90 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
to the changes which the practice of Pharmacy has undergone, 
in consequence of that cultivation, and to point out to you, 
what appear to me to be the changes through which it must 
still pass. 
During a long period of ignorance, our science was the 
favourite pursuit of the credulous and superstitious; and its 
history — of no value for any other purpose — will ever con- 
stitute the most remarkable record extant of the absurdity and 
folly of learned ignorance. 
It was only at the beginning of the last century, that Phar- 
macy began to be cultivated on enlightened principles. The 
researches of Neumann and Lewis, although limited to the 
trial of the solubility in alcohol and water, of the Materia 
Medica, furnished the apothecary with a guide, by no means 
despicable, in the practice of his profession, and continued to 
be the chief authority in the laboratory, until superseded by 
the elaborate investigations of our own times. 
From the time of these researches, we may perceive the 
prevalence of more correct views of the nature and objects of 
Pharmacy. The Dispensatories from this date began to be 
weeded of useless incumbrances. The old formulae were 
displaced to make room for others contrived on just princi- 
ples, and not with the vain expectation of multiplying the 
efficacy along with the ingredients of a compound. 
In the next stage of pharmaceutic improvement, we find 
the attention of apothecaries directed to the proximate ele- 
ments, gum, resin, and extractive; and to the distinctive 
properties of the various species and modifications and com- 
binations of these principles. 
With the progress of general Chemistry, additions were, 
from time to time, made to the list of proximate principles, 
and the eager and untiring spirit of research, which explored 
every kingdom of nature, and which, not satisfied with the 
innumerable variety of substances scattered around us, sought 
to invent new, and more useful combinations, did not fail to 
bring rich contributions to that science, which has been justly 
called the cradle of Chemistry. 
