__.—■--VALEDICTORY  CHARGE
THE   GRADUATES
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY,
Delivered March 19, 1857.
             By  g
ROBERT P. THOMAS, M.D.
WITH A LIST OF THE GBADTJATES.

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          PHILADELPHIA:
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.
               1857. 
 
PHILADELPHIA  COLLEGE OF PHARMACY.
              FACULTY.

ROBERT BRIDGES, M. D., Professor of Chemistry.
WM. PROCTER, JR., Professor of Pharmacy.
ROBERT P. THOMAS, M. D., Professor of Materia Medico.
Graduates for 1857.
NAME.	STATE.	SUBJECT OF THESIS.
Baker, James R.	Penna.	Radix Zedoariss.
Bringhurst, Ferris,	Delaware.	Lapis Calaminaris.
Brower, Noah B.	Penna.	Tinctures.
Bunn, Jonathan H.	New Jersey.	Arnica Montana.
Caldwell, James M.	Penna.	Strychnos Ignatia.
Campbell, Samuel,	Penna.	Lycopus Virginictis.
Dancy, Frank B.	Mississippi.	Malambo, or Matias Bark.
De Choudens, Joseph F.	France.	Liquor Tartari Boraxati.
Fleming, William S.	Penna.	Strychnos Ignatia.
Hancock, Charles W.	Penna.	The true position of the Druggist.
Hughes, C Collin,	Penna.	Colchici Semen.
Kaufman, John F.	Penna.	Essential Oils.
McConaughy, Albert D.	Penna.	Juglans Cinerea.
McMullen, Jacob B.	Penna.	Cvtisus Scoparius.
Massenburg, T. L.	Virginia.	Rubus Villosus.
Mercein, James R.	Penna.	Cornus Sericea.
Mercer, Joii.v T.	Ohio.	Asclepias Tuberosa.
Neal, Leander,	Penna.	Comptonia Asplenifolia.
Richardson, Joseph G.	Penna.	Veratrum Viride.
Rourbacher, Frederick,	Penna.	Pulvis Sennae Compositus.
Schurk, Peter, Jr.	Iowa.	Matico.
Seuret, J. Pedro,	Cuba.	Adiantum Pedatum.
Steex, James H.	Penna.	Spigelia Marilandica.
Taylor, Horace B.	Penna.	Capsicum.
Wetherill, J. Bloomfield,	Penna.	Barosma Crenata.
Young, Joseph,	Penna.	Rhus Toxicodendron.
Zieber, Jacob B.	Penna.	Stillingia Sylvatica.
 
CORRESPONDENCE,
                                         Philadelphia, March 19, 1857.
Prof. Robt. P. Thomas :—
  Dear Sir : It is with unfeigned pleasure that we, a committee appointed by
the Graduating Class, fulfil our instructions by expressing the high sense of
gratification afforded them by your very excellent Valedictory Address delivered
this evening, and on their behalf respectfully solicit a copy of the same for pub-
lication.
                       Yours, with much respect,
                                         Thomas L. Massenburg, Va.
                                         Jonathan H.  Bunn, N. J.
                                         Frank B. Dancy, Miss.
                                         Ferris Bringhurst, Del.
                                         Peter Schurk, Jr., Iowa.
                                         J. Pedro Seuret, Cuba.
                                         James H. Steen, Pa.
                                                          Committee.
                                         Philadelphia, March 20,1857.
Gentlemen :—
  Agreeably  to your request, I transmit herewith a copy of the Valedictory
Address delivered last evening.  Permit me to acknowledge my sense of the
kindness manifested by the Graduating Class, not only upon this, but on  all
previous occasions.  Be pleased to  accept for yourselves and transmit to your
associates, my most affectionate regards.
                                 Very respectfully,
                                                ROBERT P. THOMAS.
To Messrs. Thomas L. Massenburg,
         Jonathan H. Bunn,
         Frank B. Dancy,
         Ferris Bringhurst,
         Peter Schurk, Jr.,
         J. Pedro Seuret,
         James H. Steen,
                      Committee. 
VALEDICTORY  CHARGE.
 GENTLEMEN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS.

     Having fairly earned, and having duly received the diploma
 of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, a diploma which con-
 nects you by an indissoluble tie with our venerable Institution,
 it remains for me on the present occasion as one of its accredited
 officers, to present such brief remarks and reflections, as so joyous
 and  yet so solemn a reunion naturally calls forth.
   So joyous ?  Yes, how can it  be  otherwise to those, who,  for
 three or  more  long years, have toiled  by  day, have faithfully
 attended lectures during  the evening, and have studied by night,
 to prepare themselves for that  trying examination from which
 gray-headed members of the profession might well shrink.  It is,
 indeed, a proud and happy moment  for any man to have the fact
 of his success thus publicly proclaimed in the presence of assem-
 bled hundreds.
   And yet so solemn !   When the mind ranges from the present
 to the dim, distant future, and realizes in anticipation the responsi-
 bilities of the profession of your choice, the comfort and happiness
 of the sick who shall be  relieved by the  skilful application of its
 principles; or the misery,  the danger,  perhaps the death of a fellow-
 being, from the carelessness or recklessness of a Pharmaceutist,
 in whom his  neighbors may have placed an additional degree of
confidence, from the very fact  that  he holds a diploma from  the
oldest college of the kind in the country.  This consideration, I
 repeat, gives a degree of solemnity to  this, and all similar occasions.
 It creates  a feeling of responsibility for  the faithful discharge of
the trust confided to your recent  preceptors  by the law itself.
  They must answer to their own consciences; to the Institution 
6
they represent; and, in spirit, if not in fact, to the communities
in which you are about to locate, for the proper fulfilment of the
duty committed to their charge.
  That trust has been  discharged, that duty has been  complied
with, and we now welcome  you, Gentlemen Graduates, into the
ranks  of the Pharmaceutists of the  United States.  As  an evi-
dence thereof we furnish you with a diploma, which is not  only
acknowledged throughout the length and  breadth of the land,
but is also received as  prima facie evidence of entire fitness to
follow  the business of  a Pharmaceutist in nearly one-half of all
the civilized countries on the face of  the globe.
  See to it, I pray you, that this diploma which gave  honor to,
and in  return was honored by a long line of able men, loses none
of its value in the hands to which we now commit it.
.. As the ties that  have hitherto  connected us are about being
dissolved, and as you are about to enter manfully upon the great
battle of life, I have thought  that a few reflections on the claims
of the age upon young men would not be inappropriate to the
occasion;  more  especially  if those  reflections should have  a
particular reference to that  occupation in life chosen  for your
future pursuit.
  But  what is the character of the age, that we should study its
bearings upon the destinies of young men and ascertain its claims
upon them ?
  Every  mind suggests a response, and every tongue is ready to
give it utterance.
  This is thought  and said  to be the age in which the  human
intellect has reached its greatest  development.  It claims to be
the one in which freedom is better understood and practised than
in any other epoch of  the world's history.  Great discoveries in
the sciences and the arts are constantly being announced.
  By the  introduction  of steam both by land and sea, space is,
in a great measure, annihilated.  Even  the forked lightnings,
whose  mazy dance  along the vaults  of the sky afforded  to our
forefathers the visible manifestations of Omnipotent Power, and
his means of punishment, even these minister  under a new  form
to man's happiness.   And the Telegraph, by its constantly widen-
ing arms, bids fair to encircle the world, and to annihilate  time.
So that the boastful promise  of the fairy Puck, in Shakspeare's 
7
 Midsummer Night's Dream, to "put a girdle round about the
 earth in forty minutes," may yet be realized.
   But  is it true, that this age is so far in advance of its prede-
 cessors?   That matter, mind, and man exhibit newer properties
 and greater development than  ever before?  In the main it  is
 true, and yet we are far from having arrived at such a superiority
 over our forefathers, as people generally seem to suppose.
   A review of  the history of the past  would afford the strongest
 evidences that,  at different times, a high order of attainments has
 existed.
   Babylon and Nineveh, in Asia, Thebes, in Upper Egypt, the
 pyramids in the African Desert, and Palenque, in Central America,
 tell  in  language  stronger than the tongue can utter, that a race
 or races mighty in conception and in deed, in intellect and in
 power, walked  upon the face  of the  earth long anterior to the
 Christian era.
   Again, in the first centuries of this era, the fine arts and litera-
 ture were highly cultivated ; sculpture had nearly attained perfec-
 tion ; architecture achieved its greatest triumphs, classic temples,
 immense amphitheatres, and beautiful palaces adorned the great
 cities of  Greece and Italy; and all those arts which characterize
 refined and luxurious nations were assiduously cultivated.
   These evidences of culture were lost, however, in that gloomy
 period  ranging  from the fourth  to the sixteenth century, which
 was emphatically the dark age of the world—the night of worse
 than Egyptian darkness to the human race.   But as in the material
 world, the night precedes the day, and its blackest moments are
 just before the dawn, so was it then.  The mind awakened from
 its long sleep, burst the bars of its prison-house, called forth its
 own inherent energies, and endeavored to regain once more, if  it
 should  not excel, its former freedom and power.
   As the evening sun sheds his mellow rays from the western
 sky, diffusing joy and peace and light over the earth, before he
 sinks beneath the horizon, leaving in his train the calm twilight,
 that lovely hour of the early eve, which is soon merged in  the
 darkness  of impending night;  so did the refined  intellects, the
 cultivated tastes, the learning, the arts, the eloquence of ancient
 Greece  and  Rome shed around  them  a halo of  glory, whose
radiance lighted up, in  a degree, the succeeding centuries, and 
8
then, all  sank together into one  common abyss of gloom—the
middle ages.
  But  as the same sun comes forth in the morning, adorned in
his bright rays, as a bride out of her chamber, and mounts the
eastern vault of heaven;  at first, like  a great orb on which the
eye delights to dwell, then  increasing in brilliancy and splendor
as he courses along towards the zenith—so did the human mind,
by the morning light of the Reformation, rise from the obscurity
of its thraldom, and, expanding its energies by means of the print-
ing press, having  a new field opened for its display in the disco-
very and settlement of the Western hemisphere—so did it go on
steadily increasing in knowledge, in influence, in freedom, in in-
vention, until, by  effort upon effort, by discovery upon discovery,
it has given to the race in the  latter half of the nineteenth cen-
tury a degree of attainments in the arts  and sciences, in  freedom
of speech and thought, that has never been witnessed in  any pre-
vious period in the history of the world.
  This review of  the past, brief as it is, points to the fact, that
although the present age is, in many respects, in advance of all
others; yet at various periods  from  the creation down, of which
the record is furnished, our race has not been  deficient  in indi-
viduals who have attained eminence for their deeds and  acquire-
ments.
  Many and forcible illustrations of this truth might be adduced.
The paths of literature afford bright examples.   Were we to ask
an educated man,  what epoch has furnished the best poem ?  His
mind  would range over German, French, and Italian  master-
pieces ;  it would dwell with delight upon the noble Paradise Lost
of the blind Milton; it would draw deep  draughts of  pleasure
from the polished lines and chaste diction of Virgil's JEneid, pro-
duced in the first  Christian century;  but it would, at last, revert
involuntarily to Virgil's great master and  prototype, who  more
than a thousand years previously had put forth, his Odyssey and
Iliad,  which, down to the very trump  of time, will, in educated
circles, render the name  of Homer "us familiar as household
words."
  The  historical  writers of  the present day  might  challenge
competition for felicity of style, but who among them  has sur-
passed in simple,  truthful, faithful narration the  history written 
9
by Moses of the wanderings of the  Jews?  or  in force and ful-
ness that of the wars of the same people by Josephus ? or Xeno-
phon's retreat of the ten thousand? or Cesar's description of his
Gallic wars?  All written centuries ago.
  If a modern sculptor wishes  to acquire eminence, does he not
spend  years in  the study  of  the great  models  preserved in
Southern Europe from the wreck of ages that are past ?
  Has the architect to plan a  mansion, a college, or a church?
He turns immediately to the Egyptian, the Corinthian,  the Ionic,
the Doric, the Tuscan, or  the Gothic orders.  Knowing full well
that one or another of these will  furnish him  with a basis, on
which time itself has not, as yet, improved.
  But it is unnecessary to multiply illustrations of the past.  A
sufficient number has been adduced to aid us in forming a more
correct judgment of the present; and to afford a confirmation of
the truth, that the  human mind, with certain limitations, is the
same in all ages.
  The great difference, however, between this and past times, is
to be found in the more  general diffusion of knowledge among
all classes, instead of having it confined to a very few.
  This fact furnishes the key to the true character of the present
age—the point which next claims our attention as being the one
in which we are more directly interested.
  Turn where we may, improvement and  progress are the order
of the day.
  Let us cast a  first glance at Agriculture.  There we shall
witness an entire revolution, not only in the mode of conducting
it, but also  in the instruments the farmer  employs.   He is no
longer willing to content himself with the  slow and laborious
methods resorted to in his youth.
  Journals devoted especially to the  subject inform him what
manures are best adapted to the particular character of his soil;
what crops  will prove  most profitable; what  labor-saving ma-
chines and instruments have been successfully introduced; and
how the  fruits of the  earth are modified  by the nature  of the
seasons.
  Farming is  now  a science, and although the  agriculturist still
feels the  decision " in the sweat of  thy face shalt thou eat bread,"
yet the principles guiding his labor are entirely changed. 
10
   Transferring the scene from the peaceful walks of country life
to the  rude and murderous trade of war, we  shall there find
equally great revolutions in progress.  Science, art, invention,
have all been called into requisition to furnish the warrior with
additional means of destroying his enemy.  And most fearfully
have they succeeded.
   But engines of destruction are  not the only ones in which
improvements have been effected.  On the contrary, manufac-
tures of every description the mind can conceive, exhibit the most
astonishing  ingenuity; and  the  machinery by which they  are
produced is so perfected as  to leave, apparently, but little room
for further advance.  Nevertheless, every day's experience shows
that each step is but the prelude to another and more important
one, thus affording grounds for the supposition that in the next
half century, our present modes will be superannuated.
   If we turn from these more practical points, in which the de-
fence or the prosperity of the nation is concerned, to the halls of
science, we shall there find discovery and progress still more sur-
prising.
   The student of astronomy is there seen adjusting his telescope
for the examination of the worlds beyond and above us.  Devoted
to his occupation while the  rest of mankind are sunk in sleep,
he too is enabled to contribute  to the general  advancement of
our own age.   Star after star, asteroid upon asteroid, are added
to the previously swollen lists. And even now has he advanced
so far in his discoveries as to render the supposition by no means
an improbable  one, that the great  milky way over  head, which
has been a mystery and  a marvel to all his predecessors—that it
is a vast ring  or belt of light encircling the earth, similar to
those which have long been known to exist around other planets
of the solar system.
   Equally forcible illustrations of the elevated scientific charac-
ter of the nineteenth century would be afforded us, were we to
turn from the telescope to the microscope.  From the considera-
tion of God's grandest works to that of his minutest.
   The study of the structure of the earth  itself, affords to  the
Geologist his proudest  triumphs.   He penetrates  into its very
bowels and  observes  how layer is there  piled  upon layer;  he
examines the  surface and reads its signs;  he studies  the old 
11
red sandstone and acquires  valuable  thoughts; he  ascends the
highest mountains to learn  the  arrangement  of their  rocks.
From  all these  sources  he derives  the  materials which  enable
him to direct his less educated brethren to those localities whence
they may expect to obtain coal, iron, copper, and  other precious
metals.  With surprising precision he often describes the nature
of the layers beneath, by a careful inspection of the surface only.
   Even the sea  has been compelled to yield its hidden secrets; a
few shells drawn  here and  there from its bottom  have been
deemed sufficient evidence of the stability of the tracts in which
they were found, to warrant great nations in the outlay necessary
to the  planting of  submarine telegraphs.
   Botany and its  votaries have also  been making rapid strides.
Chaos  and confusion no longer exist  in the vegetable kingdom.
Thousands of capable observers in the different quarters of the
globe  have been  making contributions  to the common stock,
until natural classes and orders are fully established.  These are
now so well ascertained, that if  a competent Botanist had ac-
companied the expeditions of Lieutenants Page and Herndon, in
South  America, of Dr. Livingston in Southern Africa, or of the
lamented Kane to the north,  and had picked up an unknown
plant in either of  these regions, he could at once  have placed it
in its natural  order  and have furnished  such  a  description that
the tyro  in the science could at any time afterwards  have recog-
nized it, though met with in an entirely different quarter.
   These remarks might be extended to all the occupations of life,
and examples might be found in each of them, showing the pro-
gressive  character of the times.  But  as  you have chosen a
scientific profession  for your future business  career, I have de-
signedly referred to subjects of a scientific nature.
   Enough, I think, has now been adduced to give us a clear view
of the  true character of the age. While making every allowance
for the attainments in art, for the prowess, for the refinement and
culture of some of the nations of antiquity, we are clearly justified
in asserting and claiming for the present century a most surpris-
ing advance over them, in nearly every department in which the
energies of man can be manifested.
  And yet a  reflecting mind might  here  suggest the inquiry,
Does mere advance in art, in science, in education,  in freedom, 
12
alone characterize an age?  Or may there not be other circum-
stances exerting their influences upon young men, either for weal
or for woe ?
  Look  at that little  valley  near yonder  mountain  top, sur-
rounded by high hills, and observe a slender rivulet wending its
way from its peaceful and secluded origin; increasing in rapidity
as it descends the steep slopes; constantly augmenting in volume,
by junction with other rivulets ; anon it receives larger branches,
as it descends towards  the plain; then larger, and  yet larger,
until a river is formed which bears away on its  broad and  peace-
ful bosom to the distant ocean, the products of the mines and soil
along its shores.
  Look again !  the mountain  snows are suddenly dissolved; the
fierce tempest  rages; the rain descends in  torrents;  the rivulet
is swollen into a stream; the stream into  a flood, which pours
down into the plains below, rushing and roaring along its channel,
breaking down its natural barriers, and causing desolation in its
train.
  As in the physical world, so do we find it in the mental and the
moral worlds.   Those circumstances and conditions, which, when
properly regulated, are,  like the placid stream,  the sources of so
much comfort and  enjoyment, of prosperity, peace and progress
to our race, may and do, if not subjected  to proper  influences,
become, like the swollen flood, the bane  and  the destroyer of
human happiness.
  The impulse given to mental development and activity, and
the freedom of thought and action we enjoy, are producing their
ordinary, if not their legitimate fruits.
  All of the learned professions, usually so called, are  subjected
to the most searching investigations.   New theories,  new princi-
ples, new practices are constantly being announced.   And at
times, every man is compelled to give a reason for the faith  that
is in him.
  Even religion itself has to undergo a severer ordeal in the
nineteenth century than it had in the first.   Atheism, Deism,
Pantheism, Mormonism, and infidelity  are in open or  concealed
enmity with the word of God.   To say nothing of that  withering
blight which is secretly doing its work in  raising doubts  in un- 
13
 stable minds, in  destroying the peace of families, and in filling
 the insane asylums, and the grave with its victims.
   Against  the word of God!  That word which is to  survive
 when heaven and earth shall pass away!
   In the beautiful thought of Mr. Choate, employed in reference
 to a  different  subject, and  on another occasion:  Like  those
 wonderful rocking stones erected  by the Druids of old, which
 the faintest breath of  heaven would rock to their very  centres,
 but which the most powerful army could not overturn; so that
 Word, chained by an invisible link to the throne of God, though
 it may be blown by every breath of suspicion, be explained away
 by  every new theorist who wants  followers,  be decried and
 despised  by every open enemy; still shall  it survive the wreck
 of time, and be  the dying comfort and  consolation  of  the last
 Christian man.
   Such, then, Gentlemen, is the opinion we form of the mental
 character of the present age.  Great advance everywhere, and in
 all of the occupations of life.   AVhile the very fact of the educa-
 tion of the people generally, and the freedom of thought  and ac-
 tion, have given an impulse to the mind which has caused it in
 many instances to overleap its usual bounds, and to run riot from
 the excess of its own liberty.
   If the mirror now held up give a correct delineation  of past
 and passing  events, the question  comes home to our hearts and
 minds, "What are the peculiar claims which such an age has upon
 young men?" Upon those who are about to enter the race, and to
 strive for the mastery ?
   The answer to this question presents  a  broad field for  investi-
 gation if we should consider all  its bearings upon young men
 generally.  As this consideration is altogether foreign to the oc-
 casion, I shall not attempt it; but rather restrict my remarks to
 your own position as graduates in pharmacy.
  I can well realize the feelings  that will occupy the bosom of
each of you  in a few days, or weeks, or months, when he first
determines to lay aside his previous engagement, and  commence
for himself.   Having selected a location, or  being still in doubt
where to find the best one, his  thoughts naturally turn towards
those who, by a long and close attention to  their business, have
acquired the  confidence of the community around.  Their  posi- 
14
tion seems impregnable;  they appear to  have attained such  an
elevation, as to check, if  not forbid, the rising aspiration in his
mind to occupy at some future day an equal or a higher rank.
  Faint-hearted and depressed, he permits despondent feelings to
gain the ascendant.  No opportunity is afforded to him. No way
is open for him.  No prize is within  his grasp.
  Cherish these feelings, and be assured they will prove precur-
sors of the  dread  truth:  cast them aside  and dismiss them as
unworthy of an educated, thoughtful, resolute man, and you will
soon rise superior to  them, and in due time success will crown
your efforts.
  Your profession is  filled with polished, able, and  highly edu-
cated gentlemen. They evince a determination to place Pharmacy
in the  front  rank of the  sciences, and to keep it there, side by
side with its sisters, Medicine, and Chemistry.
  In the ordinary course of  nature, in  a  few years they must
yield to you and your compeers; and  it behooves you to think
well of the coming responsibility.
  In this age, when  every department  (Pharmacy  included) is
distinguished by invention, by discovery, by improvement,  no
man can reasonably expect to succeed unless he devotes  himself
solely  and entirely to one occupation.  Let not, I beseech you, the
syren  voices of pleasure, of  politics, of worldly ambition, or  of
those  other unhallowed  influences before  alluded  to, lead  you
astray.  No profession  offers a wider field  of proper, laudable
ambition than your own.
  But  if success and distinction can  only be obtained by a sedu-
lous devotion to one profession, it is equally true that this  pro-
fession must be a subject of constant study.
  Do not make the mistake, which I fear is too often committed,
that the reception of the  diploma clfoses the books. It merely
shuts up the text-books, so as to open those of science at large.
   We proclaim to-night, and do so in good faith, that you are
graduates in Pharmacy, and  as  such, entitled to  full confidence.
But if any man among you supposes his education is completed,
that man is laying a flattering unction to his own  soul.  So far
as the building-up of his individual reputation  is  concerned, it
has scarcely commenced.  The world offers thousands of illus-
trations.  History is filled with them. 
15
   Think you that the rash boy who led the charge on the bridge
of Locli, and who afterwards sacrificed his brave followers in the
sands of Asia in his worse than foolish expedition to, and retreat
from Acre; think you that he was then fitted for the production
of those masterly movements which  so  peculiarly distinguished
his subsequent  great  battle fields, and which  only ended at
Waterloo ?
   By no means.  Stretched upon the floor of his tent, or upon a
sofa in his  palace, he prepared his mind for its greatest efforts by
profound study.
   Or, think you that the British  troops which ran, as  it were,
from their  own shadows in Spain,  could then have conquered at
the same Waterloo ?  The thought is absurd.  Nothing but the
long-continued  and patient training both  of  their  bodies  and
stubborn wills to the absolute command of one man, could have
produced that stern resolve, which enabled them  to face for five
and a half long, long hours the belching  mouths of more than
three hundred cannon,  and as each front rank fell, to replace it
by another at the stern and oft-repeated  command, " file  up."
   Again, who among the  group of listeners at the debating so-
ciety in Lexington in 1798 to that stammering  young man, who'
attempted to address them, and  the witnesses of his mortifying
failure as a speaker, could have supposed  that that very failure
would be the  means of calling into  existence a spirit of study,
an energy, and  a determination, which  in the course of years-
developed those wonderful powers of oratory that enchained the
American  people for nearly half a century; and  which,  asso-
ciated with his abilities as a statesman, and his accomplishments
as a gentleman, enshrined  him in their hearts.  Even now,  when
his life's fitful fever is o'er, there are few objects more sacred in
our memories or more cherished in our feelings than the name of
Kentucky's gifted, noble son.
   I might  carry you, in imagination, from  the idle amusements
of the young advocate, in Boston, to the proud title of "Expounder
of the Constitution" he afterwards won by hard labor.   I might
depict before you the daily toil at the anvil, and the mental dis-
cipline by  the  midnight lamp, which have produced a learned
blacksmith.  I might  refer to the early history, and the  later
struggles, of many of the  present  members of Congress.  They 
16
would all confirm the one great truth, that the higher training of
men's minds can only be accomplished by themselves.
  We have laid the foundation.  Whatever of rank, of distinc-
tion, of fame, of success, you hereafter attain, will be directly de-
pendent on the  superstructure you erect  upon this foundation.
The age claims the effort at your hands.
  Nor is the claim which every community has upon its indivi-
dual members to be overlooked.  It  has an especial right to  re-
quire of those who assume the responsible duty of dispensing
medicines, an extraordinary degree of attention and care.
  Life and health are too important to be rashly endangered.  No
amount  of skill and experience can compensate for negligence
and inattention.
  The sad warnings that are given, from time to time, call loudly
upon the proprietors of pharmacies to exercise a double vigilance;
and may I trust these calls will not be lost upon  you, when you
become the responsible heads of such establishments ?
  Before concluding, permit me to lay before you another, and a
very important claim for consideration.
  It is the sacred  duty of every member of a liberal  profession
to rise, at times, above his mere personal and pecuniary interests,
and to contribute somewhat of his time,  his influence, and  his
abilities, to the common benefit of his profession.  This remark
applies with  as much force  and truthfulness to the  science of
pharmacy as to any other branch.
  It is a rising science.  More laurels have  been won in it by
chemists during the present century than anywhere else.  An
impetus has been given to  the investigation of the true proper-
ties of medicines.  Surprising results have been attained.  More
is yet to be accomplished.   Each discovery is the prelude  to  an-
other.   The field is open before you.   It is world-wide, inviting,
and remunerative.  If liberally cultivated, it  will yield  a large
harvest  of  renown to the planter, and will benefit his common
profession.
  Experience, however, has  proven  that  individual results and
observations  are apt to be lost; and therefore societies are es-
tablished, to  which, as a common centre,  isolated contributions
may flow, there to be examined, revised, and published. 
17
   The annual meetings of the representatives of the great pharma-
 ceutic body in the United States, afford to the humblest and most
 diffident, opportunities of bringing directly before  the scientific
 world any investigations he may have made, thereby promoting
 his own interest and the public good.  What might we  not  ex-
 pect if the whole body of American pharmaceutists were actuated
 by the  zeal  which has  so  nobly characterized a  few?   What
 valuable results would soon be attained.
   Finally, gentlemen, a profession does not belong merely to one
 generation.  But, by a regular series of successors, it is continued
 from age to age, so that, while considering  the present, we must
 not overlook the future.   As the keystone to success  and honor
 lies in a good education, so  does it behoove  every profession to
 provide opportunities, in this respect, for its junior members and
 its future fellows.
   The more influence you use in  the establishment of local phar-
 maceutical societies, and for the support of  colleges of pharmacy,
 the more benefit will be conferred upon the profession, both now
 and hereafter, and the more honorable,  useful, and respectable,
 will be your own position.
   Thus, gentlemen  graduates,  have I endeavored  to lay before
 you,  in simple terms, the claims of the age upon you as members
 of the great scholar class of the world; as active and responsible
 members of the community; and as graduates in, and fellows of,
 a liberal profession.
   Associating the duties  imposed by this threefold  claim,  and
 looking onward to the recompense of reward, there opens before
 you a future of honorable distinction.  The prize is not so distant
 that it cannot be reached, nor the race so long that the goal can-
 not be won.   Steady devotion to  one profession, and  intelligent
 labor, are the cardinal virtues of temporal success.

    " What by duty's voice is bidden, there where duty's star may guide,
      Thither follow, that accomplish, whatsoever else betide."

   The age is one of intense activity;  and although much of its
knowledge is superficial,  and there is  a  tendency to form hasty
and incorrect conclusions, yet is there also a profundity of thought
producing remarkable results.
      2 
18
  No member of a  profession can maintain a respectable rank
without effort; and  would he rise to eminence, and become dis-
tinguished among his equals, that effort must be life-long.
  Were I to concentrate in one word your duty to God, to man,
to your profession, to  yourselves, that word would be earnest-
ness.  It belongs equally to success here, to happiness hereafter.
Earnestness!   Heaven above you is in earnest.  The  powers be-
neath are in earnest.   The world around you is in earnest.
  Sons of Pharmacy!   Can you be so derelict to yourselves and
your profession, when  all around is in progress, as not to make
a determined effort to  raise  that profession to its true rank as a
science—a boon to humanity, a solace to the afflicted, a twin-sister
to medicine ?   I cannot, I will not believe it.
  Be earnest!  Be earnest!
  And now, gentlemen, there only remains for me to perform the
most unpleasant  duty connected with the professorial chair.   It
is to  take a formal, and, with  many, I fear, a final leave.   The
pleasant bonds of collegiate  intercourse have ripened into  per-
sonal friendships.  The former are  now broken; the latter, I
trust, will never be.
  I know full well that  the long  looked for period has now ar-
rived, and your  hearts,  bursting with impatience to  revisit  the
scenes of early childhood, are already there in anticipation.
  Go, then, revisit those distant spots upon which fond memory
lingers, and whispers the hallowed name of home.  There, loving
arms and warm hearts will  greet you.  Perhaps  a father awaits
the return of his son with more desire and interest than he would
be willing to confess.   Perhaps a mother, in  the  yearning  love
for  her child, can scarce repress the maternal solicitude that burns
in her bosom.   Perhaps a sister is ready to pour  out  her young,
warm affections upon her long-absent brother.
  Home! thrice hallowed name ! how fondly do we cling to thy
remembrances when far away!
  Return again to the  homes of your childhood, and whether they,
or more distant  places, be the scenes of your future professional
labor; whether at the North or the South; in Pennsylvania or
Virginia; in Iowa or  Mississippi; in Cuba or in France; where-
ever you may locate, remember, I pray you, the character of the 
19
profession you are about to practice—its duties, its responsibili-
ties, its advancement—the reputation of the Alma Mater that has
nourished you,  and the pride  she  will always  cherish for her
faithful children.
  Commending  you individually to  the guidance of that  Power
without whose blessing our efforts are in vain, I sincerely hope
that your future life may be  as honorable and successful—its
close  as  happy  and peaceful—as its morning has  been zealous
and dutiful. 
• '.j