THE  AMERICAN  . 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
OCTOBER,  1894. 
A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  GERARD  TROOST. 
By  Joseph  W.  England. 
Historian  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy. 
An  interesting  historical  sketch  of  Gerard  Troost,  first  professor 
of  chemistry  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  and  first 
president  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  of  this  city,  has  ap- 
peared in  the  June  issue  of  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  (p.  258). 
Along  with  the  sketch  there  is  given  a  frontispiece  of  Dr.  Troost, 
which  represents  him  at  a  much  later  period  in  life  than  the  ac- 
companying portrait  to  this  article,  which  has  been  taken  from 
the  oil  painting  in  the  Museum  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy.  The  life  of  Gerard  Troost  was  an  eventful  one.  Born 
at  Bois-le-duc,  Holland,  on  March  5,  1776,  he  died  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  August  14,  1850.  In  early  life,  he  attended  the  Universities 
of  Leyden  and  Amsterdam,  receiving  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
medicine  from  the  former,  and  master  in  pharmacy  from  the  latter, 
in  1 801.  He  practised  for  a  while  in  Amsterdam  and  The  Hague, 
served  in  the  army,  first  as  a  soldier  and  then  as  an  officer  in  the 
medical  department,  went  to  Paris  in  1807  under  the  patronage 
of  Louis  Napoleon,  King  of  Holland,  and  became  the  pupil  and 
associate  of  the  Abbe  Rene  Just  Haiiy,  author  of  the  famous  system 
of  crystallography.  He  then  travelled  in  France,  Italy,  Germany 
and  Switzerland,  and  collected  a  valuable  cabinet  of  minerals,  which 
was  purchased  by  the  King  of  Holland.  In  1809,  this  king  appointed 
Troost  to  accompany,  in  a  scientific  capacity,  a  naval  expedition  to 
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