author, Linnaeus. Mr. Lloyd has a verycomplete list of the Linnaean works, and his commissioners in Europe andAmerica are looking out for the missing volumes. An extremely odd workis the book of Dr. Josselyn, entitled "New England Rarities," in whichthe Puritan author discusses wisely on "byrds, beastes and fishes" ofthe New World. Dr. Carolus Plumierus, a French savant, who flourished in1762, contributes an exhaustive work on the "Flora of the Antilles." Heis antedated many years, however, by Dr. John Clayton, who is termedJohannes Claytonus, and Dr. John Frederick Gronovius. These gentlemencollated a work entitled the "Flora of Virginia," which is among thefirst descriptions of botany in the United States. Two venerable worksare those of Mattioli, an Italian writer, who gave his knowledge to theworld in 1586, and Levinus Lemnius, who wrote "De Miraculis OccultisNaturae" in 1628. The father of modern systematized botany is conceded tobe Mons. J. P. Tournefort, whose comprehensive work was published in1719. It is the fortune of Mr. Lloyd to possess an original edition ingood condition. His "Histoire des Plantes," Paris (1698), is also on theshelves. In the modern department of the library are the leading Frenchand German works. Spanish and Italian authors are also on the shelves,the Lloyd collection of Spanish flora being among the best extant.Twenty-two volumes of rice paper, bound in bright yellow and stitched insilk, contain the flora of Japan. All the leaves are delicately tintedby those unique flower-painters, the Japanese. This rare work waspresented to the Lloyd library by Dr. Charles Rice, of New York, whoinformed the Lloyds that only one other set could be found in America.

  One of the most noted books in the collection of J. U. Lloyd is a MateriaMedica written by Dr. David Schoepf, a learned German scholar, whotraveled through this country in 1787. But a limited number of copieswere printed, and but few are extant. One is in the Erlangen library inGermany. This Mr. Lloyd secured, and had it copied verbatim. In lateryears Dr. Charles Rice obtained an original print, and exchanged it forthat copy. A like work is that of Dr. Jonathan Carver of the provincialtroops in America, published in London in 1796. It treats largely ofCanadian materia medica. Manasseh Cutler's work, 1785, also adorns thispart of the library. In addition to almost every work on this subject,Mr. Lloyd possesses complete editions of the leading serials andpharmaceutical lists published in the last three quarters of a century.Another book, famous in its way, is Barton's "Collections Toward aMateria Medica of the United States," published in 1798, 1801, and 1804.

  Several noted botanists and chemists have visited the library in recentyears. Prof. Flueckiger formed the acquaintance of the Lloyds throughtheir work, "Drugs and Medicines of North America," being struck by theexhaustive references and foot-notes. Students and lovers of the old artof copper-plate engraving especially find much in the ornate title pagesand portraits to please their aesthetic sense. The founders are notmiserly, and all students and delvers into the medical and botanicalarts are always welcome. This library of rare books has been collectedwithout ostentation and with the sole aim to benefit science andhumanity. We must not neglect to state that the library is especiallyrich in books pertaining to the American Eclectics and Thomsonians.Since it has been learned that this library is at the disposal ofstudents and is to pass intact to some worthy institution of learning,donations of old or rare books are becoming frequent.

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