ADDRESS 
nr 
PROF. E. T. FRISTOE, LL.D., 
AND INTRODUCTORY 
BY 
PROF. R. H. STABLER, M. D., 
DELIVER®!) BEFORE THE 
NATIONAL COLLEGE OF PHARMACY, 
OCTOBER 1, 1874. 
WASHINGTON, D. C.: 
JUDl) & DETWEILER, PRINTERS. 
1875. ADDRESS 
DELIVERED BY 
PROF. E. T. FRISTOE, LL.D, 
BEFORE TIIE 
NATIONAL COLLEGE OF PHARMACY, 
OCTOBER J, 1874. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
PRINTED BY JUDD & DETWEILER. 
18 7 5. ADDRESS. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen 
of the National College of Pharmacy: 
The attention which this College has attracted abroad, and 
the influence it has already exerted at home, will fully justify 
your remark in the announcement for the third session, 
“ that the most sanguine expectations of its founders have 
been fully realized,” and also show the wisdom of establish- 
ing such an institution in this city. 
Educational institutions maybe divided into three classes: 
First, those for general education, giving simply that 
amount of training necessary to enable a man to conduct 
the ordinary affairs of life. Here the education is largely 
mechanical, but as every one needs this much, schools for 
this purpose will always be well patronized, and conse- 
quently self-sustaining; and no sacrifice on the part of 
friends is necessary to make them succeed. To this class 
belong all primary private schools, and the public schools of 
the country. 
The second class aims not only to give a young man that 
knowledge which will enable him to perform the duties of 
a good citizen, but also to develop and expand his intellec- 
tual powers, to give him broad and enlarged views of life 
and its duties, to enable him not only to comprehend ques- 
tions of local and temporary interest, but to grapple success- 
fully with great problems affecting the welfare of his coun- 
try in the remote future, and in fact to make him a leader 
and guide in the great changes through which society must 
pass, both in a moral and political point of view. 
These institutions give what is termed a liberal education, 
and include the ordinary colleges for academic instruction. 
But as a far smaller number of students, either from want 4 
of inclination, from want of means, or for other reasons, at- 
tend these institutions; and as the expense of conducting 
them is far greater than in the other class, they can never 
he carried on without large endowments, annual contribu- 
tions, or state aid. Not a single institution of this class, in 
this country, is self-supporting. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, 
with their large numbers of students, need and get large in- 
comes from endowments to meet their current expenses. 
The University of Virginia, that of Michigan, that of Mis- 
souri, and those of other States receive large yearly ap- 
propriations to defray their expenses, although all these have 
large numbers of students. 
When we turn to Europe we find the same state of things, 
for I am told that the University of Berlin, with two thou- 
sand students, expends annually nearly one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars in addition to fees from students. 
The third class embraces all those schools where either a 
professional or technological education is acquired, and in- 
cludes medical and law schools, school of sciences, schools 
of art, schools of technology, and pharmaceutical schools. 
The expense of conducting these is always much larger 
than in either of the preceding classes, owing to the neces- 
sity of a large outlay for apparatus, and the employment of 
skilled and expert teachers, whilst the patronage is always 
limited, on account of the small number of young men who 
are willing to undergo the vast amount of work necessary 
to thoroughly prepare themselves for their several profes- 
sions. Besides, the young men, who have courage and reso- 
lution to undertake such a course, are not those who have 
abundant means to defray the expenses incurred for their 
benefit. 
Many of these institutions could not he carried on at all, 
were it not that gentlemen can he found in the various 
branches of learning, in our large cities, depending upon 
other sources for a support, who will do this work for a 
moderate compensation. 5 
Strange to say, this class of schools has been the last to 
attract the attention of men who have means to endow 
them. No medical school in the country has any endow- 
ment, and no college of pharmacy has any, and the oldest 
of these two divisions are not yet self-sustaining. A better 
feeling, however, is beginning to manifest itself in respect 
to this class, for during the last few years many schools 
of technology have received ample endowments. 
Now, if the common schools need assistance, and the col- 
leges, with their comparatively large numbers of students, 
need State aid and endowments, much more will all the 
schools of this class need aid from those interested in their 
success. And further, no schools of any class ever received 
aid, until they had demonstrated their necessity, and that there 
was a strong probability of success. 
In the absence of any one who can come forward and 
endow this college, you have made a wise arrangement for 
its support, by which the many interested in the advance- 
ment of your profession, shall share the expense. 
You must not suppose, however, that this school will 
be any exception to the general rule, and soon pay its 
way. It will probably be many years before its patronage 
will he such that no aid will he recpiired from its friends. 
I speak now in a pecuniary point of view; it may pay in 
other respects. 
But as we are accustomed to measure everything in this 
country by dollars and cents, the only unit the American 
people seem to understand, some of you may say, if it 
don’t pay what is the use of it ? What good can it do ? 
Why subject ourselves to an annual expense that brings no 
return; and what necessity is there for it ? 
This is the main point, gentlemen, to which I wish to call 
your attention. 
This college is a necessity for many reasons. I will name 
but three. 
First. You need it or some similar organization as a point 6 
or centre around which you may concentrate your combined 
energies for the improvement of your profession. “ In 
union there is strength,” but if each should waste his pow- 
ers in a different direction very little would he accomplished 
for the general good. Each brings here the knowledge he 
has gained, and the discoveries he has made, and communi- 
cates them to his associates, and they become common 
stock; and thus, in the course of time, the accumulated 
knowledge of all is far superior to that which any one could 
have acquired. Questions of interest and policy are dis- 
cussed and decided, and a uniformity of action is secured. 
Power to reach the public mind is obtained, and the stand- 
ard of your profession gradually elevated to its proper level. 
Physicians have their societies for mutual protection; 
mechanics and laborers of all kinds have their organiza- 
tions for the same purpose; and it is far more important, 
both for your welfare and that of the community, that you 
should have an organization like this, which will draw a 
line of distinction between the capable and the incapable. 
Without the scientific knowledge taught here, both in 
your meetings and in the class-room, your profession becomes 
mere empiricism, and you can have no social position, nor 
exert any influence for good, in the community. Every 
ignorant man you admit into your body has an injurious in- 
fluence upon its reputation. His demerits lower you, wher- 
ever he is known, and the want of respect for him begets 
distrust and disrespect for the profession in general. 
In the second place, gentlemen, you need the influence of 
this college to educate the public, the community around 
you. Some may ask, what have we to do with educating 
the public free of charge ? Much ! I would answer, if you 
wish to help yourselves and advance your interest. 
About no profession, probably, has the public such crude 
ideas as about yours. The most, if not all of you, are aware 
that to the public one specimen of opium is as good as 
another; that one preparation of laudanum is as good as 7 
another. In other words, that opium is opium, and laudanum 
is laudanum, the world over. They know one piece of beef 
is better than another, and how to choose the better piece; 
that one brand of flour is better than another, and they 
select the best; that one piece of cloth is better than 
another, and that it is economy to buy the better piece; in 
other words, they understand well all matters pertaining to 
food and raiment, but they know little, and seem to care 
less, about differences in the chemicals and drugs they take 
to restore or preserve their health. 
There seems to be a strange idea in the minds of the 
public in regard to drug stores. People seem to think that 
when a gentleman rents a room, fills his shelves with bot- 
tles, and writes over his door John Smith, Druggist, Chemist, 
and Pharmaceutist, that he thereby in some mysterious way, 
acquires the power and knowledge of dispensing medicines, 
and the uneducated will flock to him, provided he appa- 
rently sells his goods cheap. 
A man will pay a large fee for a lawyer to save his pocket; 
when sick he will send for the best physician to tell him 
what the matter is and write him a prescription; but strangely 
he forgets that this prescription must be compounded in the 
mortar of a druggist, and if not done properly, his fee to the 
physician is lost, and his prescription worse than useless, 
and hence he sends to the nearest druggist, without regard 
to his qualifications, or the character of his medicines, pro- 
vided he sells them cheap. 
Doctors are said to bury their mistakes under ground, but 
no doubt many incompetent druggists do a large share in 
digging the graves. Don’t you think the public will thank 
you for information on this point, so that the doctors may 
be saved from this necessity, and the people from such a 
misfortune ? 
In consequence of this excessive ignorance on the part of 
the public, a young man of little knowledge, much vanity, 
and great pretensions, who has swept the floor of some good 8 
druggist for six months, and learned the names of a few 
labels on the bottles, because the laws are too stringent in 
his city, or probably because he has become tired of his ap- 
prenticeship, will say to his indulgent aunt, uncle, father, 
mother, or some kinsman, let me have a few hundred dol- 
lars and I will go to Washington and open a drug store, 
lie comes, rents a room by your side, tills it with bottles, 
puts his colors, of the brightest hues, in his windows, and 
writes over his door Pare Drugs and Chemicals, Physicians' Pre- 
scriptions a Specialty, when probably he could not compound 
a difficult prescription properly, if his life depended upon 
it. As for pure drugs, he does not think of purchasing them 
when cheaper ones will answer his purpose, and he has 
never learned the difference between a common and pure 
chemical, or a chemical and a drug. lie is nothing but an 
imposter, an ignoramus in the profession, and if you should 
enter his store for the purpose of testing his knowledge, and 
ask for ten drops of the oxide of hydrogen, he would answer 
very knowingly, and say, I am just out, hut will have some 
in the evening; aud as soon as his customer should leave 
would hasten to some first-class store, and ask for half an 
ounce of this to him rare and expensive chemical or drug, 
and no doubt would he very much surprised if some intelli- 
gent clerk should go to the pump, draw a bucketfull, and 
present it to him. 
Don’t you think it is to your interest to educate the public, 
until they pass laws to stop the influx to this city of such 
men, who are capable of doing nothing hut imposing upon 
the community, degrading your profession, and selling patent 
medicines and bad whiskey ? 
Thirdly, gentlemen, you need such an institution as this 
that you may do your duty to the generation who are to 
succeed you, to the young men who are to take your places 
of responsibility when you are gone. May this feature of 
the college induce the active young men of this city to take 
a deeper interest in the success of this institution. 9 
Most young men wlio enter the drug business are of lim- 
ited means. It requires a long apprenticeship and laborious 
application, and hence only those who have strong purpose 
and a determination to labor and succeed, and who are will- 
ing to undergo many privations for this success, ever enter 
your profession. It offers no premium for idlers and loafers, 
and no royal road for those who would purchase prefer- 
ment. Upon such a career, as a general rule, only the best 
young men will enter. 
It is necessary also to enter the profession so early that 
time is wanting to complete a liberal and systematic educa- 
tion. Hence in most cases the mind is not developed, the 
talents of the young men are, as it were, hidden, and there- 
fore just such a course, as you have here prescribed, is neces- 
sary for teaching them the method of systematic study, of 
looking at one thing in its relations to others, of teaching 
them to use their powers of observation, tlieir thinking and 
reasoning faculties, so that advantage may be taken of every 
fact that comes under their notice. 
In acquiring a liberal education we study various branches 
to cultivate the different powers of the mind; for example, 
we study geometry to strengthen the reasoning faculties; 
but no study will educate those faculties the druggist needs 
so much, to enable him to be systematic, as the study of the 
various branches of natural science, and no studies will be 
so valuable to him, both in respect to the knowledge they 
furnish and in guarding him against imposition. And no 
one can doubt the necessity of such studies as a means of 
education alone, when men and women, ignorant of science, 
will proclaim their belief in the supernatural powers of dead 
matter; when people, even educated, will throng the necro- 
mancer’s room to hear disembodied spirits rap upon a table, 
and daily become the dupes of the most barefaced quack- 
eries. When we see intelligent people startled and fright- 
ened with every scientific announcement calculated to 
overthrow some cherished notion in morals or religion, 10 
and who gape at, and swallow down everything, even 
though to them incomprehensible, if presented under the 
guise of science. 
It is often said “ truth is stranger than fiction,” and this is 
especially so when the facts of science and the pretensions 
of quackery are contrasted. For example, tell an unin- 
structed man you can sit in your room and talk with a friend 
in London, by using a few pieces of zinc and copper, a little 
acid, and a long wire; tell him you can extract rays from the 
sunlight, which he cannot see, and make them visible with 
a solution of sulphate quinine; tell him that by intercept- 
ing a few rays of light you can make them reveal to you the 
chemical composition of the sun and stars, and then tell him 
that by resting your hands on a table you can make it rise 
up, walk about, and whirl around the room. All these 
seem strange, but to most persons the truths are stranger 
than the fiction, and for want of scientific knowledge they 
cannot distinguish the true coin from the counterfeit, or 
gainsay the pretensions of imposture. 
A sprightly young man, in his four years’ apprenticeship, 
can accumulate a large amount of knowledge in the way of 
facts and processes; but without a systematic training they 
will be packed away without any arrangement, and become 
of little value, very much like the words of a dictionary ar- 
ranged without regard to alphabetical order. 
The reasons of the various processes being unknown, he 
will be unable to make any improvements, or to avoid failure 
under a change of circumstances. Again, competition is so 
great that nothing but a scientific knowledge of his business 
will insure success. The profits are so small that he cannot 
afford to waste his time and material in useless experiments. 
His knowledge of the business must be'such that it will en- 
able him to take advantage of every new process, if a good 
one, and to decide beforehand the probability of success or 
failure. 
Many of you, gentlemen, have been giving all your time 11 
and study to your profession for ten or twenty years, and 
yet find now all your efforts necessary to insure suc- 
cess. But your science is constantly advancing, and the 
knowledge, necessary to succeed twenty years ago, will no 
longer suffice. The young man must start on a higher 
level, and that level is constantly rising. t 
What I have said has reference principally to pecuniary 
prosperity, but there is still a higher aim in life, to which 
every intelligent being should aspire. A man may make 
money and accumulate wealth, and still be nothing but a 
machine, not having the capacity to use it, or even enjoy it 
properl}7. Another may barely make a support and yet feel 
that he is using his time and talents to the best advantage, 
and have the happy assurance when old age comes, that he 
has served his profession properly, and benefited his fellow- 
men. 
Let me illustrate this by describing the careers of two 
young men. Take one with merely the rudiments of an 
education, such as reading, writing, &c. Let him learn by 
rote the mechanical parts of his business, without the 
philosophical principles underlying his art; he will disdain 
science in all its phases ; he will tell you that philosophy is 
the art of telling fortunes ; that experimental chemistry is 
nothing but magic. He sees no beauty in the chemical re- 
actions and processes that daily take place in your labora- 
tories, and probably is not aware that such things are going 
on. Of the advancement in the various branches of natu- 
ral history; of the discoveries in physical science; and of 
the many improvements in every art connected with his 
own, he is as ignorant as the Esquimau or Hottentot. He 
has no idea of the manner in which the dormant powers 
within him may be improved and expanded, has no relish 
for intellectual pursuits, and no conception of the pleasures 
they afford. lie makes no effort to collect and preserve the 
records of the various societies connected with his profes- 
sion, and sets no value upon any of these things, except so 12 
far as they tend to increase his wealth, or administer to the 
gratification of his appetites. 
He has no idea of making improvements in his art, and 
gives no countenance to those made hy others. He sets 
his face against all innovations, good or had, and determines 
to abide by the good old customs of his predecessors, how- 
ever absurd. W6re it dependent upon him, the secrets of 
his art would ever remain a mystery, and all useful innova- 
tions cease. 
He can never have his mind elevated above the daily rou- 
tine of his work, and enjoy those objects that delight the 
man of science, and in his hours of leisure his thoughts run 
wild among the most grovelling objects, or sink him into 
beastly sensuality. 
On the other hand, the young man whose mind has been 
illumined hy science, has views, feelings and exquisite en- 
joyments to which the other is an entire stranger. In con- 
sequence of the multifarious ideas he has received in a sys- 
tematic manner, and the methods of study he has acquired, 
he can go hack and view with profit and pleasure the va- 
rious stages of progress in his own profession, and the re- 
lations it bears to others. He takes delight in viewing with 
his mental eye the wonderful forces brought into play during 
a chemical change, and can predict with certainty results 
which to the other would seem marvelous, when he under- 
stands the chemical affinities of the atoms. In his rural 
walks he can not only see, that nature is beautiful, but can 
penetrate into those hidden processes which are constantly 
going on in the wonderful laboratories of the roots, stems, 
leaves and flowers of plants, and contemplate the various 
orders, genera, species and other harmonies of the vegetable 
world. 
In the atmosphere we breathe, where one perceives noth- 
ing but an immense blank, he beholds an assemblage of 
striking wonders. He views it as a compound material 
body producing the most diversified and beneficent results. 13 
He sees in it the agent producing germination and growth, 
the supporter of dame, the sustainer of the clouds, the 
vehicle of smell, and the medium of sound, and other count- 
less advantages. In the strata of the mountain, where one 
perceives nothing, he sees beauty and order, and the history 
of revolutions written millions of years past. Yea, from the 
crystal that sparkles in the cave to the mountain that towers 
to the clouds; from the humble violet that droops by the 
rivulet to the tall cedar of Lebanon ; he learns the wondrous 
truth that 
“ The hand that made us is divine,” 
and thus enters into a new world where there are beauties, 
harmonies and exquisite contrivances altogether incon- 
ceivable to the unreflecting mind. 
As a matter, then, of mere happiness, I would have young 
men study natural science, and cultivate quickness and 
truthfulness of observation, to see everything, and see it ac- 
curately ; to hear everything, and hear it exactly. 
But this habit would not only be a source of happiness, 
but also a means of usefulness. The errors of the world 
come less from bad reasoning than from inaccurate observa- 
tion and careless hearing. It has been said by a distin- 
guished writer that a witness who can state just what he 
saw, and who saw all that was to he seen, who can repeat 
just what he heard, and who heard all that was to he heard, 
is much rarer than a sound or learned judge. Most 
men see more with their imagination than with their eyes, 
and can never separate their fancies from the facts. 
A physician can seldom get from a patient a statement of 
his symptoms, without a theory of the cause ; a lawyer can 
never get a statement from his client uncolored by imputa- 
tions in regard to his opponent; and scientific men are 
aware that the popular testimony of a natural phenomenon 
is wholly worthless. In short, a study of natural science 
will ever tend to make young men use their five senses with 
fidelity, and report what they perceive with accuracy. 14 
It is true, the study of the first principles of science is 
often attended with difficulty, and to some minds may wear 
a dry and uninteresting aspect; but as the mind proceeds 
onward and acquires clear conceptions of what was once 
obscure, every difficulty it is enabled to overcome gives it a 
new relish for the subject under investigation, and addi- 
tional vigor to vanquish the difficulties still remaining, till 
at length it feels a pleasure and interest which no difficulty, 
nor even the lapse of time can efface, and thus, after a few 
difficulties are overcome, a young man retains what he has 
gained, and although he may have learned hut one thing 
thoroughly, he has gained a power which will enable him to 
learn to the end of his life, to master whatever subject he 
may undertake, and apply with profit whatever he has 
gained, without danger of being imposed upon by imita- 
tions, and also without danger of having his knowledge 
evaporate from the mind, as it always will do when gotten 
imperfectly or in small quantities. 
With regard to your special profession, gentlemen, it is 
universally admitted that an extensive knowledge of chem- 
istry, pharmacy, materia medica, and botany, is very essen- 
tial. Besides the laboratories of the vegetable and mineral 
kingdoms, from which you draw your materials to he recom- 
pounded in your private laboratories, the human body may 
be considered as a most wonderful laboratory, where the 
various processes of fermentation, absorption, decomposi- 
tion, combustion, solution, precipitation, are continually 
going on. Every article of food and drink we throw into 
the stomach, every portion of the atmosphere we breathe, 
every motion of a muscle, every contraction of the heart, 
every pulse that vibrates, and even every thought of the 
intellect, produces a chemical change in the animal system, 
the nature of which is of great importance to all whose 
duty it is, in any manner, to administer to its wants. 
How can you prepare, properly, antidotes for diseases if 
you are ignorant of the sources whence to draw them, and 15 
ignorant of their properties and effects ? IIow can you 
render that assistance to the physician which he expects, 
and which the people demand, without that thorough 
knowledge which will enable you to form a judgment in 
cases of emergency ? 
But, gentlemen, scientific knowledge will not only render 
a man more skillful, and give him pleasure in pursuing his 
profession, but will enable him to make improvements in 
his art, and the science connected with it. It is sometimes 
objected by the ignorant, that science is uncertain and 
changeable, and they point with pride to the many exploded 
theories superceded by others, as a proof that the present 
knowledge is uncertain, not aware that this is the highest 
praise they could bestow, for science moves continually 
towards the fountain of truth, caring little for cherished 
opinions, hut taking the highest delight when freed from 
error, at having advanced one step further towards ultimate 
certainty, whilst prejudice keeps stubbornly to its position, 
whether disproved or not. 
We also often hear science and practical common sense 
contrasted as antagonistic. This certainly is a strange error, 
for true science is always practical, and must be so; inas- 
much as she knows what she is doing, while practice alone 
is condemned to work forever in the dark. Ho one can 
doubt the value of practice, especially in your profession; 
but no one should say that practical common sense would 
not be doubly powerful if supplied with the means science 
can give. 
It is frequently affirmed that many useful inventions have 
been made by chance, and by persons ignorant of science, 
who have stumbled upon them. 
These have been much fewer than is supposed; and in 
every instance, where chance has suggested the first hint, the 
future improvements have been directed by scientific knowl- 
edge. The son of a spectacle maker discovered by chance 
the effect produced by two lenses when placed near each 16 
other, but it required all the knowledge Galileo possessed 
to build upon that hint and construct a telescope. 
Millions of men had seen bodies fall to the earth, a Newton 
only could follow these daily hints and draw therefrom the 
grand conception—universal gravitation. 
Thousands of persons knew there was power in the steam 
of water that would force corks out of stoppered bottles, but 
such a hint could develop into a steam-engine only in the 
hands of such a man as Watts. For many years it was 
known that electricity would follow some bodies better than 
others, but the world waited for Franklin to invent the 
lightning-rod. For more than half a century it was known 
that electricity would travel from one point to another at a 
distance along an insulated wire, but the genius and learn- 
ing of Henry, and the mechanical ingenuity of Morse were 
necessary to construct the electric telegraph. 
For many years it was known that there was an active 
principle in Peruvian bark, very beneficial in cases of inter- 
mittent fever, and yet that nauseous and bitter bark, from 
which a patient would shrink with horror, was swallowed 
daily until organic chemistry became a science and Pelletier 
extracted the most useful alkaloid known to the Materia 
Medica. So, gentlemen, with all great improvements, chance 
may suggest hints, but science must perfect them. 
If the druggist, like the mechanic, is unacquainted with 
the scientific principles of his profession, he trudges along, 
like a mill-horse, in the same beaten track, losing a thou- 
sand opportunities which might suggest new improvements. 
Not only does the practical scientific man have advantages 
superior to the ignorant one, but his chances are even greater 
in many respects than those of a philosopher who never en- 
gages in practical operations, for the former can see in his 
daily experience, what is useless or defective in apparatus or 
machinery, and hence is “ always in the way of good luck,” 
ready to take advantage of it when it comes; and should 
chance suggest to him some new improvement, he will not 17 
only enjoy the honor of making and perfecting it, but also 
reap the pecuniary advantages resulting therefrom. 
I might continue, ad infinitum, to enumerate the advantages 
of the cultivated man, but enough has been said. Choose 
now, young gentlemen, before it is too late, and before the 
cares and duties of life accumulate around you, which course 
you will take. 
You may joossibly make money in either, and in either you 
may fail to do so. If you fail in one, you have no resource 
left but the bitter recollection of a misspent life; and if you 
succeed, you will have no capacity to enjoy or use properly 
the profits of your labor. In the other, if you fail, you can 
turn to those treasures you have laid up in the mind, of 
which no misfortune can deprive you, and use them in other 
pursuits; and, if you succeed, you will pass a green old age 
in the rational enjoyment of the blessings God has given you. 
As for me, if I had to choose between the two, though I 
should live no longer than the butterfly that floats in the 
sunbeam of a summer’s morn, I would rather during that 
short period soar aloft, and leave the record of my flight 
among the masters who have occupied the upper stories of 
my profession, than live a long life even with wealth, and at 
last die, as the'brute dies, burying the memory of my life, 
together with my body, in eternal forgetfulness. INTRODUCTORY. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen: 
In commencing this, the third course of lectures in the 
National College of Pharmacy, it will be appropriate to 
advert to the objects of our labors. As stated in the decla- 
ration, they are to cultivate, improve, and diffuse a knowl- 
edge of the science and art of pharmacy, and with that 
view the collateral sciences—chemistry, materia mcdica, botany 
and analytical chemistry. This enterprise is no new thing, 
just sprung into existence, as will be made manifest by con- 
sulting the American Journal of Pharmacy for the year 
1856, where is an editorial notice that the preliminary steps 
towards an organization of the pharmaceutists of Washing- 
ton and Georgetown have been taken, and that it is pro- 
posed to apply to Congress for a charter, with collegiate 
powers, should the organization be effected. 
In a subsequent number of this journal for the same year 
is a further notice from its lamented editor, (Mr. Procter,) 
as follows: 
“ The work of pharmaceutical organization among the 
larger communities of the United States is slowly hut surely 
progressing. Among the recent movements none has been 
more successful than that at Washington.” 
The principal aim of the association at that time had 
reference to the increase of professional competency of the 
members; the ultimate design was stated to include within 
the scope of the association a school of pharmacy. 
At the present time we may congratulate you on the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of these worthy objects. 
The period is not very remote when the apothecary was 
almost at the lowest extremity of that scale which measures 
the relative respectability of occupations above mere manual 19 
labor. Engaged in preparing or compounding medicines 
according to certain fixed formulas, with little or no knowl- 
edge of the principles concerned in his operations, he could 
boast of superiority over the pastry-cook or confectioner 
in no other respect than in the greater variety and import- 
ance of the materials of his art; and, while the nature of 
certain offices about the sick to which he was occasionally 
subjected exposed him to the sneers of the vulgar, the 
assumption of a character for research into the mysteries of 
nature, supported by the exhibition of reptiles and various 
monsters upon his shelves, made him the subject of ridicule 
with those who were aware of the real weakness of his 
pretensions. The apothecary, therefore, became the jest of 
the novelist and comedian; and so little was the humility 
of his occupation compensated by pecuniary advantages 
that he was chosen by the wits of the times as the very per- 
sonification of poverty and leanness. 
The history of the progress of society is that of the 
division of labor, and there is no surer indication of ad- 
vancement in the arts of civilization than the multiplicity 
and subdivisions of occupations. In the first stages of the 
colonies of America the storekeeper was a dealer in all 
kinds of merchandise. He imported whatever he could 
sell, dry goods, groceries, iron-mongery, books, paints, and medi- 
cines. 
Gradually the demand for each of these increased, and 
men devoted their capital and labor to vending merchan- 
dise of one species. The business of the apothecary was 
long a subordinate branch of the establishment of a physi- 
cian, or carried on by the man who was at the same time a 
druggist and dealer in paints. Latterly, however, it has 
been nearly abandoned both by the medical profession and the 
wholesale druggist. The drug-factor, the druggist, the manu- 
facturing chemist, the drugpowderer, the paint and oil dealer, the 
varnish maker and the pharmaceutist, now multiply the busi- 
ness which formerly centred in a single tradesman. In pro- 20 
portion as the apothecary devoted himself to the cultivation 
of his appropriate art, he found it to become important and 
complicated. Its intimate connection with modern chemis- 
try has elevated it to the rank of a science; a complete 
mastery of all its details implies the knowledge of the 
manufacturer, the merchant, the physician, and the naturalist, 
and it requires to be pursued, not merely with the frugality 
and industry of a tradesman, but with the patient sagacity 
of an investigator of nature. 
The genius of some of the most eminent chemists of the 
last and present age, received its first impulse and direction 
in the laboratory of the apothecary. Similar results will, 
no doubt, follow from the same causes in America. We 
have here, as there, a learned and discerning body of patrons 
and judges in the medical profession. Men versed in all 
the requisite sciences will here, as there, engage in the 
business. A more liberal education, the competition of 
business, the rapid diffusion of information, will combine to 
raise the pharmaceutist to the respectable rank which he 
occupies in Europe. 
Dr. Wood, in some of his earlier addresses before the 
pharmaceutists of Philadelphia, describes the state of phar- 
macy in this country as at first almost universally, as it still 
is in many places, united with medicine. To do justice to 
the two occupations of the physician and apothecary was 
utterly impossible for any man of ordinary endowments. 
That was, therefore, neglected which was deemed of least 
importance, and the practitioner was too much in the habit 
of leaving the preparation and dispensing of medicines to 
his students, who necessarily knew little upon the subject, 
though it is true not much less than himself. How was it 
possible for pharmacy to flourish or attain respect under 
these circumstances ? Overshadowed as it was by the 
sister profession with which it had been planted, its growth 
was mean and stunted, though still sufficient to abstract a 
portion of the nourishment, and thus restrain also the growth 21 
of its companion. No wonder that it was looked upon in a 
degrading light! No wonder that men of education and a 
generous spirit were unwilling to place themselves behind 
the counter to dispense potions and powders when no other 
qualifications were requisite for the task than such as are 
requisite for the selling of tape and bobbin. Even medicine 
was less esteemed in such an association, and young men of 
elevated views and respectable station in society were not 
then as now seen crowding the ranks of that profession. 
That in some parts of the world the business of the apothe- 
cary may not have been disreputable, and that in all parts 
individuals occasionally by their talents or conduct raised 
themselves above the mass of their associates into notice and 
esteem is no proof that the general grade of the profession 
was not as low as I have described it, any more than the oc- 
casional incompetence of individuals now attached to the 
profession, and its comparative discredit in certain countries 
can be received as evidence of its want of respectability at 
the present day. 
It must be admitted then by every one who has the least 
pretension to accurate information on the subject, that the 
present state of the profession is in many respects the re- 
verse of its former state, that almost everywhere pharmacy 
is now respectable, and that in some places it has been ele- 
vated to a position calculated to reflect positive credit upon 
those engaged in it. 
American pharmacy owes a heavy debt of gratitude for 
its present advanced state to the authors of the U. S. Dis- 
pensatory, issued first in the year 1833, by Drs. George B. 
Wood and Franklin Baclie, of Philadelphia. This work is 
still one of the best and safest guides to the pharmaceutist, 
being a full and learned treatise on vegetable materia medica 
and botany, compiled from the best authors, by Dr. Wood ; 
and on mineral materia medica and chemistry by Dr. Baclie. 
This work is based on the United States Pharmacopoeia, and 22 
is characterized by the extensive learning and scrupulous 
accuracy of its authors. The former of these learned gen- 
tlemen still lives to adorn his profession; the other (Dr. 
Bache,) a direct descendant of the eminent statesman and 
philosopher of our Revolutionary era, Dr. Benjamin Frank- 
lin, died full of years and honor in March, 1864. 
The United States are rich in medicinal products, inferior 
probably to those of no other section of the globe. If we 
include the southern portion of the American continent 
many more valuable and efficient remedies are found to 
enrich our materia medica. Rot to mention numerous 
substances of little importance, we have in the Peruvian 
bark the most valuable of all tonic medicines, scarcely, in- 
deed, surpassed in efficiency and extent of application by 
any other article ; in the quassia of Surinam and the West 
Indies, the strongest of the pure vegetable hitters; in the 
rhatany of Peru, one of the most efficient astringents; in 
the ipecacuanha of Brazil, the best of all vegetable emetics; 
in the jalap of Mexico, the best hydrogogue cathartic; in 
the balsam, of Tolu, a good stimulant expectorant, and in copaiba 
and guaiac, and sarsaparilla, medicines of peculiar and valuable 
properties, such as could not well he dispensed with, and 
could not be replaced elsewhere. But none of these sub- 
stances are found in the United States. Yet that they are 
also rich in medicinal products will be rendered obvious by 
running the eye over a list of the more important indige- 
nous medicines. Under the head of astringents, we shall 
find the bark of the different species of oak, the roots of the 
blackberry, dewberry, geraniums maculatum, and Heuchera 
Americana, or alum root, and the leaves of the pipsissewa and 
uva urse. 
In tonics our country is very rich. It is true we have no 
cinchona; but, in the barks of the different species of cornus 
or dog wood we have remedies analagous, though inferior to 
it in virtues. Of the simple bitters sapbatia or centory, coptis or gold thread and xanthoriza or yellow root might be substi- 
tuted by the medical practitioner for gentian, quassia and 
columbo. The union of various important properties with 
the purely tonic as those of a stimulant in serpentaria of a 
narcotic in hops, of a sedative in wild cherry bark, of a dia- 
phoretic and emetic in boneset, renders these medicines of 
great value. Our catalogue of aromatics is also copious, 
including, among others,angelica, calamus,sassafras, hedeoma 
or pennyroyal, common marjoram, gaultheria or partridge berry 
and spice wood. Of stimulants we have turpentine and its 
volatile oil, and a host of others of various properties, lobelia, 
stramonium, podophyllum, walnut bark, may-apple root, $c. As 
epispastics we have many species of cantharis not inferior 
in virtues to the Spanish flj. 
This enumeration does not near exhaust the catalogue of 
native medicines, but serves to show that our resources are 
ample. Many others have been more or less investigated, 
and there remains no doubt some yet buried in the mass of 
our luxuriant vegetation to reward and honor their discov- 
erers. 
The opinion was advanced more than eighty years ago by 
Shoepf that, relying upon their native resources, the Ameri- 
cans might dispense with the greater part, if not the whole, 
of the imported medicines. This exclusive reliance on 
native remedies would at least be attended with great in- 
convenience. The present standard remedies are for the 
most part those which have stood the test of ages. They 
have been gathered from all quarters of the globe, have 
gone through every variety of trial, and have been sifted 
out from an immense mass of materials which have been 
for thousands of years in the course of accumulation. 
Although our medicinal riches are very ample, it is not in the 
order of Providence to lavish on any one country a wealth 
equal to that scattered over the whole world beside. Should 
political accident, however, ever cut off our supply of drugs 24 
from abroad, though tlie want of them would certainly he 
severely felt, we should nevertheless be able, in the products 
of our own soil, to find partial substitutes for almost all of 
them. It becomes us most carefully to cultivate our re- 
sources, both that we may be fully prepared against what- 
ever adverse events may occur, and in the hope, moreover, 
that we may thereby add something new and valuable to 
the means already existing for the alleviation of human 
evil.