CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY. 53 



to look forward to as brilliant a future for animal-tar as has been the 

 past and is the present of coal-tar. Both substances, offensive as they 

 are, are necessarily prepared in large quantities. The coal-tar is a re- 

 sult of the manufacture of gas ; the animal-tar is produced in the 

 manufacture of bone-black or animal-charcoal, which is used to such 

 an enormous extent for the purification of sugar. Had it not been for 

 the untiring and unselfish labors of scores of scientific investigators, 

 who worked for no other object than to increase knowledge for the 

 sake of knowledge, we would to-day be in ignorance of the beautiful 

 and valuable possibilities of these two unattractive substances. 



I might multiply examples indefinitely, but the time at my disposal 

 is limited. I have endeavored to show, gentlemen, that while Pharmacy 

 did a great deal to build up the science of Chemistry, Chemistry in her 

 turn, when she reached maturity, began to pay back the debt she owed 

 and pay it back with interest. It is to the science of Chemistry that 

 Pharmacy must look for future advancement, and even the most obscure 

 and most unintelligible of the many chemical investigations which are 

 being carried on at present may eventually prove to be important 

 steps in some line of reasoning which will have the enriching of phar- 

 macy as its result. Nothing in science is too insignificant for notice. 

 We can not tell what the simplest observation may lead to, and it be- 

 hooves every one whose daily occupation brings him in contact with 

 chemical substances to be ever on the alert and, in true scientific spirit, 

 to follow up, independently of any direct practical result, the slightest 

 observations. Many of you, gentlemen, will have the opportunity to 

 add materially to human knowledge. You will have laboratories at 

 your disposal, and you have been well instructed in chemistry. If you 

 have the desire, you may do much to help your profession. Your 

 chances of success will be better, if you keep yourselves interested in 

 the scientific as well as in the purely practical side of your calling. 

 There is enough work to be done. In certain directions chemistry has 

 only just begun to advance, and there are vast regions still entirely 

 unexplored. Many an arctic sea of chemistry, with its fascinating 

 north pole, awaits the first expedition. An eminent mathematician 

 once said that a new problem in mathematics might easily be furnished 

 for every man, woman, and child in this vast country, and there would 

 then be plenty left for foreigners. A similar remark might be made 

 concerning chemistry. As I have, then, attempted to show that you 

 must look to science for the advance of your calling, I desire above all 

 to leave upon your minds the impression that each of you, if you will, 

 can do something for the common cause. If, in after-years, it shall 

 be my privilege to hear that one among you has really been led to 

 enrich the domains of science, I shall look back upon my part in this 

 evening's proceedings with feelings of great satisfaction. 



