THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. IX.—No. IV.—OCTOBER, 1867. 
DUNDEE. 
The President of the British Pharmaceutical Conference has pronounced 
some graceful and much needed sentences on the value of his own special branch 
of science. Botany, he observes, is not merely to be regarded as a healthful 
recreation, or a pleasing study, but as a source of mental culture. The obser¬ 
vance of the works of nature, while it necessarily weans us from sensual and 
degrading influences, compels accurate thought and habits of investigation. 
We are glad that the learned Professor, whilst advocating the introduction 
of natural science into our schools and colleges, has not fallen into the error of 
underrating classical education. The most a preparatory establishment can do 
is to fit a man for entering on his after career ; no scholar leaves his alma 
mater ready to begin the world. True, neither Latin nor Greek will prove 
eventually of immediate use in the struggle for a livelihood. Few amongst 
us will find a necessity for expressing our sentiments in Ciceronian phrases, or 
are likely in more excited moments to give vent to our feelings in Sapphics and 
Alcaics. Yet the habit of close attention, the power of continuous application, 
the strengthened memory, the mens eequa, the rejection of the popular, and the 
strong thirst for reality, are the gifts bestowed on the student of classical lite¬ 
rature. And just so far as botany answers these requirements by bringing its 
votary face to face with facts which must be mastered, and with innumerable 
details that must be grasped before the learner can hope to be other than an 
amateur, so far may it rank as an admirable mode of training. 
We gather strong confirmation of such views from the know r n fact that no¬ 
thing tends more to quicken and brighten youthful intelligence than an ac¬ 
quaintance with the names and general appearance or' trees, plants, and flowers ; 
he robs a child of an intense enjoyment, and shuts it out from a fairy world of 
pleasure, who fails to let it read the book of nature first, and our wretched imi¬ 
tations afterwards. 
If Latin be the language. Botany is the science of definition. A few weeks 
spent in its acquirement will dissipate the notion that it is a sort of elegant 
pastime with a dash of learning, better perhaps adapted to a gentleman in easy 
circumstances and of refined taste than the philosopher in quest of knowledge. 
What it w r ants for its successful cultivation is hard work,—earnest, patient, and 
continuous. Then it will smile upon the student, and reward his labour a 
hundredfold ; then it will open wide its book of mystery and reveal its secrets 
in type that is never worn, and in pages which are never old. For such a one 
the face of the material world is changed, and the commonest hedgerow is in- 
vol. ix. l r 
