THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



' 155 



I must add our experience— of museums 

 in general. In the dictionary you will 

 find a museum defined as a " repository 

 of interesting objects," and in too many 

 cases in this country they are "reposi- 

 tories " and nothing more. Here, how- 

 ever, you will find the museum is not 

 the grave of curious and interesting 

 specimens, but is the centre of a vital 

 contact with nature and science. You will 

 find the museum proper surrounded 

 by suitable buildings, and by every 

 provision for education, for study, 

 and for research in the various branches 

 of natural science, and the objects in the 

 museum are used to fulfill their proper 

 function in illustrating the lectures of the 

 professors, and enriching the knowledge 

 of the students. In my own city we have 

 a Natural History Museum rich in speci- 

 mens, and we have Colleges of Science 

 and of Medicine under wholly different 

 management at no great distance, and 

 every lover of scientific truth in the 

 North must regret with me that the dry 

 bones of the Museum are not vivified by 

 contact with the living teachers and 

 students of Science. It is an evidence 

 of the clear judgment and breadth of 

 view which university life and training 

 imparts that here in Oxford the Museum 

 has not been conceived in the spirit of the 

 miser to collect and to hoard, but the col- 

 lections are used to communicate pure 

 streams of accurate knowledge to all who 

 will come and drink at this fountain. You 

 will see that medicine forms no incon- 

 siderable part of the teaching associated 

 with the Museum, but according to Sir 

 Henry Acland "the function of the Ox- 

 ford Museum towards Medicine is to train 

 good scientific observers and thinkers to 

 become observers and thinkers of pathol- 

 ogical and therapeutic and preventive 

 processes." I trust it is not a mere dream 

 to hope that some day Pharmacists will 

 be found here amongst the students, lay- 



ing the foundation to become "good 

 scientific observers and thinkers." 



The subject of my address will be Medi- 

 cine and Pharmacy, and however well 

 the story of these may have been told by 

 my predecessors, I am, \yy virtue of my 

 position, under the necessity of keeping 

 to the beaten track, and I have no desire 

 even to shirk the responsibility. I pur- 

 pose to take full advantage of my posi- 

 tion as your President, and to speak ta 

 you ex cathedra. I do not expect that 

 you who hear me, or that those who may 

 afterwards read what I shall say, will 

 agree with all that I express, but of the one 

 thing I beg to assure you, my views upon 

 this subject have not been hastily adopt- 

 ed, and they are not lightly held. They 

 are the outcome of more than thirty years 

 of a wide contact with Pharmacy and 

 Medicine, and of loving service to Phar- 

 macy which during that period has been 

 to me, not alone a source of income, but 

 the means of bringing me into contact 

 with a large proportion of the purest 

 plea.sures that have come into my life. 



It is not possible to exaggerate the im- 

 portance of Medicine and Pharmacy in 

 the body politic. The duty of healing 

 and caring for the sick should call forth 

 in every right minded man with the spirit 

 of true nobility in his soul, feelings of the 

 highest chivalry and honor, and he is 

 surely one of the most miserable of hu- 

 .man beings who is satisfied to pursue 

 these callings for mere gain, and to 

 measure the success or failure of his life 

 devoted to medicine by a money standard. 

 Our own daily work and our thoughts 

 are more intimately connected with Phar- 

 macy, but we meet Medicine on the com- 

 mon ground of drugs, their preparation 

 and application in the treatment of dis- 

 ease. Medicine, in the persons of those 

 who practice it, and in the pages of its- 

 representative Journals, does not hesitate 

 to criticise, and even to castigate Phar- 



