VI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Natural History, and from the Rev. R. Willis, M.A., F.R.S., in Applied 

 Mechanics. 



Having taken a special course in assaying in the Metallurgical 

 Laboratory under Dr. Perry, the subject of this sketch devoted his 

 energies and attention more especially to Chemistry at the Royal 

 College of Chemistry in Oxford Street, London, under Professor 

 Hoffmann, where he spent several years and where he became a junior 

 assistant for two years, following which period he was appointed 

 assistant in the Research Laboratory. In May, 1861, Dr. Hoffmann 

 left England for Natal, South Africa, where he resided for three years 

 engaged under Dr. Robert James Mann, F.R.A.S., Superintendent 

 General of Education in Natal, in the preparation of exhibits from 

 Natal for the International Exhibition of 1862. 



After a visit to the Mauritius in 1864, where he acquired some 

 knowledge of the flora of that Island, for which purpose he had gone 

 thither, he proceeded to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, arriving 

 there October, 1865. In Melbourne, Dr. Hoffmann took charge of 

 the Phyto-Chemical Laboratory of the Melbourne Botanical Garden. 

 There he carried on enquiries into the tanning properties of the barks 

 of certain native trees, besides determining the percentages of tannic 

 and gallic acids (see Report on the Vegetable Products exhibited in 

 the International Exhibition of 1866-67, pp. 39, 40, by Dr. Ferd Von 

 Mueller, F.R.S., Melbourne, 1867). 



Dr. Hoffmann also prepared a series of essential oils derived from 

 the foliage of indigenous trees of Victoria, notice of which is recorded 

 in the Catalogue of the Victorian Exhibits to the Sydney Intercolonial 

 Exhibition of 1870, (p. 54, Melbourne, 1870.) Preparations of picric 

 acid from resinous plants, of snuff from one of Australia's common 

 weeds, and determinations of the quantity of soda and iodine from 

 littoral and other plants were carried out under the direction of the 

 Government Botanist. 



Dr. Hoffmann came to Canada in 1871 and spent some months 

 doing general chemical work in Toronto and Montreal. He joined 

 the Geological Survey 1st September, 1872, as Assistant Chemist 

 and served in that capacity under Dr. T. Sterry Hunt until the latter's 

 resignation in 1874, and afterwards under Dr. B. J. Harrington. In 

 1879 Dr. Harrington resigned from the Geological Survey and Dr. 

 Hoffmann was appointed Acting Chemist and Mineralogist, and on 

 the 1st July, 1880, he was made Chemist and Mineralogist and was 

 given the title of Assistant Director of the Survey. He held this posi- 

 tion until his superannuation in 1907, after 35 years' service. He 

 died on the 6th March, 1917. 



