THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



I2S 



advantages offered by any institution of the 

 kind in tlie world. 



' ' I sincerely hope and trust that this will 

 prove the first of a long series of reunions held 

 under the auspices of the class of '94, and that 

 our relations with one another will continue as 

 friendly in the future as they have been in the 

 past ; also to have the pleasure of again meeting 

 you, not as members of the Class of '94, but as 

 members of the Alumni Association of the 

 New York College of Pharmacy." 



VALEDICTORY. 



BV JOSEPH KUSSEY, PH. G. 



Fellow students and Gentletnen: 



The day has almost arrived which will termin- 

 ate our relations to our college and our rela- 

 tions to each other as classmates. 



We must separate and walk along diverging 

 roads and though the paths marked out for us 

 may at some periods of our lives converge and 

 cross each other, yet many of those assembled 

 here to night will in all probability labor and 

 struggle and fight their battles alone and pass 

 out of the lives of their classmates with the 

 parting after that final scene of success and 

 triumph on Commencement night. And hence 

 it is that even at such a joyous gathering as this 

 we feel a touch of sadness and instinctively 

 pause to cast a lingering, retrospective glance 

 over the events of those two years which to us 

 are and ever will be so memorable. 



So full of absorbing interest have been our 

 days at college, so replete with pleasant inci- 

 dents, so delightful have been the associations 

 formed, that it seems the recollections of these 

 days can never be obliterated from our minds, 

 but will ever remain there, fresh and imperish- 

 able. 



The lectures, the recitations, and the meet- 

 ings of our class have all furnished incidents, 

 which will offer themselves to us as mental 

 gratifications, long after the old building in 

 which they have occurred, shall have ceased to 

 exist. 



Do you recall that first lecture in chemistry 

 when our enthusiasm at the success of some in- 

 teresting experiment found vent in a demonstra- 

 tion wherein our pedal extremities were em- 

 ployed with such striking effect? — how Professor 

 Elliot then solemnly warned us that through 

 such demonstrations the micrococcus and spiril- 

 lum were enabled to rise in their dignity and re- 

 venge themselves with fiendish ierocity upon the 

 guilless youth who had disturbed their repose. 

 And do you recall how, later on, all timidity 



and fear of this suddenly left us when Professor 

 Coblentz unconcernedly announced that twelve 

 of those distinguished families dwelt in peace 

 and serenity in our very mouths ? 



But aside from the pleasant incidents of the 

 lecture hall, we are here to-night reminded of 

 the pleasant hours spent at our class meetings. 

 It was here that our true natures became known 

 to each other and here it was that bonds of 

 friendship were formed, which time may weaken 

 but can never sunder. 



In recalling the studies which we undertook 

 to master, you remember how complex and 

 hieroglyphical to us at first seemed the graphic 

 formulae of chemistry; how like a labyrinth of 

 unworldly knowledge appeared the classifica- 

 tions and divisions of drugs, and how persist- 

 ently the preparations of the salts of iron es- 

 caped our minds and eluded our efforts to re- 

 capture and retain them. 



But, fellow students, having been so fortunate 

 as to receive our instruction from a faculty so 

 learned, so eminent and so universally honored 

 and respected as that of our own Alma Mater, 

 how could we long remain in ignorance of the 

 knowledge which they took such pains to im- 

 part to us ? 



Guided by the results of their ripe judgement 

 and experience, and constantly perseverant in 

 our endeavors to be just to ourselves and there- 

 by just to those who have labored in our behalf 

 we have mastered the intricate equations of 

 chemists, passed safely through the labyrinthine 

 classifications of pharmacognosy and Materia 

 Medica, and even the troublesome preparations 

 of pharmacy have become subservient to our 

 will. 



And now professors and learned instructors, 

 ■ we are reminded of the duty which we as grad- 

 uates owe to you. 



For two years we have been under your 

 guidance and instruction. We have been by 

 you initiated into the hidden mysteries of 

 science, we have been brought to a clearer 

 understanding of Nature's wonders and have 

 become well versed in the theories and practices 

 pertaining to our profession, indeed, through 

 you there has been opened to us the path lead- 

 ing to original scientific research. 



What the future has in store for us we know 

 not, but be assured, gentlemen, the knowledge 

 here acquired will be utilized for the purpose 

 they are designed for the conscientious prepara- 

 tion of remedies tending towards the alleviation 

 of human suffering, the mitigation of pain and 



