INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
611 
Still the question reverts — What have the schools done? I 
answer much, very much, if not all that was and might 
have been expected from them. This institution has ruth- 
lessly and for ever swept away, as medicaments, the whole heap 
of “ compound powders ” that had been so long employed by 
farriers, and which to druggists constituted so profitable an 
article of commerce. Tons of these I have made. They 
consisted of about one part of the genuine ground root or 
seeds, mixed with four to six parts, depending upon circum- 
stances, of some farinaceous matter, such as bean or pea- 
meal, ground linseed cake, &c., coloured and scented secundum 
artem . 
And do not think that this was wholly a trick on the part 
of the druggist, or constituted altogether an act of dishonesty in 
him. It is true that he oftentimes thus got rid of drugs that 
he could not otherwise sell, and it furnished a means by 
which much that would have been mere refuse, was disposed 
of to his gain, but the fault of this rested chiefly with the far- 
riers, if not entirely : firstly, because they would not give the 
price of a genuine article, and secondly, because they had a 
number of recipes for diseases, which had been handed down 
— from generation to generation as a kind of heir-loom in their 
families — into which these compounds entered; and being 
ignorant of the nature of drugs, they were not contented un- 
less these nearly worthless powders were obtained. 
You will be differently taught; and the necessity of your 
administering none but genuine articles will be inculcated, 
since on these alone can reliance be placed. Opportunities 
also present themselves here for your becoming acquainted 
with the external characters of the drugs you will in all 
probability make use of, with their pharmaceutical com- 
pounds; and a little careful observation will render you so 
familiar with them, as that at once you will be able to decide 
between one of good quality, and another of inferior or bad 
quality ; while for your chemicals, as you proceed in your 
studies, you will find that there are certain tests to be applied 
by which their genuineness is to be ascertained, and any 
adulterations detected. 
Now, what is this but some of the benefits that have been 
derived from schools, a result of the application of the 
principles of science to medicine ? 
In like manner, a large number of unnecessary cretaceous 
compounds, under the names of sealed-earths, boles, burnt 
hartshorn, calcined oyster shells, prepared crabs’ eyes and 
crabs’ claws, have been all discarded from the pharmacopoeia ; 
and why? Simply because science has demonstrated that 
