THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 17, 1872. 
131 
immediately follow the adoption of such a scheme, but 
we might surely calculate on additions to our knowledge 
of pharmaceutical subjects, such as have never emanated 
from the students of the metropolitan laboratory of recent 
years; and in any case the prestige of the Society 
snust be increased, and the status of pharmacy corre¬ 
spondingly advanced. You will at least have made the 
laboratory something more than a forcing-house for pass- 
-examinations. 
Nor do these proposals represent new or untried 
modes of fostering research. The present position of 
Germany in the scientific world is due to nothing so 
much as tlie opportunity and encouragement afforded to 
young men. Laboratories for purposes of research are 
.there open on terms that can debar no one from entering 
who desires to work in them. In some cases they are 
absolutely free, not only to Germans, but to students 
from other countries; and their classes composed of men 
•engaged in similar subjects, in friendly rivalry and emu¬ 
lation, are the seminaries of new aspects of scientific 
inquiry and of fresh lines of philosophic thought. I am 
far from wishing to exalt our neighbours at our own 
expense, but we are bound to read the lessons which 
their success inculcates. The Pharmaceutical Society has 
means enough at its disposal; surely it would be better 
that its pride should rest on constant investments in 
science and intellectual wealth than in the perpetually 
swelling assets of its annual balance-sheet. 
I have endeavoured to point out that the parent Society 
is the source whence we have a right to look for the pro¬ 
vision to a great extent of opportunity for pharmaceutical 
investigation, and I must now as pointedly allude to the 
Pharmaceutical Conference as possessing the machinery, 
easily. extended to meet increased requirements, for 
organizing and systematizing research. In its very 
first programme the Conference was defined as “ an or¬ 
ganization for the. encouragement of pharmaceutical 
research, nor can it be said that the means which have 
been adopted from time to time in furtherance of this 
purpose have been altogether unsuccessful. The circula¬ 
tion periodically of a carefully revised list of subjects, 
concerning .which further investigations are required, 
Is. a. plan originally borrowed from the American Asso¬ 
ciation, and is probably as good a means as could 
be devised for preventing waste of labour. The 
■number ot valuable contributions to knowledge which 
have resulted from suggestions contained in this 
annual circular, sufficiently attest its positive as well 
as its negative advantages. But to be entirely suc¬ 
cessful such a method requires the more general co¬ 
operation of the members than it has yet received. The 
duty of compiling the list ought not to be left to the 
wiy few who have, hitherto, in default of general assis¬ 
tance, undertaken its revision, still less that of accepting 
.and working out the subjects comprised in its queries. 
Ihe Conference too may be made serviceable in col¬ 
lecting information from different portions of the king- 
o om, and in special cases our members residing abroad 
might be made use of to similar ends. 
In many branches of science difficulties occur in 
lespect to publication, but herein we have no lack. If 
roui own “Proceedings” are too tardy a medium, the 
“ JournT^ 0Clet y * s read y with its weekly 
Methods other, than those roughly indicated for the 
promotion of scientific culture will, doubtless, present 
■themselves as the subject receives the increased attention 
it demands. Collective thought and associated action 
,aie alike needed to attain the first step—the provision of 
opportunities. But there is much to do beyond merely 
clearing the path of external impediments. Year by 
} car some of us have more and more to confess, that it is 
to y ounger men with increased advantages, that we must 
Jo ok to take the scientific position we have desired and 
do but see afar off; and under these circumstances, the 
•attitude of the older to the y'ounger is one of paramount 
importance. I am reminded of a passage in one of Mr. 
Ruskin’s books containing a powerful statement upon 
the duties of criticism, and encouragement and guid~ 
ance, which, though written of and for artists, hardly 
needs the alteration of a word to make it equally 
applicable to all who have intercourse with students in 
the early stages of their career. The mental condition 
in which right intellectual labour is accomplished is much 
the same whatever the object in hand; and I need 
scarcely apologize for quoting the paragraphs as the}' 
stand, although the introductor}' portion may not be 
exactl} r to our present purpose. 
“What we mainly want, is a means of sufficient and 
unagitated emplo) r ment: not holding out great prizes 
for which the } r oung are to scramble ; but furnishing all 
with adequate support, and opportunity to display such 
power as they possess without rejection or mortifica¬ 
tion.But a more important matter 
even than this of steady employment, is the kind of 
criticism with which you, the public, receive the works 
of the young men submitted to y'ou. You ma 3 r do much 
harm by indiscreet praise and b}' indiscreet blame; but 
remember, the chief harm is alway's done by' blame. It 
stands to reason that a young man’s work cannot be 
perfect. It must be more or less ignorant; it must be 
more or less feeble ; it is likely' that it may be more or 
less experimental, and if experimental, here and there 
mistaken. If, therefore, you allow y'ourself to launch 
out into sudden barking at the first faults y'ou see, the 
probability is that yon arc abusing the y'outh for some 
defect naturally and inevitably belonging to that stage 
of his progress; and that y T ou might just as rationally' 
find fault with a child for not being as prudent as a 
privy councillor, or with a kitten for not being as grave 
as a cat. But there is one fault which y r ou may' be quite 
sure is unnecessary', and, therefore, a real and blamable 
fault: that is haste, involving negligence. Whenever 
y'ou see that a y'oung man’s work is either bold or 
slovenly', then you may attack it firmly'; sure of being 
right. If his work is bold, it is insolent; repress his in¬ 
solence ; if it is slovenly', it is indolent; spur his in¬ 
dolence. So long as he works in that dashing or im¬ 
petuous way, the best hope for him is in your contempt: 
and it is only by the fact of his seeming not to seek y'our 
approbation that y'ou may conjecture he deserves it. 
“ But if he does deserve it, be sure that y'ou give it 
him, else you not only run a chance of driving him from 
the right road by want of encouragement, but you de¬ 
prive y'ourselves of the happiest privilege y'ou will ever 
have of rewarding his labour. For it is only' the y'oung 
who can receive much reward from men’s praise : the 
old, when they are great, get too far bey'ond and above 
you to care what y r ou think of them. You may' urge 
them with sympathy, and surround them with acclama¬ 
tion; but they will doubt y T our pleasure, and despise 
y'our praise. You might have cheered them in their 
race through the asphodel meadows of their y'outh; y'ou 
might have brought the proud, bright scarlet into their 
faces, if you had but cried once to them ‘ Well done,’ as 
they dashed up to the first goal of their early ambition. 
But now, their pleasure is in memory', and their ambi¬ 
tion is in heaven. They can bo kind to y'ou, but y'ou 
never more can be kind to them. You may' be fed with 
the fruit and fulness of their old age, but you were as a 
nipping blight to them in their blossoming, and y'our 
praise is only as the warm winds of autumn to the dying 
branches.” * 
I must now turn to matters which y'ou will be disposed 
to remind me should have occupied a more prominent 
place in my' discourse, but in reality' the proceedings of 
the Conference for the past year seem to call for little 
comment. The most notable point is doubtless the publica¬ 
tion of the second ‘ Year Book.’ This volume, issued with 
commendable promptitude after the last meeting, has long 
* * Political Economy and Art,’ p. 34. 
