Excerpt from Valedictory Address to the Graduates of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy: Delivered in Sansom Street Hall, March 18, 1852 It was not, however, until Paracelsus, the admirer of Basil Va lentine, in the 16th century, by his bold and persevering advocation of chemical medicines, and by his sweeping attacks on the preju dices of Galenical physicians, caused the adoption of mineral sub stances in practice, and directed the powers of chemistry to the improvement of the materia medica, that the pharmacy of Galen lost its pre-eminence, and his medical philosophy, so long the cor ner stone of physio, was shaken to its foundation, when the elemen tal theory of Empedocles upon which it was erected, melted away before the sunlight of analysis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.