Am.  Jour.  Pharm.\ 
June,  1900.  j 
William.  Procter,  Jr. 
257 
was  his  especial  delight  and  study  at  this  early  age.  While  other 
boys  would  spend  their  weekly  holidays  in  play,  he  would  start 
early,  with  a  lunch  in  his  pocket  and  a  steel  hammer  in  his  hand, 
and  spend  the  whole  day  with  a  companion  in  the  '  quarries  '  north 
of  the  city,  or  in  the  '  deep  cuts  '  of  the  iron  district,  or  at  the 
1  Bare  Hills.'  The  boys  at  school  were  always  interested  in  his 
specimens,  and  many  a  young  mineralogist  received  his  taste  and 
first  lessons  from  this  young  teacher.  My  mind  is  full  of  pleasant 
and  affectionate  memories  of  him,  for  he  was  one  of  the  brightest, 
purest  and  best  boys  I  ever  knew." 
In  1 831,  while  on  a  visit  to  his  friend,  Joseph  C.  Turnpenny,  in 
Philadelphia,  he  became  interested  in  the  drug  business  and  appren- 
ticed himself  to  Henry  M.  Zollickoffer,  at  the  corner  of  Sixth  and 
Pine  Streets,  where  his  friend,  Joseph  C.  Turnpenny,  was  employed. 
The  two  friends  were  soon  fairly  launched  upon  their  life-work,  and 
it  must  be  remembered  that  apprenticeship  in  those  days  was  a  very 
different  thing  from  the  clerk  hiring  of  to-day.  William  Procter,  as 
an  apprentice,  was  faithful,  earnest  and  true,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
that  his  mother's  wise  counsel  and  tender  sympathies  were  largely 
instrumental  in  laying  those  most  important  foundation  stones  upon 
which  his  noble  character  was  built.  He  endeared  himself  to  his 
employer  by  his  carefulness,  brightness  and  the  alacrity  with  which 
he  performed  all  his  duties.  At  the  age  of  19  he  lost  his  mother, 
which  was  a  sad  blow  to  him.  He  records  in  his  diary  the  follow- 
ing :  "  I  have  indeed  lost  another  and  only  parent,  who  has  watched 
over  me  with  truly  parental  care  and  tenderness.  All  my  hopes  of 
repaying  her  unceasing  kindness  are  now  at  an  end,  and  all  my 
dreams  of  pleasure  about  the  days  when  I  should  become  a  corner- 
stone to  her  have  vanished  forever." 
He  entered  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  and  his  studies 
were  ever  marked  by  an  intense  earnestness  and  a  determination  to 
make  himself  proficient.  He  graduated  in  March,  1837,  his  thesis 
being  upon  "  Lobelia  Inflata."  He  demonstrated  the  presence  of 
the  liquid  alkaloid  "  lobeline,"  and  his  research  attracted  at  once 
much  comment.  In  May,  1840,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
College,  and  from  that  time  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy 
contained  many  contributions  from  his  pen.  During  his  apprentice- 
ship with  Mr.  Zollickoffer  he  found  leisure  to  study  carefully  a 
number  of  chemical  works,  and  he  attended  special  lectures  given 
by  Drs.  Hare,  Mitchell  and  Bache  in  the  winter  of  1840.    In  1841 
