EDINBURGH MEETING. 
523 
A special vote of thanks proposed by the Chairman to Professor Archer, was very 
warmly responded to by the meeting. 
The following communication was then read by Mr. W. Leitch, on “ Our Profession, 
Past, Present, and Future ” :— 
Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I appear before you this evening with a considerable 
amount of diffidence, remembering how recently I met with you under very different 
circumstances; but, as on that occasion you were pleased to find me honourably quali¬ 
fied to practise pharmacy, I have acceded to the request of your worthy Secretary to 
attempt authorship. I should feel much gratified if I came through this ordeal without 
the “honours” but as my literary apprenticeship has yet to be served, I claim your in¬ 
dulgence for my shortcoming, with the hope that, if you send me back this time, I may 
come forward again better prepared. You will observe that the title of the subject I 
have chosen is a very comprehensive one, but it would be impossible for me, in the limits 
of a short paper, to do more than glance at the state of the trade under the three divi¬ 
sions indicated ; I have therefore, as a first effort, only attempted a rather superficial 
and imperfect essay, deferring to a future opportunity, or abler hands, the devotion of a 
more finished paper to each of the divisions. 
Past .—In therefore tracing the history of our trade (or, as I think we are now justly 
entitled to call it, our profession ) under these conditions, it is scarcely necessary for me 
to go further back than the middle of last century,—for previous to that time there were 
but few who devoted themselves exclusively to the dispensing and retailing of medicines, 
—in those days our forefathers were so simple in their modes and habits of living, that 
they w r ere subject to fewer and less complicated diseases; indeed there were few ailments 
which did not yield to one of the three grand curative powers, nature, blood-letting, or 
mountain-dew (and to show how fondly we sometimes cling to ancient customs, there 
are still a considerable number to be found who put unlimited faith in the curative and 
ameliorating properties of the latter). When these remedies failed, all the patient had 
to do was set his house in order and—depart. 
The few simpler remedies then in vogue were to be obtained from the “ merchant,'” a 
term of very vague import. In the present age a merchant is one who only deals by 
wholesale, and does not break packages, but in those days the title was assumed by 
almost every person who kept open shop, and the catalogue of their wares was of a most 
catholic and miscellaneous description. I have seen a few relics of this class of traders 
in remote villages, where you may still obtain clothing, groceries, ironmongery, physic, 
and stationery. Happily, however, at the present time, these combinations of attraction, 
or as some might call it, repulsion, are getting more rare; for step by step, with 
the rapid advance of civilization, increased refinements, and artificialities in the mode 
of living, and the vast numbers employed in sedentary and in-door occupations, there 
has come a train of new diseases, ever-increasing in complications or modifications, 
to meet which there has been, to say the least, an adequate advance in the science of 
physic and pharmacy. It has often been a question whether or not many of our present 
diseases existed or were known in former times, and were classed under some other more 
general denomination, or whether they have more recently originated, been discovered, 
or invented. I am inclined to think these diseases did exist, and that we are indebted 
to the greatly increased skill and information of the medical profession, who by their 
indefatigable labours have amplified the means of diagnosis, amended the classifica¬ 
tion of diseases, and extended the list of their complications. The result of this has 
been to extend to an equal degree the demands on pharmacy to supply suitable reme¬ 
dies and men capable of preparing them. And now the occupation of the astrologer, 
the alchemist, the general merchant, et hoc genus omne , are almost gone. 
In the latter part of last and beginning of the present century, pharmacy began 
gradually to rise out of the chaos and assume a definite position and form, headed by 
men whose intellect and moral rectitude were sufficient to have earned distinction and 
success in any walk of life—men whose names can never be forgotten whilst pharmacy 
remains. Without being invidious, I may mention three familiar names of our own day, 
Bell, Duncan, and Macfarlan. It must be unnecessary in the present company to state 
how much we are all indebted to them for the large share they have had in their day 
in raising the status and social standing of the profession, and giving by their own suc¬ 
cess a stimulus to its more pure and exclusive pursuit. I do not for a moment under- 
