606     High-Lights  in  History  of  Phila.  C.  of  Phar.     j  AmseJpTr"i92iarm' 
discussed,  and  information  beneficial  and  instructive  to  the  trade 
communicated." 
It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  "the  first  years  of  the  College  were 
marked  by  great  activity.  Committees  of  inspection  were  appointed 
to  examine  drugs  introduced  into  the  market,  and  to  expose  adultera- 
tion and  sophistication.  Latin  labels  were  printed,  carefully  adapted 
to  the  officinal  standard  of  nomenclature.  Formulas  were  published 
for  the  old  English  remedies  called  'patent  medicines,'  then  very 
extensively  sold,  with  a  view  to  greater  uniformity  in  their  com- 
position and  properties ;  and  the  absurdly-worked  wrappers  in  which 
these  were  enveloped,  giving  false  or  exaggerated  accounts  of  their 
virtues,  were  measurably  superceded  by  more  sensible  and  truthful 
'directions.'  Meanwhile,  a  library  was  being  formed,  a  cabinet  of  the 
specimens  collected,  and  the  various  improvements  in  chemistry  and 
pharmacy  suggested  from  time  to  time  were  investigated  and  re- 
ported upon"  (Edward  Parrish). 
In  this  way  the  College  sought  to  prevent  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  adulterated  or  misbranded  or  deleterious  dings  and  medi- 
cines, thereby  anticipating  in  a  sense  the  enactment  of  the  Fed- 
eral Food  and  Drugs  Act  of  nearly  one  hundred  years  later,  but  the 
influence  of  the  College  was  wTholly  educational  and  moral,  and  no 
adequate  protection  was  given  to  the  public  until  the  enactment  of 
the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Act  of  1906,  one  of  the  most  righteous 
laws  ever  passed  by  the  United  State  Congress. 
And  the  work  so  auspiciously  begun  by  the  College  one  hun- 
dred years  ago  has  been  continued  through  the  century  with  ever- 
increasing  vigor  and  efficiency. 
The  College  has  achieved  its  unusual  success  as  an  educational 
institution  because  it  has  been  built  upon  the  bed-rock  of  character. 
The  sixty-eight  men  who  instituted  the  College  were  mostly  members 
of  the  Religious  Society  of  Friends,  commonly  called  Quakers,  who 
believed  in  the  homely  virtues  of  modesty,  thrift  and  wisdom,  and 
love  of  peace  and  simple  honor,  and  practiced  these;  men  of  plain 
living  and  high  thinking,  men  of  strong  and  positive  opinions,  and 
men  of  practicality,  thoroughness  and  love  of  humanity. 
And  it  was  this  love  of  humanity,  doubtless,  that  inspired  their 
love  of  education.  As  William  Penn,  the  founder  of  Pennsylvania, 
wrote :  "Friends  consider  education  as  a  right  and  a  privilege,  to  the 
end  that  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich  may  be  instructed  in  good  and 
commendable  learning,  which  is  to  be  preferred  before  wealth." 
