THE PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
159 
it has tended greatly to elevate us from the comparatively low position m society which, 
as a body, we held during the first quarter of the present century: hut thankss to the 
exertions of Pereira, Thomson, Ure, and Fownes, most worthily and efficiently followed 
by Redwood, Bentley, and others, pupils of all these great and honoured men, pupils 
whose names I would mention but that we have only to look around this room and sec 
the men themselves,—the love of knowledge and scientific truth lias taken deep oo , 
and widely spread its grateful and humanizing influence throughout our whole brotbe - 
hood ; yet however wide-spread, however grateful, beneficent, and humanizing i c 
tific truth, and the love of it may be, it is by no means the only requisite to entitle the 
possessor who has to live by it as a calling to the coveted title of a P rofess ^ual ™a ’ 
The world will accord to the physician, the lawyer, the divine, the architect, or the war¬ 
rior, the right to the title; but to us shopkeepers who are, as it were rising from 
ranks of the army in a struggle for a high position, many other qualifications will e 
considered necessary, and must be rigidly practised by us before a w'ide-awake mat 
of-fact public will accept us for what we desire to be thought. The love of truth must 
not be confined to science, and pursued merely in the desire for gain,—although weshave 
an undoubted right to live by our labour, ingenuity, and skill—but the 
with it must be extended to every relation of life : we must be reliable men, of unfhnch- 
ing integrity and honour, whose words must be our bond, and whose hves must accord 
with our profession ; and while resolved to be well paid tor our 
ties, and while to meet the demands of an exacting public we must nee*sa li 7 e^ert om 
ingenuity to devise something new , whereby we may avoid being le ^ 
struggle for existence, let us beware that we do not trench on othei men s grounds or 
fields of action,-let us strive to do unto others as we would have ^ 
is no trade or calling with which I am acquainted that is so capable o g V 
ment as that we are privileged to follow. Some of the greatest ant no , of 
in Europe have been chemists and pharmaceutists, keeping open s f rnrlfrev 
their commodities and the dispensing of medicines. I allude to su^ men as Godfrey 
Hankwitz, Luke Howard, William Allen and John Bell, i? England; Pelletier, Guibo 
Fordas, and others in France ; Scheele, in Sweden ; and m German} . st , ’ 
of whom will be handed down to posterity for generations to come as bem.actors 
ciety, and fit associates of princes. What these men have 
degree at least, emulate; and by following earnestly such examples 0 f J^Vnhealthy 
to induce the world at large to accord to us the position we se ® • , our Qwn 
and questionable competition we strive to secure the larges s «• , us ^cth 
individual selves, we shall degenerate into practices wine 1 \ - P > 
fact and in public estimation, deservedly in the ranks of mcie iuc.s • com- 
If I may be allowed to explain what I mean by an unhealthy W^ble com 
petition, I would allude first to the low prices frequently c arge counter. If 
cines, whether as dispensed prescriptions, or as drugs fie 111 L sniritus ammonice 
such things as tinctura opii, tinct. benzoim comp., tmct. 1 iei P-> P , X '\ ^ 
aromat., sp. retheris nit., etc. etc., are sold, as in many places they aw, at 2d. and 3d. 
per oz., it is quite clear that if the whole were profit it wou c no must be small 
and if properly and honestly made, we know that the propoi ion ' p; sret)U table form in 
and inadequate indeed. But another, and to me, an even P ^ 
which these malpractices are carried on, is m the attemp 1 ‘ ‘ , , - t f pecuniary 
secure profit by pirating preparations which have yielded the legit mate fruit c Pec > 
profit to those whose industry and skill have led them to m° 0 P S^^fneml in- 
in which we, as chemists, are concerned, and whose eneig < the most flagrant 
troduction. It is not easy for me to pick out special eixampl 
cases are those connected with secret remedies, whic 1 dishonesty is not the less 
or the French “ Papier Moure,” which has now become a domestic ms i u 10 ^ . 
the ingenuity which has been expended in devising a mere 
Mouche,” had been exerted in a legitimate direction, e c c 1 in vieW. Many 
possessed an original and more lucrative means of accomp is ling ., dead flies 
Lilar cases will occur to you all. Such practices;as; these are “vei^o dead flies 
which cause the ointment cf the apothecary to send forth 0 ' K 0 
