AjauJu°aTy  iSio™'}       The  American  Materia  Medica.  5 
efforts  of  such  men  as  Wood,  Bache,  Procter,  Maisch,  Trimble,  Par- 
rish,  and  others  whose  faces,  no  longer  with  us,  are  to  me  as  familiar 
as  are  those  of  the  friends  nowT  about  me.  Nor  yet  can  I  neglect 
those  concerned  in  establishing  the  great  chemical  industries  of  this 
city,  Rosengarten,  Powers,  Weightman,  Ellis,  Bullock,  Crenshaw, 
Carter,  Scattergood,  Bowers,  and  others.  These,  and  such  as  these, 
have  been  mighty  factors  in  our  work,  their  names  are  inseparable 
from  those  of  whom  I  have  been  speaking  and  are  inseparably  con- 
nected with  American  progress. 
But,  my  friends,  these  reflections  or  reminiscences,  bred  by  the 
subject  awarded  me,  must  be  broken.  Let  me,  however,  hope  that 
what  I  have  said  may  lead  my  hearers  to  realize  that  in  addressing 
this  audience  in  this  building  I  not  only  fully  appreciate  the  honor 
conferred  upon  me  but  comprehend  that  in  the  face  of  these  records 
of  the  past,  in  which  so  many  men  unnamed  were  also  concerned,  I 
have  good  reason  to  be  apprehensive  as  to  whether  I  can  do  justice 
to  that  past,  and  yet  credit  myself  in  aiming  to  serve  my  friends 
as  I  would  like  to  do. 
Early  Conditions  in  Medicine. — Let  us  now  revert  to  condi- 
tions pertaining  to  the  day  of  those  involved  in  the  introduction 
of  the  early  vegetable  American  materia  medica.  In  those  days, 
primitive  men  (and  this  term  need  not  be  restricted  to  the  abo- 
rigines) were  much  closer  to  nature  than  is  humanity  at  present. 
In  addition  to  nature's  contact,  religious  thought,  or  perhaps  we  may 
better  say  theological  teachings,  were  more  nearly  hand  in  hand 
with  man's  opinions  of  life's  objects  than  they  are  at  present.  Less 
disposed  than  now  were  men  to  question  (aloud)  the  axiom  (dogma) 
that  the  universe  and  all  contained  therein  was  formed  for  the  sole 
purpose  either  of  serving  or  of  pestering  mankind.  Diseases  were 
likewise  more  apt  to  be  likened  to  organic  entities,  partaking  much 
of  the  qualities  of  the  self-conscious  devils  of  old  that,  under  the 
auspices  of  an  allwise  Creator,  delighted  in  torturing  mankind. 
Seemingly,  but  yet  as  a  rule  without  denning  or  perhaps  compre- 
hending the  subject  in  these  words,  disease  was  not  considered  as 
simply  a  departure  from  the  normal,  but  as  an  invading  entity  that 
must  be  driven  out  by  an  antagonist  more  powerful  but  yet  some- 
what more  friendly  to  the  suffering  person.  Nor  is  this  opinion 
of  diseases  altogether  a  thing  of  the  past,  nor  are  the  aforenamed 
conceptions  of  primitive  men  wanting  in  some  men  of  our  day  as 
regards  precepts  and  concepts.    The  medicine-man  of  the  Indians 
