VI 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



In referring to the Burtoniart quartette, which Adrian Brown was the 

 last to join, as amateur workers, the writer is not unmindful of the fact that- 

 all were brewer's chemists and therefore professionally engaged, excepting, 

 perhaps, Griess — and it has always been thought that he has not had 

 sufficient credit for the work he did in the brewery. None the less, the 

 spirit in which they worked was that of the amateur of the past: they 

 sought neither gain nor applause : love of their art was their guiding- 

 light ; they were led solely by desire to explore its fields, to grasp its value, 

 to display its beauties. 



Adrian Brown remained twenty-five years in the brewery, leaving in 1899 

 to take charge of the newly founded Chair of Brewing and Malting at the 

 Mason College, Birmingham. When the University of Birmingham was 

 established, he became Professor of the Biology and Chemistry of Fermenta- 

 tion and Director of the School of Brewing. He died suddenly on July 2, 

 1919, three days after his wife. 



A naturalist from his birth upwards, a man of unobtrusive manner but 

 great personal charm, he gained the esteem of all whom he met officially 

 and the affection of his many friends. Not only was his standard of 

 endeavour ever the highest but all he did was characterised by originality, 

 great independence of judgment and a consistent logic. 



He was not elected into the Society until 1911. His first work was in 

 advance of the time and did not receive the attention it deserved, although 

 the subject, the action of oxidising organisms, was one of great interest, 

 oxidation playing so determining a part in vital activity. He began by 

 studying the action of the well-known Bacterium aceti, used in producing 

 vinegar from alcohol ; then that of another organism, Bacterium xylinum, 

 which he was the first to isolate from " Mother of Vinegar." 



The point brought out in the earlier inquiry was the inability of B. aceti to 

 condition the oxidation of methylic alcohol, although it grew in presence of 

 this compound : then, that it was able to determine the conversion, not only 

 of ethylic alcohol but also of propylic, to the corresponding acid ; yet was 

 without action on isopropylic and isobutylic alcohols ; still, it grew in the 

 presence of these compounds but was killed by fusel oil and amylic alcohol. 

 These remarkable differences in behaviour of compounds so closely related 

 remain unexplained to the present day. Assuming that oxidation be deter- 

 mined by a catalyst, i.e., at a solid surface, it is most probable that the 

 surface is differently affected by the different alcohols : but on any hypo- 

 thesis the fact that methylic and isopropylic alcohols are unattacked, 

 whilst compounds so close to them in all chemical properties are oxidised, 

 is very striking ; no other such marked instance of bacterial epicurism is 

 known. 



The results of his work on B. xylinum were of less direct significance, as 

 his attention was mainly directed to the membrane which this organism 

 produces in sugar solutions ; he thought it was a variety of cellulose, but from 

 later work, by Emmerling, it is probable that the product is of a chitinous 



