Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/206

 the antimonial powder of the Pharmacopœias is an irregular preparation inferior in activity as well as certainty to the nostrum sold by Dr. James's representatives." Some dispensers will recollect that up to recent years it was not at all unusual for prescribers specially to order "Pulvis Jacobi Vera."

That Dr. James was a man of great ability and industry is testified by his great Dictionary and also by his "Pharmacopœia Universalis or New English Dispensatory." The latter is a most valuable guide to the Pharmacy of the eighteenth century, and is not only full in its information but particularly advanced in much of its criticism.

It may be of interest to add that the famous novelist G. P. R. James was a grandson of the Doctor.

John St. John Long after he became famous was always reticent about his origin; but it was believed that he was the son of a basket maker, some said of the name of Driscoll, that he was born in or near Doneraile, and in his youth assisted his father: that later, being possessed of some artistic talent, he practised as a portrait painter in Dublin and afterwards in Limerick. An advertisement appeared in a Limerick paper of Feb. 10, 1821, which was as follows:—

"Mr. John St. John Long, Historical and Portrait Painter; the only pupil of Daniel Richardson, Esq., late of Dublin, proposes during his stay in Limerick to take portraits from Italian Head to whole length; any person desirous of getting theirs done in historical, hunting, shooting, fishing, or any other character; or their family grouped in one or two paintings from life-size to miniature, so as to make an historical subject, choosing one from history," &c.