INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 283 
show that my encomiums have not been misplaced, nor that 
the respectable representatives of the Paris Society have over 
estimated their ov^n importance or utility. To prepare and 
dispense with propriety and ability, the medicines required 
for the renovation of health; to study their chemical and physi- 
cal properties, so that the good may be distinguished from the 
bad, and the perfect from the imperfect; to devote a life to the 
study which is requisite to keep pace with the rapid advance 
of knowledge of this age; and to discharge, honestly and faith- 
fully, their duties to their compeers and the medical profession, 
should, in my opinion, qualify those who do discharge these 
several duties, and do possess these requirements, to as high a 
regard in the estimation of the public, as any other class of 
society is entitled to. And here I might rest their claims; 
but I found their demands to respect and protection on specific 
benefits which have been conferred by the science, which, 
when enumerated, will, I think, justify what has been said. 
The advantages to be derived by society from the uniform 
and defined preparation of medicines, furnished to the sick in 
precisely such form and activity as is prescribed by the physi- 
cian, (not the least conspicuous among the benefits derived 
from pharmacy,) are sufficiently obvious to impress upon the 
mind some share of her claims. But independent of that, 
which is doing no more than pharmacy acknowledges as a 
duty, for the discharge of which she asks no favours, I will 
point with satisfaction to the discovery and application of the 
chlorides of lime and soda as disinfecting agents, which con- 
stant domestic use has now familarized to every household; and 
which have become as necessary aids in promoting cleanli- 
ness and comfort, as the use of any of the agents habitually 
applied to that purpose. In their uses as medicines, the practi- 
tioner of medicine will admit the many important benefits de- 
rived from them; and the helpless sufferers who have been re- 
lieved from the pains and disgusting attendants upon a class of 
diseases by no means unfrequent, or uncommon — a class for 
whose relief, these remedies appear to have been almost espe- 
cially provided — bear me witness to their efficacy and utility. 
