INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
271 
with the less reluctance, and pledge myself to bring to its 
support an industrious, enthusiastic attachment for the science. 
The sciences of Chemistry and Pharmacy, have universally 
been held of primary importance in the education of an ac- 
complished physician, but they have unfortunately been re- 
garded by society at large as limited in their operation, to the 
w^ants of that profession. Ignorant of the benefits which have 
daily accrued to their comfort and health, from the skilful ad- 
ministration and exercise of these sciences, mankind have 
suffered their knowledge of them to sleep in obscurity, in a 
period of unusual thirst after knowledge, and been satisfied to 
learn that these subjects received a degree of attention from 
those who cultivated the healing art. We think, however, 
it may be shown that every member of the community has 
more or less interest in these too commonly estimated abstruse 
studies; and, remote as they seem to be from domestic happi- 
ness, that they are nearly allied to it. 
The material which gives its hue to the fabric that deeorates 
the fairest of creation's works; the application of fuel, and the 
mode of applying it for household purposes; the investigation 
and improvement of the manufacture of bread and soap, all owe 
their existence to the display of affinities ascertained by che- 
mical philosophers, and must derive their improvement and 
consequent perfection from a regard to the principles ascertain- 
ed and promulgated by them. When Sir Humphrey Davy 
found thousands of his fellow creatures perishing from the ex- 
plosion of fire-damp, in the deep, dark recesses of the mine, and 
contrived the ingenious apparatus which would, for ever after, 
shield them from its pernicious and devastating effects, no 
chance came to his aid to direct him in its construction. Cer- 
tain well established and demonstrable principles were en- 
dowed by him with a local habitation in the safety-lamp, and 
his name became identified with the instrument destined to 
prove a powerful philanthropic agent in arresting misery and 
averting death, from the head of many a helpless fellow crea- 
ture. No less distinguished for the adaptation of chemical 
principles to the wants and comforts of mankind, was the in- 
