226 
Minutes  of  the  College. 
J  Am.  Jouh.  Pharm. 
1     May  1, 1873. 
In  1843  he  purchased  the  drug  store  at  the  north-west  corner  of  Ninth  and 
Chestnut  streets,  previously  conducted  by  George  W.  Ridgway,  and  which, 
was  contiguous  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Here  he  continued  to 
practice  his  business  until  1850.  During  this  period  he  contributed  several 
papers  to  the  "Journal,"  and  in  1848,  in  connection  with  his  assistant,  W.  W. 
D.  Livermore,  a  paper  on  Collodion,  which  was  the  first  notice  of  that  prepa- 
ration occurring  in  our  Journal,  the  discoverers  at  Boston  not  having  published 
their  process.  During  the  same  period  two  events,  important  in  their  influence 
on  his  life,  transpired — one,  his  marriage  with  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Uriah 
Hunt,  of  Philadelphia,  who  continued  his  closest  friend  and  companion  until 
her  death,  a  few  months  before  his  own  ;  the  other,  the  inception,  if  not  the 
establishment  of  his  "  School  of  Practical  Pharmacy." 
His  proximity  to  the  University  brought  him  in  constant  contact  with  medi- 
cal students  and  their  wants,  and  was  the  origin  of  that  favorite  branch  of  his 
business  which  consisted  in  supplying  the  outfits  of  country  practitioners. 
Undoubtedly  this  intercourse  with  students,  exhibiting  to  him  as  it  did  the 
serious  disadvantages  experienced  by  young  physicians  in  entering  on  their 
practice,  in  rural  districts  and  even  in  cities,  without  a  more  practical  acquaint- 
ance with  pharmacy,  gave  him  the  initial  idea  of  his  "  Practical  School,"  where 
young  men  could  be  taught  to  prepare  the  medicines  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  by 
actual  manipulation,  accompanied  by  lectures  on  pharmacy  and  examinations 
by  questions. 
Accordingly,  in  the  Autumn  of  1849  he  issued  a  prospectus  addressed  to- 
medical  students,  was  encouraged  to  proceed  by  the  Professors  of  the  Univer- 
sity, and  gave  his  first  course  of  instruction  to  14  students  in  the  rear  of  the 
building  at  Ninth  and  Chestnut. 
Soon  after  this  time  he  removed  from  this  locality  and  entered  into  business 
with  his  brother  Dillwyn,  at  Eighth  and  Arch  streets,  where  his  "Practical 
School"  was  better  accommodated  and  gradually  increased  in  importance,  being 
addressed  to  pharmaceutists  as  well  as  to  medical  students.  In  furtherance  of 
his  school  he  determined  about  this  time  to  take  a  course  of  practical  instruc- 
tion in  analysis  in  the  laboratory  of  Prof.  Booth,  and  afterwards  a  medical, 
coursein  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Feeling  the  need  of  a  text-book  for  his  class,  the  wants  of  which  were  not 
met  by  the  treatises  in  use,  he  decided  to  write  a  book  addressed  to  medical 
and  pharmaceutical  students,  and  in  the  year  1855  he  published  the  first  edition, 
under  the  title  of  "  Introduction  to  Practical  Pharmacy,"  followed  in  1859  and 
in  1864  by  other  more  extended  editions.  In  preparing  the  last,  the  author 
aimed  to  make  it  not  only  a  treatise  on  practical  pharmacy,  but  to  include  as 
well  a  formulary  and  a  chapter  on  organic  chemicals,  useful  in  the  shop,  which 
caused  a  change  in  its  title.  The  peculiar  tendency  of  his  mind  to  group  and 
generalize  had  full  sway  during  his  preparation  of  this  book,  leading  him  to 
tabulate  and  classify  the  officinal  formulae,  considering  them  together  rather 
than  impressing  his  individual  experience  on  each. 
Whatever  place  this  work  may  take  in  science,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  met 
admirably  the  wants  of  the  classes  for  whom  it  was  prepared,  and  must  be  set 
down  as  a  successful  one,  both  as  regards  the  good  it  has  done  and  the  profits* 
that  have  accrued  from  its  sale. 
