Ruschenberger.] 438 [Feb., 15, 
tees, and also of the Publication Committee, to which he was 
annually elected, till 1861, twenty-one years, when he declined 
re-election. He was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees, 
October 9, 1860, and, being annually re-elected, held the posi- 
tion till the close of his life. 
When Dr. Bache gave up the chair of chemistry to take 
the professorship of the same department in the Jefferson Medi- 
cal College, Dr. Bridges was a candidate for the vacant place, 
but Dr. William R. Fisher was elected, May 31, 1841, by a 
majority of two votes. He resigned the following April, and 
Dr. Bridges was unanimously elected Professor of General 
and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, May 16, 1842. Still he contin- 
ued to be the private assistant of Dr. Bache, till his death, in 
1864, severed their continuous laboratory association of forty 
years. Dr. Bridges, also aided Dr. George B. Wood im his work 
while he held the professorship of materia medica in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, from 1835 till 1850. 
Besides the routine work of the professorship, Dr. Bridges 
did his full share on standing and special committees, delivered 
many introductory and other addresses, and represented the 
College among its delegates to the American Pharmaceutical 
Association and other bodies. 
It is related substantially that, prior to 185], the average 
number of graduates annually, from 1826, was less than seven, 
and that the public commencements were biennial. That 
year the matriculants numbered 82, and the graduates 19. The 
class determined that the commencement should be attended 
with more demonstration than had been made on previous occa- 
sions. The ceremonies had been conducted in an apartment 
of the college, not capable of seating comfortably a hun- 
dred persons. Other arrangements were proposed, but opposi- 
tion to them from an unexpected quarter was strong.. The 
president and some of the trustees of the college belonged to 
the Society of Friends, They are notably conservative of their 
customary ways and averse to ostentation. The commence- 
ment had consisted in the delivery of diplomas to the graduates 
by the president according to a prescribed form, and a suitable 
