269 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
It is a pleasant custom, aud one which is, or ought to be, productive of 
kindly relations between the students of an institution like the Pharmaceutical 
Society and those under whose direction they are to pursue their course of in¬ 
struction, that they should meet face to face at the beginning of a session, 
on the broad ground of a common friendship dictated by a common interest. 
Were any other relation than this implied, I dare not have appeared before 
you in the character of mentor this evening, but, yielding to no man in affec¬ 
tionate regard for my younger brethren entering a laborious and ill-paid pro¬ 
fession, I could not with a clear conscience have declined to accept the duty 
laid upon me by my colleagues, though I might secretly doubt their wisdom 
in the selection of a spokesman. If I have any claim of my own upon your 
attention beyond that which an abiding sympathy confers, I must lay it to 
the fact that I have endeavoured ever since the foundation of the Society to 
advance the cause of pharmaceutical education, and that I now begin to see 
around me results neither trifling nor insignificant from the labour which I 
have watched during twenty-eight years. In the long, persistent effort of 
which these results are but the crown, I have taken a share, though it may 
be only a small one ; and if my observations on the present occasion have 
little of novelty, and less of exciting interest, you may be disposed to bear 
with them kindly for what value they may possess as the dictates of an ex¬ 
perience extending over the whole of this period. 
Let us ask ourselves, to begin with, what progress have we made during 
the year in which the extended powers of the Society have been in opera¬ 
tion P From our own point of view, has the condition of pharmacy been 
advanced? On the other hand, are we nearer to a recognition on the part 
of the public of that professional status to which we aspire? These are 
questions for ourselves individually ; and, if each of us can answer that 
he has done his best for the honour of the body to which he belongs, we 
need not doubt that we have collectively progressed. The estimation in 
which we are held by on-lookers will follow naturally the efforts made by 
ourselves to attain a higher standard. Let us bear in mind that the at¬ 
mosphere of science by itself does not engender professional feeling;—that 
the grand ethical maxim which determines the qualification is but the second 
great commandment, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” in its 
bearing upon our daily conduct tow ards others engaged in the same avocation ; 
—and that we shall attain to honour only as we shun dishonour. 
We have already seen how large an amount of good may be expected from 
the Pharmacy Act of 1868, but we must bear in mind the fact that the future 
depends upon ourselves far more than on legislative interference ; and to no 
single portion of our functions have we so much cause to look with solicitude as 
to our examinations. In the earlier years of our existence as a corporate body 
the passing of examinations v r as optional, and therefore comparatively few 
availed themselves of the advantages consequent on the systematic trainingthey 
involved; and thus they became in reality an evidence of a thirst for knowledge, 
quite as much as a test of the amount of information acquired. And we have 
precisely the result which might have been anticipated : the men who had the 
wisdom to see the advantage of submitting to what was then a voluntary or¬ 
deal, and the courage to face it, now r stand in the front rank of our profession, 
as men similarly actuated will always do, whatever vocation they adopt. 
The growth of public opinion and the steady increase of enlightenment 
amongst those practising pharmacy is shown in a remarkable manner by a 
reference to the number presenting themselves each successive year for our 
various examinations. Indeed so regular was the increase up to the time of 
