INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
617 
mary than during the winter months, an admirable oppor- 
tunity would be thus afforded to those students who have 
not seen practice before coming here of acquiring practical 
information. 
Further, by transferring the lectures on Materia Medica 
to the summer, more time will be allowed for those on 
Chemistry, this being now very restricted, so much so in- 
deed, that justice is not done to the subject. And then as 
both the teacher and the taught will require relaxation, be- 
tween the winter and summer courses a short period should 
be allowed for that purpose. 
As it respects Practical Chemistry, this is no longer con- 
sidered a supererogatory study, but an integral part of the 
education of the medical student. By it he is taught to 
manipulate, and thus he becomes acquainted with chemical 
substances; and he is also instructed in the conduction of 
analyses and the detection of poisons, all of which it is un- 
questionably very important for him to be familiar with. 
Then there is one division of Chemistry, namely, Organic 
Chemistry, which may be said to be of the greatest value to 
the medical man, and therefore demands from him a corres- 
ponding attention. Such have been the advances made in 
this of late years, from the ever-varying and almost number- 
less discoveries made in it, and from the light it throws both 
on physiology and pathology, that it may almost be desig- 
nated a new science. It cannot be denied that the first 
step towards the cure of a malady is a knowledge of its 
nature. This is often only to be arrived at by an observance 
of the alterations of the products of the organs that are 
either primarily or secondarily affected. Now it is the pro- 
vince of chemistry to tell us what these products are, and to 
show the changes that have taken place in them ; and this 
being obtained, frequently the means to be adopted so as to 
bring about a restoration to health, are by chemistry clearly 
poipied out. But of course not always, for then the re- 
moval of disease w^ould be a certainty. 
In a notice of Dr. Daubeny's address, delivered before the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 
1856, it is stated that — 
“ In organic chemistry, there are certain compounds which 
it has hitherto been the favorite doctrine to suppose only 
producible by the vital force. Within the last few years, 
several of these have been formed in the laboratory by art; 
and very recently, as w 7 e learn from Dr. Daubeny, some 
others have been produced— c several species of alcohol from 
coal-gas by Berthelot, oil of mustard by the same chemist, 
xxx. 82 
