VI 



mixtures of haloids, and was published in the 'Journal of the 

 Chemical Society ' for 1866. All his tastes predisposed him towards- 

 an academic position, but circumstances compelled him to seek for 

 employment in technology, and shortly after his first paper appeared 

 he accepted a situation as chemist at the Weston Works of the- 

 Runcorn Soap and Alkali Company. Here, with characteristic 

 ardour, he at once began a number of investigations relating to the 

 manufacture of sulphuric acid and alkali, the main results of which 

 appeared in the ' Journal of the Chemical Society ' and in the 

 ' Chemical News.' He soon, however, turned his face towards 

 London, and became an assistant to the late Dr. Bernays, in the 

 laboratory attached to St. Thomas's Hospital. Afterwards he joined 

 Matthiesseii, and the two chemists began the remarkable series 

 of investigations on the opium alkaloids with which their names, 

 as joint authors, are associated, and one outcome of which was the 

 discovery of apomorphine, one of the most powerful and valuable 

 emetics known. In 1869 he was associated with Sir Lowthian Bell 

 in an elaborate investigation on the theory of iron smelting, the 

 results of which are contained in Sir Lowthian Bell's well-known work 

 * On the Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel.' 



In 1871 Wright became Lecturer on Chemistry at St. Mary's 

 Hospital, and he occupied this position at the time of his death. He 

 once more turned his attention to the chemistry of the alkaloids, and 

 began the study of the essential oils, and during the next ten years 

 memoir followed memoir in quick succession. Either alone or in con- 

 junction with his pupils he contributed nine papers on Derivatives of 

 Morphine and Codeine to the Royal Society (1871-74) ; six papers on 

 Isomeric Terpenes to the ' British Association Reports ' (1873-77) ; 

 six papers on the Action of Organic Acids and their Anhydrides 

 on Natural Alkaloids (1874-80) ; seven papers on Narceine, Narco- 

 tine, Cotarnine, and Hydrocotarnine to the Chemical Society 

 (1874-77) ; four papers on the Alkaloids of the Aconites 

 (1877-79) ; and three on the Alkaloids of the Veratrums 

 (1878-79) to the * British Association Reports,' in addition to occa- 

 sional papers on other departments of vegetal chemistry. During 

 the latter portion of this period he also contributed a series of 

 Reports on Cliemical Dynamics to the Chemical Society (1878-80). 

 Questions relating to chemical physics had always great interest for 

 him ; and he sent to the Physical Society, of which he was one of 

 the original members, a series of nine papers on the Determination 

 of Chemical Affinity in terms of Electromotive Force, and, in con- 

 junction with Professor Roberts- Austen, he made a number of 

 measurements of the Specific Heat of Hydrogenium (1873). For 

 some years back he occupied himself with the study of alloys, and 

 the Proceedings of the Royal Society contain a number of papers 



