266  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  and  Associations,  {^^'lm1111. 
But  this  grand  old  College,  which  has  nurtured  and  adopted  you,  is  true  as 
steel,  for  whilst  she  can  share  in  your  enthusiasm  with  a  full  heart  and  bid  }rou 
rejoice  and  be  merry,  for  now  is  the  hour  of  your  triumph,  she  can  also  say  to 
you  "  Festina  lente."  Her  wisdom  goes  hand  in  hand  with  her  love,  and  not 
one  of  the  ten  thousand  students  who  thronged  her  halls  during  the  last 
seventy  years  can  be  found  who  will  fail  to  accord  to  her  the  palm  that  she 
deserves  for  honest  faithful  service  in  training  her  sons  and  her  daughters. 
Your  commencement  in  pharmacy  occurs  at  an  auspicious  time.  You  enter 
the  business  (for  it  is  a  business  as  well  as  a  profession)  at  a  time  of  depression  ; 
when  sharp  competition  has  forced  many  who  are  incapable  or  ignorant  out  of 
its  ranks  ;  you  hear  on  all  sides  the  most  gloomy  predictions  regarding  future 
prospects,  and  notwithstanding  the  unusual  and  unconventional  nature  of  the 
statement,  I  utter  it  fearlessly,  that  these  circumstances  make  the  time  auspi- 
cious for  one  beginning  pharmaceutical  life. 
You  will  receive  your  training  in  financial  management  during  a  period  of 
forced  economy  ;  safe,  conservative  business  maxims,  which  the  prudent  and 
experienced  never  neglect  even  in  times  of  inflation,  will  appear  to  you  now 
as  worthy  of  being  carefully  followed  ;  if  they  are  duly  heeded  by  you  now,  at 
the  outset  of  your  career  their  value  will  soon  become  apparent,  and  you  will 
insensibly  be  drawn  into  moderate  and  correct  habits  of  life  and  thought  and 
you  will  be  able  then  to  better  withstand  the  "shock  of  prosperity,"  which 
will  surely  come  to  you  sooner  or  later  if  you  begin  in  this  way  ;  let  your  minds 
rest  for  a  moment  in  contemplating  the  career  of  those  of  your  friends  who 
have  gone  before.  Cannot  most  of  the  failures  be  traced  to  inability  to  with- 
stand the  temptations  of  a  little  prosperity  ;  for  with  it,  how  often  comes 
exalted  ideas  for  the  future,  extravagant  expenditures  and  wild  dreams  ending 
in  disaster.  Caution,  conservatism  and  industry  are  absolutely  necessary  in 
these  perilous  times,  and  as  they  are  attributes,  which  the  successful  pharma- 
cist must  always  possess,  either  in  adversity  or  prosperity,  it  follows  as  surely 
as  "light  does  the  day"  that  you  have  nothing  to  lose  by  adopting  these, 
but  everything  to  gain. 
What  is  to  be  your  future  in  Pharmacy  ?  In  these  days  of  specialties  it 
is  common  to  strictly  limit  the  usefulness  of  active  agencies  to  their  own 
sphere,  with  the  object  of  concentrating  labor  and  developing  the  greatest 
excellence  ;  the  apostles  of  this  creed  would  probably  argue  that  the  objects 
of  the  existence  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  were  thoroughly 
realized  when  your  hands  had  been  trained  to  spread  plasters,  roll  pills  or 
make  an  assay,  cfr  when  the  gray  matte:  of  your  brains  had  absorbed  suffi- 
cient pharmacy  to  decipher  correctly  a  badly-written  prescription  or  write  a 
learned  essay  on  the  correct  method  of  differentiating  medullary  rays  from 
fibro-vascular  bundles ;  but  I  can  assure  you,  graduates,  that  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  superstructure  of  this  College  is  reared,  are  broader  and  deeper  than 
this  ;  her  aims  are  to  elevate  Pharmacy  and  to  inculcate  correct  views  of  pro- 
fessional duty. 
The  "Philadelphia  College  of  Apothecaries,"  which,  upon  being  chartered 
in  1822,  became  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  declared  the  object  of 
its  existence  to  be  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating,  improving  and  making  known 
a  knowledge  of  Pharmacy,  its  collateral  branches  of  science  and  the  best 
