the late Samuel Parkes, Esq. 7 



besides his books, which demanded his constant care in pre- 

 paring for new editions, in altering and adapting them to the 

 perpetually-improving state of the science, and his papers for 

 the periodical publications, which were all composed with more 

 than ordinary pains, (as, for instance, the last paper which he 

 ever wrote — " On the analysis of some Roman Coins," pub- 

 lished in the Quarterly Journal for July, 1826, during the com- 

 position of which he submitted to accurate analysis upwards of 

 twenty coins, costing him the incessant labour of many months, 

 as he made it an invariable rule never to place dependance upon 

 any experiment till it had been repeated, and the same result 

 again obtained) — besides all these avocations, which appear 

 amply sufficient to fill up the time of one man, he kept a regu- 

 lar diary of every action of his life, and from an early age 

 till within a few months of his death, never once retired to rest 

 until he had committed to writing all the events of the day. 

 He had common-place books, in which he entered everything 

 w^orthy of note, whether gathered from reading, observation, 

 or conversation, and he never performed a single chemical 

 experiment without registering every particular of the process 

 and the result. By these means he had always a mass oi 

 information collected upon most scientific subjects, and no 

 improvement or valuable fact, once known, could ever be lost 

 or forgotten, but, if it related particularly to chemistry, was 

 sure, if useful, to appear in the next edition of the Catechism. 

 As if all these occupations were insufficient to give full em- 

 ployment to his hours, his beautiful collections of Greek and 

 Roman coins, prints, autographs, minerals, and fossils, were 

 constantly and rapidly increasing, and, as fast as collected, 

 were arranged in the most methodical manner. 



On several important trials, Mr. Parkes was a very material 

 witness ; and where the question at issue hinged on a chemical 

 point, as was so peculiarly the case in that between Messrs. 

 Severn, King, and Co. and the Insurance Offices, he never 

 hesitated to give up his time and attention for weeks and 

 months in studying the subject, and in trying the requisite 

 experiments with precision and accuracy. In the year 1818, 

 Mr. Parkes was applied to by Messrs. Turner, Woodhead, and 

 Co., of Rotherham, upon whom seizures had been made by 



