Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Mar.,  1875.  j 
Obituaries. 
143 
sixty-eight  members  still  livings  and  it  will  be  seen,  by  a  consultation  of  the  min- 
utes of  the  College,  that  he  was  an  active  member  for  over  half  a  century,  over  forty 
years  of  which  was  spent  in  an  official  capacity. 
In  1828  he  was  elected  Recording  Secretary,  and  he  served  acceptably  in  this 
office  for  fourteen  years  j  at  the  end  of  this  time  (1842)  he  was  chosen  First  Vice- 
President,  which  position  he  held  for  nearly  twelve  years  (until  1854),  when  he  was 
tendered  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  College — that  of  President — and  he 
continued  to  discharge  his  duties  in  this  connection  for  fifteen  years. 
The  files  of  the  "American  Journal  of  Pharmacy"  reveal  a  number  of  contribu- 
tions from  his  pen,  and  he  served  for  forty  years  as  one  of  the  members  of  the  Pub_ 
lishing  Committee,  the  greater  part  of  the  time  holding  the  position  of  Treasurer. 
This  office  was  one  that  was  beset  with  difficulties.  During  this  long  period  of 
forty  years  his  services  were  rendered  gratuitously,  and  the  labor  involved  of  keep- 
ing the  accounts,  distributing  the  "Journal,"  making  collections,  &c.,  &c  ,  was  of 
no  light  character.  "An  instance  of  long,  disinterested  service  rarely  met  with  in 
the  annals  of  journalism." 
As  President  of  the  College  it  was  his  duty  to  confer  the  degree  of  Graduate  in 
Pharmacy  at  the  Annual  Commencements,  and  the  fulfillment  of  this  duty  was  char- 
acterized by  his  usual  dignity  and  modesty.  In  an  address  delivered  on  one  of  these 
occasions  he  uses  the  following  language,  which  is  just  as  appropriate  in  this  day, 
when  pharmacy  has  received  a  recognition  as  a  separate  profession,  as  it  was  then  : 
.  "  The  improved  condition  of  pharmacy  in  the  present  day,  the  elevated  position 
it  has  assumed  in  Europe  and  is  beginning  to  hold  in  this  country,  is  entirely  owing 
to  its  being  taught  and  cherished  as  a  separate  science  ;  whilst  in  those  places  where 
the  extemporaneous  combination  of  remedies  has  been  retained  by  the  physician, 
pharmacy  has  risen  no  higher  than  a  mere  art.  Its  proper  cultivation  and  pursuit  are 
entirely  incompatible  with  the  arduous  duties  of  medical  men,  who,  aware  of  the 
advantage  that  would  arise  to  society  from  this  diversion  of  labor,  have  in  this  city 
set  a  generous  example  by  relinquishing  it  and  all  its  emoluments  into  our  hands. 
We  have  accepted  the  responsible  trust  5  and  an  earnest  devotion  to  the  science — a 
determination  to  procure  and  vend  everything  of  the  best  quality,  to  permit  no  con- 
sideration of  expense  or  trouble  ever  to  induce  a  momentary  inattention  to  the  purity 
and  activity  of  our  drugs,  a  uniform  system  of  order  and  cleanliness,  and  constant  per- 
sonal attention  to  and  supervision  of  every  duty  devolving  upon  us,  and  an  anxious 
desire  to  re  pect  and  not  to  interfere  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  physician  — 
will  be  the  surest  evidences  we  can  offer  that  the  confidence  has  not  been  misplaced. 
Unreserved  and  explicit  as  that  confidence  is  which  is  reposed  in  us  by  others,  are 
we  not  called  upon  in  the  most  emphatic  Innguage  to  be  prepared  fully  for  the  task 
we  have  undertaken  ?  If  we  are  not,  if  we  have  not  sought  knowledge  from  every 
opportunity,  and  drained  it  from  every  source,  we  are  playing  a  part  of  the  deepest 
hazard,  and  tampering  with  our  own  reputations,  if  not  with  the  health  and  lives  of 
our  fellow-beings. 
"  We  have  much  in  our  power.  The  discoveries  of  modern  times  in  medical 
chemistry  have  generally  been  the  result  of  the  laborious  investigations  of  European 
apothecaries.  They  enrol  in  iheir  number  men  of  profound  learning,  extensive  ac- 
quirements in  every  branch  of  natural  science,  in  a  word,  they  are  ornaments  to 
their  country  and  to  the  age  in  which  they  live. 
"  May  we  not  Imitate  their  example,  and  by  endeavoring  to  extend  the  boundaries 
