14 
PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES  OF  TRAVEL. 
Clarkson,  Wilberforce,  Fox,  and  others,  in  those  philanthropic 
labors  which  ended  in  the  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade — 
with  Joseph  Lancaster,  that  pioneer  in  popular  education,  in 
those  enlarged  schemes  for  teaching  the  masses,  to  the  success 
of  which  society  in  both  hemispheres  already  owes  so  much  of 
progress— with  Dr.  Jenner,  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  and  others,  in 
realizing  the  beneficent  results  of  the  discovery  of  the  antidote 
to  small  pox — and  with  Elizabeth  Fry,  and  many  other  ministers 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  in  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
suffering  and  oppressed,  and  carrying  the  consolations  of  religion 
to  the  abodes  of  wretchedness  and  vice. 
Plough  Court  was  the  scene  of  William  Allen's  first  efforts  as 
a  lecturer.  The  Askesian  Society,  which  met  here,  was  in- 
tended chiefly  for  the  improvement  of  its  members  in  philoso- 
phical studies,  and  he  soon  became  a  periodical  lecturer  before 
it,  chemistry  being  his  theme  ;  this  was  followed  by  an  appoint- 
ment at  Guy's  Hospital,  and  afterwards  at  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion, in  both  of  which  situations  he  was  eminently  successful  as 
a  public  teacher.  To  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  origin  of 
the  London  Pharmaceutical  Society,  of  which  William  Allen  was 
the  first  President,  or  who  have  read  the  records  of  his  eventful 
life,  no  apology  will  be  necessary  for  so  full  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  scene  of  his  labors,  even  though  it  has  occupied 
the  space  which  might  otherwise  have  been  devoted  to  some  of 
the  other  London  pharmaceutical  establishments. 
Those  of  Jacob  Bell,  and  Peter  Squire,  both  in  Oxford  street, 
with  others  in  different  parts  of  London,  have  a  reputation  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic  which  might  call  for  a  similar  description 
of  their  arrangements,  but  in  neither  case  were  my  opportuni- 
ties so  ample,  and  the  already  unusual  length  of  this  paper  ad- 
monishes me  to  cut  short  this  part  of  my  subject. 
The  establishment  of  Squire  is  well  known  in  America,  as 
producing  a  superior  article  of  extract  of  Cannabis  Indica,  a 
preparation  which  has,  within  a  few  years,  attained  a  great  repu- 
tation as  an  exhilerant  narcotic,  not  liable  to  the  ordinary  ob- 
jections against  this  class  of  remedies.  I  was  informed  in  Lon- 
don, upon  the  best  authority,  that  this  manufacture  was  deservedly 
pre-eminent  on  account  of  the  facilities  of  the  house  for  procur- 
ing from  the  East  Indies  regular  supplies  of  fresh  and  reliable 
