SCIENCE PAPERS. 509 



Hanbury brought before the public even tbeu with the fullest 1875. 

 command of matter, but which he also always very gladly took 

 up again later as occasion o'ffered ; in the same way as he also 

 generally cultivated Zingiberaceae in his hot-house with quite a 

 special affection, examining them while getting together further 

 matter. 



Air. Hanbury's paper on storax 1 (1857) is a brilliant example Storax. 

 of his work. In this he treats the history of the balsam ex- 

 haustively, giving a clear statement of its confused traditions, 

 and also (for example) proving the inaccuracy of Landerer's 

 more recent statements on the same subject. Furthermore Mr. 

 Hanbury verified the preparation of the drug from the incon- 

 trovertible reports of eye-witnesses, and annexed a sketch of 

 Liquidambar Orientale, Mill, which tree yields the storax of 

 to-day. Mr. Hanbury supported his demonstrations on his 

 knowledge of the classical literature bearing upon the subject, 

 but the work shows also that he did not shun the labour of 

 making himself so far acquainted with the Turkish language as 

 was desirable for the end sought. Some knowledge which he 

 had also gained of Arabic was of use in working out the 

 Phttrm acographia. 



Abilities such as these were soon again turned to account in otto of Rose. 

 the important research on otto of rose of 1859. Here also, 

 the point was to replace errors by indubitable certainty. Mr. 

 Hanbury showed how and where the otto of rose of modern 

 commerce is obtained, and discussed some of its physical 

 properties. A German observer, Dr. E. Baur, of Constantinople, 

 had the opportunity, in 1867, of seeing the manufacture of otto 

 of rose on the spot, and aided Mr. Hanbury's researches with- 

 out being aware of them. Mr. Hanbury, on the other hand, 

 gave Dr. Baur's work to his countrymen, in a translation, and 

 added some remarks thereto. 



In 1860 and 1861 Mr. Hanbury was much occupied with the 

 Materia Medica of the Chinese, for which end he also made him- 

 self somewhat acquainted with their language. These studies 

 could only be undertaken by a pharmacist who was aided by 



1 Ib. 1857, 11. 



