22 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. III. 



thought that " It is not the place honours the man, but the man 

 the place." * Besides being surgeon to the Bank of England, my 

 father held other public offices : he was also in private practice, 

 and was considered eminent as an oculist. 



How he got through his various avocations is a marvel, but 

 the truth is, he was never idle. His mind was ever employed 

 upon some matter or other, and it resulted in his mind wearing 

 out his body while he was only in middle age. 



On the 10th of June, 1841, before he was twenty-three years 

 old, he was elected Fellow of the Koyal Society. There was some 

 opposition got up from a quarter least expected ; but on the 

 eminent mathematician and actuary (B. Gompert) and some 

 others taking the matter up warmly, and on that gentleman, 

 on the day of the election, entering the room where it was to 

 take place, and signifying his intention of noting down the name 

 of every Fellow that voted, and how he voted, with a view of 

 publishing it to the world, those who led the opposition ended 

 by voting for Mr. Smee, who was duly elected. 



The close of 1841 saw Mr. Smee the father of a son, an only 

 one. 



In 1842 Mr. Smee succeeded in making a writing ink for the 

 Bank of England. Various specimens of writing made with his 

 ink about this time, thirty-six years ago, now exist, the letters of 

 which are as black as jet. Other specimens of writing made by 

 some of the manufacturers of ink at that time are more or less 

 faded, in some cases so much so that the writing is scarcely 

 legible. As the receipt for making this ink is no secret, it may 

 interest some of my readers to know what its ingredients are, 

 and how it is manufactured. I have, therefore, endeavoured to 

 satisfy them by giving the receipt in the Appendix, No. IX. 



While I am on the subject of inks it will not be out of place 

 here to add that my father, to use his own words, made at various 

 times " almost innumerable examinations of different inks." In 

 Bush's case,t all the inks found in Eush's house were sent to my 

 father's house for examination, together with the paper thrown 

 into Stanfield Hall, with the inks from a large portion of the 

 county of Norfolk, to compare with that with which the document 

 was written. Another time his chemical analysis of some ink was 

 the means of showing that a gentleman who had been accused of 

 carelessness had been the victim of fraud, and thereby he had the 



* See Talmud. f A celebrated murder case in 1847. 



