282 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
decorations.'^ To enumerate the names of Vauquelin, 
Pelletier, Robiquet, Henri, Planche, and Virey, is 
to justiy, to its fullest extent, this warm eulogium on the cha- 
racters of those who have cultivated pharmacy in France. 
Alas for our native land, she has no list of worthies to com- 
pare with those enumerated; nor, indeed, with hundreds of 
others less distinguished in the annals of fame, " The parti- 
cular protection of government and general respect," have, on 
her soil, offered no incentives to men of genius and education 
to engage their services in the profession, which abroad has 
won titles, honours and decorations," and provided chairs 
of distinction for its disciples. 
The only improvements which have arisen in this coun- 
try, have been the result of voluntary, spontaneous efforts 
on the part of the pharmaceutists themselves. Ashamed 
of the condition in which their profession existed, and 
stimulated to the exertion of rendering themselves and 
pupils better qualified to minister to the wants of society, 
means have been adopted which, though slow and gra- 
dual in their inception, have taken deep root in the soil, 
and must, at no very remote period, yield a harvest that will 
amaze by its productiveness, and will nourish by its excel- 
lence, those districts in which its growth and maturity have 
been attained unnoticed. A sentiment of honest pride arouses 
itself within me, while thus acknowledging the warmth of my 
attachment for the science of pharmacy; and I reflect with 
lively satisfaction upon the honors now, for the first time, be- 
stowed on a graduate of an American College of Pharmacy, 
in the person of the present incumbent of this Chair. It be- 
speaks an era about to commence, in w^hich pharmacy will 
receive her due share of protection, and the general respect of 
the community; when her votaries will no longer be regarded 
as mere venders of medicines, and when she will receive her 
proper location among the liberal professions. 
Having indulged in these encomiums on pharmacy, and 
introduced the evidence of the French Society to assert the 
claim of that science to notice and cultivation, I feel bound to 
