THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OP 
PHARMACY. 
JANUARY, 183 8. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. XLVII.— INTRODUCTORY LECTURE DELIVERED IN 
THE CHEMICAL HALL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARY- 
LAND, October 31st, 1837. By William R. Fisher, M, D., Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry and Pharmacy. Graduate and Associate Member 
of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 
f Communicated for the .American Journ al of Pharmacy. J 
Gentlemen: — 
Called, unexpectedly, by the appointing power to which 
the interests of this institution are confided, to discharge the 
duties of the chair of Chemistry and Pharmacy; and intro- 
duced suddenly from the walks of private life to a station in 
which the incumbent is required to announce phenomena and 
facts which have engaged the attention and occupied the 
labors, of a Thenard, a Berzelius, and a Davy; and to 
expound the principles, which the sagacious minds of these 
distinguished masters of the science have drawn from the 
classification and arrangement of these facts, it may be 
naturally imagined that I approach this chair with mingled 
feelings of awe and diffidence — of awe inspired by the sublimity 
and perfection of nature's works, as exhibited by their demon- 
strations; and of diffidence of my own ability to follow where 
they have led. The path which they have pointed out for 
VOL. III. — NO. IV. 34 
