Am  May,ri884.arm"}  Lifi  °f  Robert  Bridges,  M.  D.  245 
tion  of  1870,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Publication  of 
the  fifth  decennial  revision.  In  July,  1877,  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians appointed  him  one  of  a  committee  to  revise  the  Pharmacopoeia  of 
1870,  and  prepare  a  report  on  it  for  the  National  Convention  of  1880. 
About  the  time  when  the  first  National  Convention  met,  the  drug 
and  apothecary  business  was  regarded  as  a  trade  rather  than  as  a  pro- 
fession based  on  scientific  principles,  as  it  is  now.  It  was  known  that 
deteriorated  drugs  were  sold,  and  that  valuable  preparations  in  daily 
use  were  adulterated  or  made  of  materials  of  inferior  quality.  Such 
abuses  were  charitably  ascribed  to  ignorance  of  pharmacy  which  was 
supposed  to  prevail  among  druggists  and  apothecaries  generally. 
To  remedy  this  lamentable  condition  of  the  apothecary's  vocation, 
some  three  score  of  intelligent,  philanthropic  men,  including  a  large 
proportion  of  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  associated  in  this 
city  and  founded,  February  23,  1821,  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  a  society  which  was  incorporated,  March  30,  1822,  with 
all  legal  authority  necessary  to  establish  and  support  a  school  of  phar- 
macy. The  University  of  Pennsylvania  had  then  recently  provided  for 
teaching  pharmacy  in  connection  with  materia  medica,  and  conferring 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Pharmacy,  which  was  conferred  the  first  time 
in  the  spring  of  1821  on  sixteen  graduates.  This  action  of  the  Uni- 
versity, it  was  said,  greatly  influenced,  if  it  did  not  determine,  the 
formation  of  the  society  known  as  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Phar- 
macy. 
It  consists  of  active  or  resident,  honorary  and  corresponding  mem- 
bers. The  conduct  of  its  ordinary  affairs  is  confided  to  eighteen  trus- 
tees, one-sixth  of  whom  are  elected  semi-annually  by  the  college.  The 
stated  meetings  of  the  board  of  trustees  are  monthly,  and  of  the  col- 
lege, quarterly. 
The  first  courses  of  lectures,  which  were  limited  to  materia  medica 
and  chemistry,  were  given  in  the  winter  of  1821-22,  but  the  degree  of 
"  graduate  of  pharmacy  "  was  not  conferred  till  the  spring  of  1 826? 
when  there  were  three  graduates.  The  lectures  were  delivered  in  a 
building  on  the  west  side  of  Seventh,  between  Market  and  Chestnut 
streets,  the  site  of  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  Gas  Office  of  the 
city. 
In  1832  the  society  erected  for  its  use  a  building  on  the  south  side 
of  Zane,  now  Filbert  street,  west  of  Seventh,  and  occupied  it  until  the 
