260 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. — NOTTINGHAM. 
and unmistakable English, and if he could use all the forces in nature for the cure or 
relief of his patient, and if he could, from his knowledge of chemistry and physics, and 
their application to disease and medicine, become the best authority within reach on 
every question connected with the health and welfare of his neighbours; and if he pos¬ 
sessed the power of supervising and directing the druggist in all the analyses and in-’ 
vestigations which could be required as to nature and actions of food and medicines and 
as to the products of disease, surely the position, and power, and agreement of medical 
men would be very different from that which they now obtain by learning some Latin 
and less Greek. At present, so far from physicians possessing more knowledge of food 
and of medicine than any other class of persons in the community, the analytical and 
pharmaceutical chemists are rapidly increasing in knowledge, which will enable them 
not only to understand fully the nature and uses of food and medicines, but even to 
detect the first appearances of a multitude of chemical diseases. Their habits of investi¬ 
gation and their knowledge of the nature of the forces acting in the body will gradually 
lead them to become advisers in all questions regarding the health of the community, 
and from this they will, like M. Bouchardat, in Paris, become almost, if not altogether, 
practitioners of medicine. In confirmation of my opinion of the direction in which the 
treatment of disease is progressing, T may just refer to the cattle-plague, which in 1745 
was treated by Dr. Mortimer, at that time Secretary of the Eoyal Society, and therefore 
one of the most scientific physicians in the country, with antimony and bleeding. In 
1866, two chemists. Dr. Angus Smith and Mr. Crookes, gave the only useful suggestion 
for combating the disease, namely, by the arrest or destruction of the poison by chemical 
agents. There is yet another point of view in which chemists will see the harm that 
results from our present medical education. The use of Latin in our prescriptions requires 
that the pharmaceutists should learn at least sufficient Latin to read what we have 
written. Many errors have arisen, and will arise, from the dispenser being unable to 
give the directions rightly. To avoid such mistakes, a portion of the time that ought to 
be given to the attainment of the highest possible amount of chemical acquirement, and 
a perfect knowledge of the English language, or some foreign language wherein he might 
learn the discoveries in chemistry and the improvements in pharmacy of other countries, 
must be devoted to the learning of Latin, in which the physician writes his directions. 
All our druggists in England ought to. be what they are in Germany and in France, 
chemists capable of any analysis that might be required of them, and able to satisfy 
themselves and the medical men that the substances they sell are what they profess to 
be—pure, unadulterated chemical compounds. No one of my hearers in this Section 
will consider five years a long time for the acquirement of such knowledge; and until the 
pharmaceutists all obtain this education, medicine will be subject to a great cause of un¬ 
certainty in the variations in the quality and quantity of the different substances which, 
under the same name, are obtained from different druggists. Before I conclude, I must 
apologize to some in this Section who may think that this subject is of no interest to 
them, by reminding them that none but chemists can judge what the worth of chemical 
education really is; and I am sure that no body of scientific men exists wffio are so fitted 
to judge of the necessity of an education in natural knowledge for those who employ 
the forces around us to regulate the forces within us, as the Chemical Section of the 
British Association. Last year Professor Miller said, ‘It behoves all who are themselves 
engaged in the pursuit of science to consider in what way they can themselves aid in for¬ 
warding the cultivation of natural knowledge.’ I ask you, for the good of science, and 
for your own good, to exert your influence in the first place, and more especially to effect 
a change in the preliminary education of all those who intend to practise medicine; so 
tnat leaving Greek and Latin to be the ornaments and exceptions in their education, 
they may have time to obtain the best possible knowledge of the chemical and physical 
forces with which they have to deal. I urge this because of my conviction that when¬ 
ever the most perfect knowledge of chemistry and physics becomes the basis of rational 
medicine, then, and not till then, medicine will obtain the highest place among all the 
aits that minister to the welfare and happiness of man.” 
