6G0 
INTRODUCTORY LKCTURE. 
be connected with deficiency of potash in the system; and 
on farther rcfiecting that the most approved anti-scorbutic 
remedies and aliments contain much potash, he was led to try 
tinit substance as an antidote, and, so far as experience goes, 
has found it a promising one.—This view of the important 
connection existing between chemistry and, perhaps the most 
important of all your studies, name!}", physiolog 3 ", has not 
been depicted, recollect, gentlemen, by a chemist, but by one 
who is a medical man and a physiologistof the highest standing. 
Pathology and therapeutics, especially the former, have 
been much advanced by the borrowed light of chemical 
science ; and the majority of ph^’sicians are now so fully 
cognisant of this fact, that they daily and hourly employ 
the test-tube as an aid to diagnosis, and to assist them in 
devising a rational mode of treating the diseases of the 
patients committed to their care. 
Again, no one can properly prepare or prescribe a very 
great number of medicines, unless they are well acquainted 
with practical and theoretical chemistiy. 
Finally, without chemistry, toxicology would have but 
little importance attached to it as a branch of professional 
medical education; for when an animal is killed by poison, it 
is chemistry only that, in the majorit}" of cases, can discover 
the agent which has been the cause of death. Toxicological 
chemistry is \Yell deserving greater attention at your hands 
than many of jmur predecessors have devoted to it, for, in 
addition to the benefit derived from the practical apjilieation 
of our present knowledge in this direction, there is still much 
room for original investigation, especially among the poisons 
of vegetable origin. 
I have devoted a much greater length of time than I 
originally intended to the advocacy of the claims which the 
theory and practice of chemistry have upon your attention, 
but I was induced so to do from the belief that their worth 
has not yet been so fully recognised by the followers of your 
art as they should be, and as they are by the followers of 
human medicine, and from the wish to awaken in you a 
desire to gain a sound knowledge of subjects having such 
important bearings upon every department of your profes¬ 
sional studies as experience will sho\v you they have. 
Before concluding, I would beg to direct }mur attention 
to the alterations and improvements which are now being 
carried out within the walls of this College. The governors 
of the College, ever desirous of extending the usefulness of 
the institution, of augmenting the advantages which it ofters, 
and of doing everything in their power to enable it not only 
