The late Dr. Voelcker. 
309 
-decline to undertake the duty of endeavouring to do some 
justice to the memory of my most intimate scientific friend. 
I fear, however, that more will be expected of me than I am 
at all able to accomplish. Some account of the personal historj', 
so to speak, of one who has been so well known for so many 
years, not only to the readers of the ' Journal,' to which he con- 
tributed so much, but to a great number of the members of the 
Society throughout the country, will of course be desired ; and 
not the less acceptable will be such an account to his numerous 
former college students and laboratory pupils, many of whom 
are distributed in distant countries. But something also as to 
his work, undertaken for the progress of Agriculture, and of his 
influence on that progress, throughout his career, will doubtless 
be looked for. Indeed, the plan I contemplated was to attempt 
to give a brief outline of the scope and results of his inde- 
fatigable labours. But on looking over his numerous papers 
and published lectures, the very wealth of material available 
for such a purpose, showed it to be quite impracticable to 
attempt to give any systematic account of it. I trust, therefore, 
that the readers of the ' Journal ' will be satisfied with the very 
instructive narrative of the life of their late friend and teacher, 
and such reference to the work he accomplished, as may guide 
them to search for themselves among the stores of knowledge 
■embodied in his own very voluminous writings. 
