Obituary Notices. 25 



career, had he been spared to lecture on cutaneous 

 diseases, which, I believe, he had contemplated doing ; 

 but alas ! in the very beginning of his usefulness he was 

 called to cease from his labours, having died on the 9th 

 of May 1879. 



Latterly his time was mainly taken up with his pro- 

 fessional duties, but in his student days he took a deep 

 interest in the botanical excursions connected with the 

 class, and from few, if any, of them was he absent ; and 

 even after he had obtained his degree he still manifested 

 a sincere regard for botanical science by making an annual 

 excursion in company with a few friends. He communi- 

 cated to our Society a paper, entitled " Notes on Micro- 

 scopic Fungi," which w^as subsequently published in our 

 Transactions for 1872, illustrated by several lithographs, 

 which he generously contributed out of his own resources. 

 In his experiments he employed infusions of various sub- 

 stances, and marked the corpuscular or filamentous fungi 

 which were developed after from 10 to 30 days' exposure 

 to the atmosphere. It is an article of considerable merit, 

 and contains some interesting results. For example, he 

 found that there are certain forms of fungi proper to 

 certain fluids ; thus he always found the same form of 

 fungus in Digitalis, Aconite, and Claret. He found also 

 that in certain vegetable substances containing alkaloids, 

 the special action of these alkaloids was in a great degree 

 retained, even though bacteria and vibriones had made 

 their appearance. He found this in the case of the alka- 

 loids contained in Tinct. Digitalis, Thict. Acouiti, Tinct. 

 Physostigmatis, and Liquor StrycMce. The result is im- 

 portant as modifying Dr Bourdon's statements. This paper 

 seems to have been suggested while studying the " G-erm 

 Theory," and making experiments on the subject in con- 

 nection with his thesis, and it gives us a hint how in 

 societies such as ours secondary- or bye- or waste-products, 

 as they are called, may be utilized. 



His memory is fragrant among all who knew him as a 

 man of a frank and gentle disposition, thorough upright- 

 ness of character, faithfulness and conscientiousness in tlie 

 discharge of his duties, and kindness and consitlerateness 

 in his attention to the sick poor. 



