NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES.

BY DR. H. M. WHELPLEY, PH. G., profesSOR OF MICROSCOPY, ST. LOUIS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY.

Address delivered by invitation at the graduating exercises of the Pharmacy Department of Northwestern University, April 3, 1902.

Introduction.

Mr. President, Members of the Graduating Class, Ladies and Gentlemen:-Youth is the wine of life. Adolescence always has and ever will be the age of exuberant spirits. It is the period of sparkling effervescence, the time of physical and mental exhilaration.

The youths of our land come out of the free and joyous state of childhood and pass into the confines of man and womanhood.

School and college days are over and life's great field of earnest activities is about to be entered.

"Behind the curtain's mystic fold
The doubtful future lies unrolled."

Life at once assumes a more serious aspect and presents many new and serious problems. The responsibilities of life are at hand; the first steps are made towards the great opportunities of life-the bottles which are to encase the youth and confine each and every one of you to some particular sphere of human

existence.

A New Vintage, But for Old Bottles.

The close of each college term and the approach of graduation day brings forth a new class of youths, a new vintage of wine. The individuals change with the revolution of the seasons and their places on the threshold of business and professional life are soon occupied by new faces and different minds.

I must boldly refute the assertions commonly made that conditions have so changed that the opportunities of the good old times are no longer to be found.

Opportunities Present Themselves Today as they have in ages past. The wine may be new but the bottles are old.

I have no sympathy for persons holding pessimistic views in regard to the present and future condition of the world. I deprecate the evil forebodings found in many public expressions. Unfortunate are they who see no bright future for the twentieth century youth.

Mistaken are the good old men and women in the declining years of life who point to the opportunities of their youth and assert that the bottles are all broken or hermetically sealed. Groundless are their fears that the youth of to-day, the new wine, will necessarily spoil for the want of proper bottling. Such guidance is the directing of the blind and the support of the lame. Such persons fail to see and are too infirm to reach the opportunities in waiting for the new century youth. They may be the wintergreen of old age but they do not recognize the car

of progress which is passing the young graduate's door.

Ever-changing time prints new labels for the bottles and the names appear in modern nomenclature. But the opportunities are as old as the human race itself. They are formed in modern moulds to accommodate every youth who is endowed with the proper spirit of persistent application. They shield and protect those who carefully pursue hard, painstaking thought and labor.

A Bright Future for the Young Graduates. Friends of the Graduating Class, do not advise the young men and women to listen to the croakings of the pessimist.

Pharmacy as a science, profession, art and trade has passed through wonderful changes and many old methods are now obsolete. The true spirit of progress pervades the calling. Some fail to see and grasp the full significance of the changes taking place.

They become dissatisfied and morose. They are no longer capable of cool, unbiased judgment. But life is a relay race, where those who are exhausted drop out and are replaced by new and vigorous contestants. Thus, each one plays a part in the race of life and contributes to the progress of those who replace him.

The successful youth in pharmacy must learn to recognize the new labels and then enter upon his or her work with proper zeal.

Members of the Graduating Class, you have carefully followed a prescribed course of study during the past two years and have taken the required examinations, making averages entitling you to a properly signed and sealed diploma. The document asserts that you are fully qualified in the college work. I congratulate you upon this success.

A diploma is neither a talisman nor a fetich, and you are not yet successful pharmacists, nor am I sure you ever will be. The faculty and university have performed their part and consider you worthy of following in the footsteps of your predecessors. It now remains for you and you alone to make active life a success.

You Are at the Portal of Pharmacy, with the door open, and your individuality will be taxed to its utmost in personal exertion. You must bear the heat and burden of the day in caring for your own interests and advancing those of the profession. To be a pharmacist means much more today than it did in the past.

The college curriculum required you to attend two years of lectures and laboratory work. Custom, the most exacting of all masters, ordains with the force of an unwritten law that you listen to an address on this your graduation day-the day you become wedded to pharmacy.

Fate ordained that I should have the privilege by invitation to meet you on this occasion and occupy the prescribed time for the address. I feel that I can render you no more valuable service than that of