ADDRESS. 
201 
the  delicate  equilibrium  of  organic  forces  which  result  in  health, 
are  harshly  assaulted  by  the  emotions,  chapters  are  opened 
which  give  insight  into  unseen  and  untold  episodes  of  humanity. 
To  his  ear,  poverty-engendered  illness  brings  many  a  tale  of 
mental  and  physical  suffering,  which  else  had  remained  untold 
and  quietly  borne  until  better  times  smiled  on  their  subjects. 
He  often  beholds  the  secret  motives  which  influence  public 
actions ;  he  can  understand  the  brilliancy  of  many  a  speaker 
and  actor  on  the  surface  of  public  life,  and  trace  it  to  opium  or 
chloroform.  He  can  sometimes  detect  the  primal  efforts  of  the 
suicide  and  poisoner  ;  to  him  comes  the  incipient,  and  yet  shame- 
faced, inebriate,  to  get  relief  from  the  effects  of  his  early  aberra- 
tions, whilst  he  still  regards  a  reputation  for  sobriety ;  and  to 
him  often  applies  the  victim  of  unhallowed  love,  for  aid  in  her 
last  extremity,  when  despair,  gathering  its  darkening  folds 
around  her,  pictures  the  future  an  unfathomable  abyss  of  black- 
ness and  woe. 
Nor  is  it  always  in  the  darker  phases  of  mental  outpouring 
that  the  dispenser  of  medicines  becomes  the  recipient  of  human 
confidence.  Family  joys  as  well  as  sorrows  find  utterance.  He 
is  often  made  a  witness  of  the  bright  aspirations  which  arise  on 
the  occasion  of  the  safe  accession  to  the  family  circle  of  a  new 
candidate  for  parental  care  and  responsibility.  When  the 
wanderer  has  returned  to  his  home,  stricken  with  disease,  the 
pleasure  that  wells  up  among  its  inmates  is  shared  by  the 
apothecary  as  he  listens  to  the  gladdened  accents  of  a  parent  or 
brother,  whilst  preparing  something  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferer. 
These  confidences  and  opportunities  are  not  restricted  to  a 
single  class ;  all  shades  of  society  become  objects  of  interest  to 
the  intelligent  dispenser  ;  and  he  should  let  discretion  govern 
his  tongue,  and  wisdom  his  actions,  in  relation  to  all  that  tran- 
spires of  private  history  in  his  intercourse  with  those  who  fre- 
quent his  establishment. 
Gentlemen,  you  who  are  dispensers  of  medicine,  need  I  caution 
you  further  in  regard  to  your  professional  pathway  ?  The  pre- 
cepts you  have  received  and  the  practical  training  you  have  ex- 
perienced have  instilled  into  you  the  length  and  the  breadth,  the 
height  and  the  depth  of  its  varied  requirements.  Let  me  entreat 
you  to  keep  them  green  and  fresh  in  your  memories ;  let  a  sense 
