42 



PEOCEEDLNGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIEir. 



for a time in one of the largest French collieries, where he gained 

 considerable experience in conducting mining operations. 



On his return to England, Mr. Phillips was appoiuted Chemist to 

 an Admiralty Commission, then engaged in making inquiries con- 

 cerning the coals best suited for use in marine boilers, this 

 commission being under the direction of Sir Henry de la Beche and 

 Dr. Lyon Playfair. The completion of this work set Mr. Phillips 

 free to establish a private chemical laboratory, and to enter upon 

 the profession of a consulting engineer in connexion with mining 

 and metallurgical operations. In this capacity he, during the next 

 twenty years of his life, enjoyed abundant opportunities for travel 

 and study — gathering vast stores of knowledge concerning the 

 mode of occurrence of all kinds of mineral deposits in various parts 

 of North America, Europe, and Northern Africa. The fruits of his 

 wide experience on technological questions were given to the world 

 in a number of papers published in the ' Chemical News,' the ' Philoso- 

 phical Magazine ' and other journals, but more especially in several 

 well-known treatises. In 1852 he wrote, for the ' Encyclopaedia 

 Metropolitana,' a " Manual of Metallurgy," which after passing 

 through three editions, gave place to the more extended ' Elements of 

 Metallurgy,' published in 1874, of which a second edition was being 

 prepared with the cooperation of our Vice-President, Mr. Bauermanu, 

 at the time of the author's death. Mr. Phillips had at an early date 

 also written instructions on Gold-mininsr. based on his extensive 

 experience in California and other countries, and in 1867 appeared 

 his very valuable treatise ' The Mining and Metallurgy of Gold and 

 Silver.' Mr. Phillips's most important scientific work, however 

 was ' A Treatise on Ore Deposits,' which was published as recently 

 as 1884. In all of these works, and especially the last, geologists 

 will find large stores of valuable information, arranged in a skilful 

 manner ; and everywhere they must be struck with the rich fund 

 of knowledge which was at the command of the accomplished and 

 widely-travelled author. 



Mr. Phillips had already passed the period of middle life before 

 he found an opportunity of devoting himself to those valuable 

 petrographical researches with which his name will be chiefly 

 identified by geologists in the future. But he came to this work 

 with a mind stored with facts and observations gathered in his 

 numerous journeys, with the skill of a practical chemist and the 

 experience of an excellent mineralogist; and all these were com- 

 bined, in spite of his fifty years, with an almost boyish enthusiasm. 



