PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. V 



until his retirement. He held the position of Government 

 Analyst till 1871, conducting all Government work for New 

 South Wales, afterwards also for Queensland and Victoria, 

 when these were created separate States. The position 

 carried no fixed salary, but was carried on in conjunction 

 with his pharmaceutical business, various fees being paid 

 for certain classes of work, such as consultations, assaying 

 minerals, examination of waters, foods, and general analyses 

 for legal purposes. This latter portion of the work very 

 often entailed long journies and considerable loss of time, 

 as all evidence had to be given on oath in the colony or dis- 

 trict from which the case was received. 



In the early days a considerable amount of interesting 

 work arose in connection with gold and silver assays, (all 

 of which had to be sent to the Government Chemist by the 

 banks and Government) and the smelting of the gold re- 

 ceived into bars. When the question of the water supply to 

 Sydney was under consideration in 1857, he was appointed 

 to the Committee and carried out the examination of the 

 water and soils of the district which provided what was 

 afterwards known as the Botany Water Supply to the City 

 of Sydney. On the the death of the Prince De Conde (then 

 on a visit to Sydney) at Petty 's Hotel, he undertook, by 

 request, the task of embalming the remains and forwarding 

 them to France, and received from the French Government 

 a letter of thanks and a gift for his services. He thus carried 

 out the first embalmment in Australia of human remains. 



At the French Exhibition in Paris of 1855 lie exhibited 

 a fine collection of minerals from Australia, (the first 

 shown from these dominions) which aroused a considerable 

 amount of interest at the time and drew attention to our 

 mineral resources. For this he received from the authorities 

 a special certificate signed by Napoleon Buonaparte (now 

 in the possession of Mr. T. H. Norrie). 



