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Pharmaceutical  Study. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1886. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  STUDY.1 
By  T.  Redwood,  Ph.D., 
Emeritus  Professor  of  Chemistry  and.  Pharmacy  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain. 
When  asked  to  address  a  meeting  of  the  School  of  Pharmacy  Students'  Asso- 
ciation, I  was  glad  to  avail  myself  of  the  opportunity  of  showing  that,  although 
in  an  altered  position,  I  am  still  among  you  and  anxious  to  contribute  to  the 
furtherance  of  your  objects- here  as  students. 
I  wish  to  be  considered  now  as  one  of  yourselves — as  a  student  among  those 
of  the  same  class,  but  differing  in  this,  that  I  am  an  old  student,  very  much  older 
than  most  of  you.  My  studies  have  been  extended  over  a  long  course  of  years, 
exceeding  the  period  at  which  men  are  usually  actuated  by  much  enthusiasm  or 
capable  of  much  hard  work,  but  which  may  possibly  have  brought,  together 
with  somewhat  exhausted  powers,  enlarged  experience  and  an  aptitude  for  sober 
reflection.  You,  on  the  other  hand,  are  on  the  threshold  of  an  intended  career, 
and  in  the  full  possession  of  active  energies,  which,  if  rightly  directed,  may 
enable  you  to  attain  to  any  reasonable,  just  and  proper  objects  of  your  ambition. 
Such  being  our  respective  positions,  we  may  perhaps  confer  together  with  ad- 
vantage on  some  matters  interesting  to  us  all,  and  of  great  importance  to  you — 
matters  affecting  your  future  welfare  and  that  of  the  school  in  which  you  are 
studying. 
I  assume  that  your  intended  career  is  that  of  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  and 
that  you  are  here  for  the  purpose  of  studying  in  those  departments  of  knowl- 
edge, appertaining  to  that  career,  in  which  instruction  is  given  in  this  institution. 
The  subjects  set  before  you,  and  of  which  you  are  expected  to  acquire,  first  an 
elementary,  but  ultimately  a  more  advanced,  kno  wledge,  ard  not  such  as  need 
greatly  alarm  a  student,  and  yet  it  may  be  said  of  them  that  their  successful 
study  requires  the  persistent  application  of  the  best  energies  of  an  active,  trained 
and  intelligent  mind. 
The  subjects  are  botany  and  materia  medica,  chemistry  and  pharmacy,  and 
they  are  commonly  coupled  in  that  order,  which  suggests  the  inquiry,  Why  are 
they  so  associated,  and  in  what  way  are  they  connected? 
Of  the  four  subjects  named  two  belong  to  the  class  of  sciences,  and  the  other 
two  are  not  entitled  to  that  distinction.  Materia  medica  and  pharmacy  are 
merely  departments  of  art  appertaining  to  the  selection  and  preparation  of 
medicines. 
In  early  remote  ages  the  practice  of  medicine  involved  the  use  of  a  materia 
medica,  mostly  derived  from  the  vegetable  kingdom,  in  the  collection  of  which 
no  scientific  knowledge  was  applied.  There  were  also  at  that  time  and  long 
afterwards  a  good  many  animal  substances  employed  in  medicine,  but  as  scien- 
tific knowledge  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  study  of  medicine,  most  of  the 
crude  abominations  of  that  description  were  expelled. 
i  Address  delivered  to  the  School  of  Pharmacy  Students'  Association,  Nov.  12.  We  make 
room  for  this  excellent  address,  which,  in  most  respects,  applies  also  to  pharmaceutical  study 
in  the  United  States.  In  July  last,  the  veteran  Professor  Redwood  retired  from  the  chair  of 
chemistry  and  pharmacy,  after  an  active  service  of  more  than  forty  years  as  a  teacher,  he 
having  been  appointed  Professor  of  Pharmacy  in  1842.  On  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Fownes  from 
the  chair  of  chemistry,  in  1846,  the  two  chairs  were  united.  On  retiring  from  active  service  as  a 
teacher,  Mr.  Redwood  was  deservedly  honored  by  being  appointed  Emeritus  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry and  Pharmacy.  A  former  pupil  of  his,  Mr.  Wyndham  R.  Dunstan,  succeeds  him  as  pro- 
fessor.— Editor  Amer.  Jour.  Phar. 
