39« 
Correspondence. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
\      August,  1901. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Procter  Memorial. 
In  response  to  a  letter  from  the  editor  of  this  Journal  concern- 
ing the  feasibility  of  establishing  a  Research  Laboratory  as  a 
memorial  to  the  life  and  work  of  Prof.  William  Procter,  Jr.,  by  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  its  semi-centennial  in  1902, 
the  following  are  some  of  the  replies  which  have  been  received  : 
Dear  Sir: — If  sufficient  money  can  be  obtained  from  the  phar- 
macists of  America  to  establish  a  properly  equipped  Research 
Laboratory  in  Philadelphia,  or  elsewhere,  it  seems  to  me  as  if  no 
more  fitting  memorial  could  be  started.  Without  doubt  it  is  more 
in  accordance  with  the  scientific  spirit  of  the  age  than  anything  else 
yet  proposed.  In  every  respect  it  is  ideal  in  that  it  alone  stands 
forth  as  at  once  a  blessing  to  the  future  and  the  payment  of  our 
obligation  to  the  past  for  the  heritage  of  good  things  it  has  accu- 
mulated for  us. 
Let  us  then,  if  possible,  standing  as  we  do  in  the  very  centre 
of  the  first  century  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
project  into  the  second  half  of  that  century  work  that  will  show 
that  we  had  our  hearts  in  the  right  place  and  sought  in  deeds  more 
than  words  to  prove  it.  Such  a  laboratory  could  do  far  more  for 
the  good  of  future  pharmacists  and  for  the  future  of  the  Association 
than  the  same  amount  of  money  spent  in  any  other  direction  con- 
ceivable. Like  a  well  of  pure  water  it  would  ever  flow  on,  making 
the  uncultivated  and  at  present  desert  regions  of  pharmacy  blossom 
as  the  rose.  A  single  important  discovery  made  therein  might 
bring,  in  hard  cash,  to  the  pharmacists  of  the  world  all  that  the 
project  would  cost  and  multiply  that  amount  many  fold.  Other 
proposals,  hitherto  made,  can  only  give  pleasure  to  a  few.  This 
proposal  covers  the  good  of  the  whole  race  for  all  time  to  come 
and  if  carried  out  will  multiply  blessings  far  beyond  anything  fore- 
seeable. By  all  means  let  us  try  and  establish  a  Research  Labora- 
tory, thus  proving  that  we  are  really  alive  to  the  spirit  of  the 
1  For  other  information  and  correspondence  on  this  subject,  see  this  Journal, 
November,  1900,  and  February,  March,  April,  May,  June  and  July,  1901. 
