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William  Procter,  Jr. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pnarni. 
\     January,  1905. 
Should  such  a  life  be  passed  into  forgetfulness,  and  can  it  be  re- 
garded as  ostentatious,  to  preserve  such  a  memory  in  a  substantial 
and  public  way  ?  Is  there  any  one  present  who  would  not  mark 
the  resting-place  of  a  departed  loved  one  with  a  stone,  however 
humble,  in  commemoration  of  the  lost  friend  or  relative  ?  If,  by 
common  consent,  we  accept  the  late  William  Procter,  Jr.,  as  the 
Father  of  American  Pharmacy,  should  we  not,  as  his  children  by 
adoption,  commemorate  the  fact,  and  call  the  attention  of  future 
generations  of  pharmacists,  druggists  and  chemists  to  his  spotless 
reputation?  I  claim  that  it  would  not  only  be  an  honor  to  his 
memory,  but  also  to  those  who  recognize  his  worth  and  to  Ameri- 
can Pharmacy. 
It  would  be  useless  at  this  time  to -recite  the  ancestry  of  this 
good  man  or  to  relate  in  detail  what  he  did  for  pharmacy  and  phar- 
macists. The  pages  of  The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  and 
the  proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  will 
-fully  gratify  any  one  who  wishes  detailed  information  on  the  subject. 
I  am  proud  that  he  was  a  son  of  Baltimore,  and  equally  so  to 
know  that  he  achieved  his  noble  character  and  reputation  in  the 
city  of  Philadelphia.  The  tribute  that  I  think  should  be  paid  to 
his  memory  is  not  for  local  fame.  Living  as  he  did,  at  about  what 
was  then  the  centre  of  population  in  the  United  States,  there  were 
drawn  to  him  the  youthful  minds,  from  all  directions  and  long  dis- 
tances, those  who  were  prepared  by  him  and  his  colleagues  in  the 
College  for  the  higher  duties  of  pharmacy.  On  returning  to  their 
respective  homes  these  graduates  of  your  College  have  been  import- 
ant factors  to  their  Alma  Mater. 
The  radiations  from  the  centre  were,  in  the  many  cases  under 
my  observation,  impregnated  with  the  noble  principles  of  Procter, 
that  made  them  more  useful  in  the  practice  of  pharmacy  than  they 
might  have  been  under  less  favorable  circumstances.  Unfortunately, 
the  teacher  does  not  always  reflect  seriously  his  moral  forces  on 
the  mind  of  the  pupil. 
We  can  not  regard  the  late  Professor  Procter  as  a  brilliant  or 
smart  man  in  the  sense  in  which  these  terms  are  generally  applied* 
The  terms  able,  strong,  reliable  would  have  been  more  applicable  in 
his  case.  He  was  a  great  and  just  man,  and,  beyond  all,  a  gentleman. 
Let  us  briefly  survey  what  he  achieved  and  the  difficulties  he 
must  have  encountered.     At  the  age  of  three  years  death  robbed 
