INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
271 
ami nation-room, might be made instead to yield a solid groundwork, not 
deep or profound, but compact and full up to its limit and serviceable to 
higher ends than the mere translation of prescriptions. 
A foundation of common “ school-learning ” must lie laid before a student 
can make satisfactory advances into the special branches of knowledge which 
constitute technical education in any ot its developments. Our prelimi¬ 
nary" or “ classical” examination embraces these subjects, and is intended to 
secure a sound elementary acquaintance with the various branches comprised 
in what is termed a liberal education. 
The peculiar advantages offered by this Institution exist in the variety 
of its facilities for the study of those departments of science, which collec¬ 
tively are comprised in the word Pharmacy,—and may be said only to lie 
properly available when the preliminary stage is passed. Lectures, demon¬ 
strations, and laboratory practice are the primary elements of the curriculum 
you are commencing, but they form only a small portion of the opportuni¬ 
ties you may enjoy, if you will supplement the instruction of the class-room 
by reading and observation. In this aspect it is impossible to over-estimate 
the advantage of a Museum and Library like that within your reach; 
but so long as the former is to you a mere collection of substances used 
in medicines or the arts, and the latter only an assemblage of well-bound 
and well-arranged volumes, you can scarcely be said to be aware of their ex¬ 
istence. My observation would lead me to believe that neither the Library 
nor the Museum are sufficiently used by our students. In the Library you 
have opportunity of direct reference to standard authors whose works are too 
costly tor the ordinary reader to purchase or too rare to be found in private 
collections. Only those who know the delight of tracing an oft-repeated ob¬ 
servation to its original author are aware of the value of information obtained 
first hand. By this I do not mean to insist on the study of quaint and now 
perhaps obsolete volumes like Gerard or Culpepper, Gesner, Pomet, or 
Parkinson,—these may form amusement and instruction for leisure hours in 
after life,—but rather to some of the great authors who lived immediately 
before the days of manuals and text-books, to whom too little honour is now' 
accorded. I may be wrong in the estimate I set upon works which were the 
companions of my early days, but I would ask any one who may be dis¬ 
posed to question this dictum, w here he will find a book of recent publica¬ 
tion with the same amount of instruction so pleasantly given as the ‘ Pliar- 
macologia ’ of Dr. Paris, a work which has been quoted w ith or without ac- 
know ledgment by half the more modern writers on the subjects of which it 
treats. This is but a type of the literature that I would recommend to your 
notice ; time precludes my enlarging on the subject, else there are a dozen 
authors in the same category I might cite as worth} r your reverent study. 
A museum is only of value to the student in so far as it receives his sys¬ 
tematic attention. It is useless to walk round a Materia Medica cabinet, 
observing merely the exceptionally fine specimens which attract the eye in 
passing, and regarding the whole as an assemblage of curiosities. The true 
value of a collection like that in the possession of the Society, lies in the 
opportunity it affords for illustrating the subjects of your reading. Study 
the specimens series by series, book in hand :—impress by visual observation, 
facts too readily forgotten when learned by reading only :—endeavour now, 
whilst your observing powers are most active to collect that sort of know¬ 
ledge which will enable you to detect differences in the external appear¬ 
ances, in the physical characters, and in the structure of the substances 
w ith w hich you will be most concerned in your occupation as pharmaceutists. 
You will do this nowhere so well as in a Museum like ours, where, thanks to 
the labours of the late Dr. Pereira, the late Mr. Herring, Mr. Morson, Mr. 
