AlM^?h'  ?92irm'  \       Founding  of  Phila.  College  of  Pharmacy.  181 
Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  It  is  a  matter  of 
record  that  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  partial  pursuance  of 
its  original  plan  did  confer  the  degree  of  Master  of  Pharmacy  as 
an  honorary  degree  upon  sixteen  Philadelphia  Apothecaries  in  April, 
1821.  It  is  illuminating  to  note  that  of  these  sixteen  who  were  so 
honored,  seven  were  charter  members  of  the  newly  formed  College. 
It  is  also  of  interest  to  learn  that  very  soon  after  the  active 
functioning  of  the  College  began,  when  the  members  showed  the 
breadth  of  their  aims  by  conferring  honorary  membership  upon  such 
international  authorities  as  Paris,  Chapman,  Silliman,  Vauquelin, 
Derosne,  Robiquet,  Yirey,  Pelletier,  Faraday,  Torrey,  Nuttall, 
Brandes,  Dobereiner  and  Trommsdorff ,  that  there  was  also  included 
the  name  of  Dr.  John  Redman  Coxe,  who  is  credited  in  the  memoirs 
of  Edward  Parrish  as  having  been  the  leading  spirit  in  the  original 
movement  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Of  interest  in  this  same  connection,  too,  are  the  tributes  of  some 
of  the  University's  own  teachers. 
In  the  "Early  History  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania," 
written  by  Dr.  George  B.  Wood  in  1834,  he  states : 
"The  degree  of  Master  of  Pharmacy  was  instituted  a  few  years  since 
with  the  very  laudable  view  of  improving  the  profession  of  the  apothecary, 
which,  in  the  city,  has  assumed  an  importance  far  beyond  what  it  possesses 
in  other  parts  of  the  United  States.  Any  person  is  entitled  to  the  degree 
who  shall  have  served  an  apprenticeship  of  at  least  three  years  with  a  re- 
spectable apothecary,  and  attended  two  courses  of  lectures  on  Chemistry  and 
Materia  Medica  in  the  University.  Advantages  would  no  doubt  have  accrued 
from  this  accession  to  the  original  plan  of  the  medical  department  had  it  not 
been  superseded  by  the  establishment  by  the  apothecaries  themselves  of  a 
distinct  school,  which  being  under  their  own  management,  and  directed  to  the 
one  object  of  advancing  the  usefulness  and  respectability  of  the  profession, 
is  naturally  more  popular,  and  at  least  equally  efficient." 
Later,  Dr.  Joseph  Carson,  in  his  "History  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,"  published  in  1859,  says : 
"This  procedure  on  the  part  of  the  University,  in  the  matter  of  im- 
proving and  elevating  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  aroused  the  enterprising 
spirit  of  the  druggists  and  apothecaries  of  Philadelphia,  and  incited  them  to 
found  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  an  independent  institution,  which,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  its  school,  and  of  its  journal,  and  by  its  vigilance 
with  reference  to  the  conduct  of  its  members,  has  been  of  incalculable  service 
to  the  profession  of  pharmacy,  not  only  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  but 
throughout  the  United  States." 
