OX THE STUDY OP BOTANY IN CONNECTION WITH PHARMACY. 153 
limited period of time allotted to such addresses, and I accordingly confined 
myself to the consideration of some of the more immediate and direct advan¬ 
tages which the pharmaceutist would derive from a knowledge of botany, and 
promised, on some future opportunity, to conclude the subject with some obser¬ 
vations on its value as a mental training and as a recreation. That opportunity 
is now afforded me, and hence I proceed to redeem my promise by concluding 
on the present occasion the subject of my former address. 
All experienced teachers of natural science must now admit that the study of 
nature is eminently calculated to impart tone and vigour to the mind and to 
elevate the general character, and should, therefore, be made in all cases an im¬ 
portant part of a liberal education. Professor Balfour has well summed up its 
advantages, in these respects, by saying, that “It exerts a most beneficial influence 
on the observant faculties ; it calls the perceptive powers into action ; it teaches 
the student to note the resemblances and differences among objects; it promotes 
the formation of orderly and systematic habits ; and it enforces accuracy, both 
of observation and of expression. It also benefits the mind by investing the 
objects around us with a new interest, and it supplies healthy and cheerful oc¬ 
cupation at all times.” To the student of pharmacy, therefore, who has to 
combine scientific knowledge with practical business habits, if he would desire 
to become something beyond a mere mechanical drudge, the study of natural 
science, and especially botany, will be peculiarly valuable. 
The advantages of the study of natural history in leading the mind to ob¬ 
serve correctly and to discriminate accurately, have been so admirably and so 
tersely described by one who was my great teacher in botany,—the late eminent 
and lamented Professor Edward Forbes,—that I cannot do better than quote 
his own words. Speaking of the two qualities, correct observation and accurate 
discrimination , he says:—“The first depends mainly on the power of seizing all 
the features of an object or case with clearness and facility, detecting adventi¬ 
tious characters at sight, and excluding such from all influence on our conclu¬ 
sions. The second implies powers of just comparison, of perceiving the mutual 
relations of parts or facts, and of testing the possible agreement of statements 
with the circumstances which accompany them. Now, though all men are en¬ 
dowed with the elements of these qualities, all are not born correct observers or 
accurate discriminators. Men must be therefore educated into such. The mind 
must be trained to reason justly, the instruments of the mind to observe cor¬ 
rectly. The classical and mathematical studies of our youth are not intended 
merely to teach classics and mathematics, but to train us to the business of life, 
and to right judgment in the higher pursuits of men. The bodily exercises of 
our youth have not for their object merely those pleasures which such exercises 
afford, but the strengthening of our physical powers in order to ensure us a 
healthy and vigorous manhood. The training of the mind makes the intellec¬ 
tual mind, the training of the body the physical man. The eud is gained in 
both cases by means essentially distinct from that end.” He then proceeds to 
show that the study of natural history should be regarded in a similar light, as 
follows:— 
“ The first lesson of natural history is observation. The study of a vegetable 
or animal species is the perfection of observation as far as that species is con¬ 
cerned. The form, the substance, the qualities, the phenomena of existence, 
the influence of surrounding objects, are all observed with the greatest preci¬ 
sion, and defined so as to be capable of expression in words. No point affect¬ 
ing that species is left untouched. The study of a group or genus of vegetables 
or animals is in like manner the perfection of discrimination. All the members 
of the group are compared in all their parts with each other, the relations which 
they have in common are summed up, and their differences recorded in every 
possible point of view. The causes of those relations and differences are 
