The late Dr. Voelckcr. 
319 
experimental wheat-field at Rothamsted. Among the nineteen 
numbered paragraphs of conclusions given at the end of his 
paper in the Society's ' Journal,' a large number relate to the 
loss of nitrogen as nitrates in drainage-waters, a subject which 
has also been fully illustrated in Rothamsted papers. But the 
determination of all the mineral constituents in so large a 
number of drainage- waters of known history, as to the manuring 
of the soil, and as to the crops grown, is a work at once ot 
immense labour and of great value, which has not been under- 
taken bv any one else. It must suffice here to quote one para- 
graph of Dr. Voelcker's conclusions, relating to the suscep- 
tibility or otherwise to loss, of the mineral constituents by 
drainage : — 
" Whilst phosphoric acid and potash, which are the most 
valuable components of soils and manures, are retained in the 
land almost entirely, lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, chlorine, 
and soluble silica, or the less important, because more abundant 
and widely-distributed, mineral matters, pass into the waters 
of land-drainage in considerable quantities." 
In the earlier years Dr. Voelcker frequently contributed 
papers at the Meetings of the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science. He was elected a member of the Chemical 
Society in 1849 ; was several times a member of the Council 
of the Societv : and was one of its Vice-Presidents at the time 
of his death. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 
1870. He was one of the founders, and one of the first V ice- 
Presidents, of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and 
Ireland, established in 1877. It may be added that he was 
elected a Member of the Athenaeum Club in 18S1. 
Referring to his connection with specially Agricultural Insti- 
tutions : — he was Honorary ^Member of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
Hanover, and of the Imperial Agricultural Society of Vienna. 
He was Examiner in Chemistry to the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, and to the Royal College of Veterinarv 
Surgeons. He was a member of the Board of Studies of the 
Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and in 1882, he was 
appointed Honorary Professor at the same College, an appoint- 
ment which, however, only required the delivery of one lecture 
annually. As already mentioned, he was for thirty years Con- 
sulting Chemist to the Bath and West of England Agricultural 
Society, — a position in which his son, Dr. John Augustus 
Voelcker, succeeds him. He was Consulting Chemist to the 
Lincolnshire, and to some other Provincial Agricultural Societies. 
He was for many years an active Member of the London Farmers' 
Club ; and perhaps the highest testimony to the appreciation of 
