58 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
November, 1882. 
joining the botanical excursions, which are of such vital 
importance, as it is in the field where we best find opportunities 
to exercise, apply and improve our botanical knowledge ; 
while at the same time a love for the pure pleasures connected 
with the collecting, studying, and preserving botanical speci- 
mens is created. John Kruse. 
©bituarjj. 
MR. HENRY JAMES LONG. 
The death of Mr. Henry James Long, of 183 Bourke-street 
East, Melbourne, which took place on the 6th of last month, 
removed from us one of the earliest and most respected of 
our colonists, and lessened the number of the best-known mem- 
bers of our profession. Mr. Long was a native of Bath, Eng- 
land, and came to this part of the world with his family in 
1839, when only seven years of age. His father, Mr. D. R. 
Long, had been in business in Bath for some years, and he 
emigrated hither when, as need hardly be said, this colony 
was in the very early days of its existence. He built the well- 
known establishment at the corner of Bourke and Stephen 
streets, when that part of Melbourne was still in the “ bush” 
stage, and he was regarded as having made a somewhat 
hazardous experiment by starting a business “quite out into 
the country,” where he could not, his friends told him, expect 
to get much custom. At that time Melbourne hardly existed 
east of Elizabeth-street ; Richmond, where Mr. Long at first 
lived, was the only suburb, and the journey thither was through 
thick forest. Mr. H. J. Long was trained to his father’s 
business, and in 1854 he was taken into partnership, and the 
firm then became known as D. R. Long and Son. In 1857 the 
elder Mr. Long retired, and Dr. Neild, who, on coming to the 
colony in 1853, had given up the regular practice of his pro- 
fession, joined Mr. H. J. Long, and, until 1861, when Dr. 
Neild resumed practice, the firm was Long and Neild. It then 
again became Long and Son, and so continued until the melan- 
choly occurrence which caused the death of the junior partner. 
For many years the firm carried on an extensive wholesale 
business as well as enjoying a large retail connection, princi- 
pally among the old colonists, to whom the Messrs. Long were 
well known, and by whom they were greatly respected. Indeed, 
there are very few instances in this city of a building continu- 
ing to be devoted for so long a time to its original purpose as 
this corner has been. “ Long’s, the chemist’s,” in fact, has 
come to be quite an institution ; and while nearly every other 
house in the street has changed its business — some a great 
many times — this remains exactly as it was years before the 
goldfields era began, and, as Mr. H. J. Long’s eldest son has 
been educated to the business, and will carry it on, it is not 
likely there will be any change for some time to come. 
And Mr. II. J. Long himself never diverged into any pursuit 
other than that of a pharmaceutical chemist. He thoroughly 
understood his business, and was fastidiously conscientious in 
the practice of it ; and in the dispensing branch of it, we need 
hardly say, the importance of care and conscientiousness cannot 
be overrated. Neither did he ever permit himself to take any 
part in public affairs, although, as an old colonist, being so com- 
pletely familar with the progress of Victoria, he would have been 
very useful, especially in municipal work. Privately, how- 
ever, he took a warm interest in whatever concerned the 
general weal and in the brotherhood to which he belonged. 
His relations with the medical profession were of the best 
kind, for he held decided views upon the obligation of the 
pharmacist to limit himself to his specific duties. 
His sudden death by an overdose of morphia caused a pain- 
ful regret in the minds of his many friends, and to his 
relations it was necessarily a most distressing shock. He left 
a widow and five children, the eldest of whom, as has been 
said, will continue the business to which he has been brought 
up, so that the familiar corner will, in all probability, retain the 
appearance to which the public have so long been accustomed. 
We regret that we have to announce the death of Professor 
Dr. Fredrich Wohler, the illustrious chemist, at the age of 
eighty-three years. This eminent man passed away on the 
23rd of September, after a short illness, to use the language of 
one of his friends who P'ves in our midst, “a sad and irrepar- 
able loss to science and to his wide circle of friends ; but the 
lustre which this bright spirit shed on chemical science can 
never be dimmed.” 
REMINISCENCES OF A PHARMACIST. 
(By J. B. Mummery.) 
( Continued .) 
A Charge of Embezzlement. 
The other case I mentioned, as occurring to myself, was of 
quite as outrageous, although of a different nature. 
Some years after I had served the public in the capacity of 
postmaster, and more than twelve months after resigning its 
duties, I happened to be riding in the neighbourhood of Cook’s 
River, and drew up at a water-trough outside a public-house 
for the purpose of refreshing my steed. During the few 
minutes in which the animal was quenching his thirst, a man 
(evidently a sheet and three-quarters in the wind) emerged 
from the hotel, and commenced forthwith to pour upon me a 
regular cataract of abuse. His language was by no means fit 
for ears polite, and it was fortunate that there were no houses 
near, so that his vituperation was poured out to but few, if any, 
hearers beyond myself. 
As the man was a perfect stranger to me, and I could not 
recollect ever having seen him before, I came to the conclusion 
either that he had mistaken me for some one else, or that he was 
an escapee from “ Tarban Creek.” The solution of the matter, 
however, came in due time, and it was this : — The irascible 
individual informed me that three or four years previously he 
had duly placed in my hands a letter, directed to his friends in 
“ Old Ireland,” and as no answer had been returned to the 
epistle, the sender had not sense enough to account for the 
fact, in any other way, than that the postmaster had pocketed 
the sixpence and destroyed his letter. 
The gentleman in whose service the young lady who wanted 
the postmaster to open his letter had been, was the son-in-law 
of a famous character in convict history, whose chequered 
career was brought to a close at Newtown some twenty or 
twenty-five years ago. This was no less a personage than 
Margaret Catchpole, the Suffolk Girl. 
Many of my readers have, no doubt, read a book under the 
above title. The work is now, I think, almost extinct ; I know 
that I have made many attempts of late years to procure a copy, 
but without success. I read it myself on the voyage out to 
Sydney, but this was long before I knew the heroine, and con- 
sequently it did not possess the same interest for me as it would 
have done afterwards, but for the information of such of my 
readers as have not seen the book in question, I will relate in 
brief the circumstances as they occur to my recollection. 
A noted smuggler of the name of Laws, I think (or something 
sounding like it), got into trouble over his nefarious business, 
and would undoubtedly have fallen into thehandsof the officers 
of the law, and paid the penalty of his misdeeds (which 
penalty in those days, I believe, was death), but for the heroic 
devotion of his sweetheart, a girl whose name is mentioned 
above. 
This young female, with a true woman’s love, thinking of 
nothing but the danger to the object of her affections, pressed 
a horse into the service, and rode the animal a great distance 
in a marvellously short space of time for the purpose of aiding 
in some way her lover’s escape. This she accomplished under 
circumstances which not only made her name famous from 
one end of England to another, but even caused her to be 
regarded as a heroine in humble life. As, however, the steed 
did not belong to Margaret, but to a gentleman who had an 
objection to parting with it, even for such a purpose as aiding 
in a smuggler’s escape, she was taken up, tried, and sentenced 
to transportation. 
What became of her quondam lover I do not recollect, but 
Margaret, after serving her sentence in New South Wales, 
married a well-to-do squatter, who had become enamoured of 
her personal charms, with whom she lived for many years a 
most exemplary life. When her husband died he left her 
well-provided for, and with a family of sons and daughters, 
some of the former occupying at this day posts of honour and 
influence in the sister colony. 
I have at this moment a lively recollection of a venerable 
lady, with hair as white as driven snow, possessing even at 
her advanced age traces of former beauty, who used to drive 
up to my door in a carriage and pair worthy of the Governor. 
This was “ Margaret Catchpole,” the Suffolk girl. 
A Memorable Event. 
Of all the varied scenes which arise to my memory after the 
lapse of many years there are none which present themselves 
