October 8, 1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
291 
tlie forthcoming Session, keeping up the good old 
rule to speed the parting guests. There was no 
duty appertaining to the office which he had the 
honour to fill of a more pleasurable character than 
the distribution of the prizes. It took them back 
to the institution of the school, and brought be¬ 
fore their recollection the services of all those who 
had worked so hard in bygone days, forgetting their 
own interests and thinking only of those who were 
to come after them in establishing the means of 
obtaining a sound education for the rising genera¬ 
tion. It was a great pleasure to think of the work 
they had done, and a still greater pleasure to see 
that their efforts had not been wasted. They had 
this evening before them the gentlemen who had 
carried away the prizes ; but, as Professor Redwood 
had said, there were others who might have com¬ 
peted if they had thought proper; and whether they 
gained prizes or not, they all gained benefit. Those 
whose names had not been mentioned to-night he 
hoped would be heard of by-and-by in after life, and 
he hoped all would remember that the most im¬ 
portant part of their labour was about to commence. 
They had shown that the stuff was in them, and he 
hoped they would go on thoroughly and earnestly 
in the work they had undertaken, and do all in 
their power to advance the body to which they all 
belonged. In using the word “ all,” he could not 
forget that many who had taken prizes there had 
gone away to higher pursuits; but he believed 
that the field of pharmacy now offered a better 
position to young men than it ever had done for¬ 
merly, and that there was abundant room for them 
to exert the talents which they had shown them¬ 
selves to possess. He hoped, therefore, they would 
only take leave of the school in order to become 
connected with the Society as full members or 
associates, and he earnestly trusted that the same 
success which had attended them hitherto would fol¬ 
low them through the whole of their future career. 
Mr. Schacht then delivered the following ad¬ 
dress :— 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
Before commencing my immediate subject, I wish to 
say one word about myself. I must ask you to accept 
my assurance that I am in no way responsible for 
the fact that this person occupies this position at this 
moment. It is the result of the spontaneous act of 
the Council. The arrival of the Secretary’s note that 
contained the resolution nominating me to this duty 
literally and truly filled me with surprise ; and I felt 
as some private soldier might be expected to feel, 
should his commanding officer summon him from the 
ranks to manoeuvre the regiment.at full parade. One 
moment of utter surprise, and consequent hesitation, 
in both his case and my own, might, I trust, be 
deemed excusable—no more than this, however, 
would duty permit; the next must see us delivering 
our salute, and proceeding to obey our orders with 
what skill we may, our respective commanders being 
mainly responsible for the results. 
The two gentlemen who have immediately pre¬ 
ceded me in this duty approached their task with 
imusual claims to respect and attention. The one 
was strong alike in evidences, spread over many 
years, of wise and generous interest in the progress 
of liis calling, and in the consistent manifestation of 
those qualities of mind, life and character, that have 
stamped him, even in these somewhat fortunate 
times, the model pharmacist. The other was an ap¬ 
proved man of science, and a justly recognized leader 
of even the advance-guard of pharmacy. 
Such credentials went far, not only to inspire their 
owner’s words with special and peculiar force, but to 
justify then’ adopting, most becomingly and fitly, the 
tone of the teacher. 
From no such point of vantage can the present 
address be uttered. It must come to those for whom 
it is intended from, as it were, their very midst. I 
must speak to them as one of themselves or not 
speak at all; for I am no teacher, the utmost that 
conscience will suffer me to hope is that through all 
my days I may continue to be an earnest and re¬ 
verential student of scientific truth. But those 
that called me hither knew this, no doubt, per¬ 
fectly well, and deemed it perhaps not altogether 
a matter of regret. They may have estimated this 
ceremony (as I may presently desire to repeat) as an 
occasion when for grave public reasons its prominent 
actors would be most fitly selected from amongst the 
obscure; or, it is possible, they may have deliberately 
chosen as their spokesman to a body of students one 
whose name was in some measure associated with a 
plea for the student class, and an effort, slight in¬ 
deed, but still an effort, to supply the student’s 
wants. 
Let me, however, at once disown any sj)ecial claim 
for consideration upon this latter score, for, in the 
first place, it would be by no means my exclusive 
right, many others having laboured in the same di¬ 
rection fully as earnestly as myself, though, perhaps, 
somewhat more silently; and, in the next place, my 
plea was not for students within these walls. Year 
after year as they have assembled to the launch of 
successive sessions of this school, I have envied them 
far too much to discover aught to plead for in their 
behalf. It has been for those outside these walls and 
outside this city that my plea has been raised. 
Twenty times the number that can gather here are 
compelled to stay without; for every single student 
that has the good fortune to revel amidst the riches 
of this school, at least twenty of the student class 
are debarred from ever setting foot within it. Of 
these some, it must be confessed, are kept away by 
not hin g but their own indifference and carelessness. 
These are the drones of pharmacy, and a sad diffi¬ 
culty they have ever been, encumbering and marring 
every effort for professional advance, and discourag¬ 
ing all but the most earnest of the advocates of pro¬ 
gress. But let it not be for one moment supposed 
that all who are not here are drones and idlers—that 
only one in twenty of our great student class have 
any care for science or for intellectual culture. 
Many long with all their souls for the advantages to 
be gathered here, and gratefully welcome every op¬ 
portunity for improvement that is offered, even 
though it fall short of their ideal. And fall short, 
alas ! it always does; for local effort, however ear¬ 
nest, and however fortunate, finds itself dwarfed and 
disparaged when compared with an imperial orga¬ 
nization such as this ; and it is not wonderful that 
observers who have some knowledge of both should 
be driven to reflect upon the differences that exist 
between them, and should endeavour to weigh their 
value and their effect upon the broad interests of 
pharmacy. 
This important subject, I rejoice to know, at length 
occupies the serious consideration of our executive, 
and will, I freely hope, ere long receive a wise solu- 
