John Grattan: 



of material gain. Fortunately for the progress of science, and the 

 prospects of a general recognition of the intellectual and material 

 value of scientific research, such men have always existed in our 

 midst, and this Society is justly proud of having enrolled amongst 

 its members not a few who have made important and valuable 

 contributions to the sum of human knowledge. During its earlier 

 history our Society was singularly fortunate in this respect. The 

 work of some of these pioneers is well known locally, and has 

 received general recognition in scientific circles, while the labours 

 of others have not only failed to gain that amount of credit to 

 which they are justly entitled, but are even in danger of being 

 entirely ignored. Amongst the latter I would place the investiga- 

 tions of John Grattan, and I desire to take this opportunity of 

 attempting an appreciation of his scientific work. I do so with 

 the more confidence, since it involves questions to which I have 

 personally devoted some attention. 



John Grattan was born in 1800 in the neighbourhood of Dublin 

 and he obtained the diploma of the Apothecaries' Hall about 

 1823. 



The reasons, given to me on excellent authority, for his starting 

 business in Belfast may be of interest to some, although not 

 entirely creditable to the state of pharmaceutical science at that 

 time in this city. It appears that Grattan had decided to settle 

 in some provincial town in Ireland, and with this object in view 

 he visited various places accompanied by his employer's son. In 

 the course of their travels these young men came to Belfast and 

 going into a druggist's shop in the centre of the town one of them 

 asked for a pennyworth of Epsom's salts. The attendant took 

 down a bottle from one of the shelves, extracted a handful of the 

 salt which he placed on a fragment of a newspaper and secured 

 by gathering up the edges of the paper and twisting them round 

 one another. As soon as they left the shop Grattan's companion 

 turned to him and said " Belfast is the place for you." 



Grattan came here in 1825, and at that time there were, of 

 course, no railways to the town, while the population was only 

 about one-tenth of what it is now. According to tradition he 



