694 
BRISTOL PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. 
labour what is now clone for liim by the facile agency of steam, now grinding paints 
or pounding with an iron pestle as heavy as a crowbar, suddenly called from this 
athletic exercise to draw a tooth, spread a plaster, or prepaid a dozen of draughts. 
Expected to be civil to everybody, and to be as fresh and lively at eleven at night as 
at nine in the morning, with little time or strength for study, with still less opportunity 
for improvement, it is hardly to be wondered at if the genteel slave, whom the world 
hardly knew with his apron off, made little progress in scientific acquirements, or cared 
very much for the advancement of pharmacy. 
But even at this time, and under the most adverse conditions, there were not want¬ 
ing men who rose above all difficulties in their longing desire to acquire knowledge, 
and to elevate themselves to a position worthy of their talents. And these men met 
their reward. Rising at four in the morning to study chemistry, and some of them 
constructing a laboratory without help, pressing on through weariness and difficulty, 
until their end was gained ; it is to men of such a spirit, determined that they would 
raise themselves and their fellows, that we owe much of our present position. 
Such men were some of the founders of the Pharmaceutical Society. I do not 
purpose to speak of many of them, but I feel that any attempt to outline the history 
of pharmacists which omitted the mention of William Allen would be w r holly im¬ 
perfect, as his name stands out the highest ornament of our profession. 
His father was a member of the Society of Friends, and William was born at 
Spitalfields on 29th August, 1770. Possessing comparatively few educational advan¬ 
tages, he yet began very early to manifest an eager desire for knowledge ; and w r hen a 
boy of fourteen, he constructed for himself a telescope (at the cost of fourteen pence), 
sufficiently good to show him the satellites of Jupiter. At the time of Allen’s leaving 
the Rochester School, John Gurney Bevan carried on an important chemist’s business 
in Plough Court, and there young Allen, after having failed to show any aptitude for 
his father’s business of a silk-weaver, commenced his career as a chemist w'hen about 
twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. He very soon distinguished himself, for, in 
1794, he was elected a member of the Chemical Society at Guy’s Hospital; and from 
this point he made rapid advances; he became subsequently Professor of Natural 
Philosophy to the Royal Institution, and in 1807 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society. Notwithstanding his many business and professional engagements, his chief 
aim was to foster every benevolent and philanthropic enterprise. 
A pioneer of the abolition of slavery, one of the earliest and warmest advocates of 
education for the people, an active member of the Bible Society, and, in conjunction 
with Henry, Lord Brougham, one of the first supporters of the Society for the Diffu¬ 
sion of Useful Knowledge, he -was foremost in the prosecution of every good work in 
times when benevolence was not so fashionable as it is to-day. 
Distinguished by the notice of kings and emperors, he obtained an influence over 
the "whole continent of Europe few men have attained ; and a remarkable instance of 
the trust reposed in him comesjo us in the fact that when, in 1815, the affairs of the 
Duke of Kent had become involved in apparently inextricable confusion, William 
Allen was called upon by his Royal Highness for advice, and, becoming trustee for 
the Duke’s affairs, he so patiently and earnestly accomplished his labours that, by a 
rigid economy and restraint, he was soon successful in extricating the spendthrift 
nobleman from his difficulties, and eventually every one of the Duke’s obligations 
were discharged. 
Gentlemen, it is much to be diligent and successful in business, it i3 more still to be 
eager in the pursuit of knowledge and of science ; but, high over all energy and talent , 
high over all desire to search deeply the hidden mines of learning, high over all the 
charms of discovery and the fascination of imparting it to others,—William Allen found 
his chief delight in doing good , in softening the sorrows and adding to the comforts 
of his fellow T -men, in aiding to strike off the chains of slavery and let the oppressed 
go free ; and it is this, far more than all his attainments and his dignities, which 
makes his name stand out clear and bright , a beacon guiding us to the noblest, purest , 
highest, and divinest life. 
'William Allen, as is well known to you all, was the first President of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society. Earlier in life he had been one of the trustees of a Chemists’ Asso¬ 
ciation, formed partly to carry out one of his cherished desires, that his brethren should 
ever cultivate harmony and good feeling amongst themselves. 
