6 
THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
lie knows that underlying all this, and while gazing at it, endless changes are going on 
in silent and ceaseless activity ; and, stranger than all, only a very few of the sixty-five 
elementary bodies of which this world is composed enter into the combinations, decompo- 
sitions, and re-combinations ! Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen. 
But, descending from the regions of the ideal, let us come to the real. The branch 
of Chemistry to which you have to apply yourselves is what is called Pharmaceutical 
Chemisty — i.e., Chemistry as applied to Pharmacy : technical Chemistry. By Pharmacy 
you have decided to obtain a sphere for honourable and useful occupation ; to render 
services to your fellows for equivalent services rendered by them. To perform the 
necessary functions involved in the honest, intelligent, and responsible practice of a 
pharmacist, no one in the present day can expect to succeed, or be even trusted by the 
public and the medical profession, who is ignorant of Chemistry and allied sciences. Can 
we be satisfied to possess less knowledge of science than the artisan ? Professor Huxley 
has told the working men of England “that if they do not acquire a proper knowledge of 
science and of modern science, England will perish as surely as Carthage.” 
The working classes are about to have available a Technical College. Impress 
upon your minds the significance of this : in a few years, a very few years, you will find 
that, unless you are scientifically and thoroughly educated, your influence and success will 
be gone. We cannot lag behind ; we expect you, who will be the future Pharmacists 
of Australia, to be not only abreast, but in advance of the people with whom you will 
be brought into hourly and most intimate contact. It is the province of Pharmaceutical 
Chemistry “ to produce by peculiar combinations and decompositions certain bodies 
which do not occur in Nature, but are prescribed by medical men,” thus shedding a 
healing balm over many of the “ ills that flesh is heir to.” Without a knowledge of 
Chemistry you cannot prepare properly any compound of the Pharmacopia, and certainly 
would be unable to test their genuineness when manufactured. There is also the wide 
field for future discovery, and the improvement of pharmaceutical processes. The more 
manipulative skill you possess, directed by sound scientific knowledge, the greater will be 
your success and joy ; instead of walking in darkness or uncertain light, you will have 
your daily path illuminated and made pleasant ; the tedium of business routine will not 
depress, arduous as the duties often are. This science took its rise, and has been 
developed, in the laboratories of pharmacists. From the discoveries of pharmaceutical 
chemists the world has been wonderfully benefited. Bequin discovered calomel ; 
Hombeberg, boric acid ; Margraff, beetroot sugar. Scheele, of poor parentage, 
discovered hydrocyanic acid ; made many other discoveries, and died at forty-four. 
Pelletier discovered quinine ; another pharmacist discovered morphia ; and so on, and so 
on. 
The study of Botany is a most delightful branch of natural science. There is not a 
worthless weed or insignificant wayside flower but affords us food for investigation, and 
as we gain familiarity with the various forms and distinctions of plants our pleasure is 
increased. You will soon learn all about the calyx, petal, stamen, and pistil ; about the 
arrangement of the various parts of the flower in the different orders. Always take with 
you in your walks a pocket miscroscope with which to carefully examine every flower that 
you see. Study well the form of leaf, and flower, and seed. Let it be your rule to gain a 
clear idea of the meaning of all the more important botanical terms : do not be afraid to 
ask if you find any difficulty in getting an explanation. Do not think that Botany is to 
be learned from books alone ; you must work at the living plants. Do not think that it 
is a useless science ; it is of great practical value to the pharmacist. How often have 
poisonous leaves and roots been accidentally, or fraudulently, mixed with articles of the 
Materia Medica ; belladonna roots with gentian ; sarsaparilla with the roots of aspara- 
gus ; serpentaria with aristolocliia tomentosa ; verbascum leaves with digitalis ; saffron 
with marigold florets. None of these, and numerous others, could be detected by the 
unscientific pharmacist ignorant of Botany. Botany has all this claim to our attention : 
that it affords inexhaustible source of pleasure to the mind — ■ tt a thing of beauty is a joy 
for ever” — and in this study you will be brought face to face with Nature, and in 
drinking in the beauty of her forms you will find as a result mental elevation, and a 
refilling influence which will render all that is coarse and vulgar utterly distasteful. In 
future far-off years you will look back upon your botanical walks and studies with a sweet 
remembrance, and many old and faded associations will at times be revived at the sight 
of some beautiful flower or plant which became familiar to you in the days of your youth. 
