VoL. ii., No. 5. THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 135 
WILLIAM JOHNSON, 
Late Governmeiit Analtst. 
William JoHNSOH, born 1825, died 1887. On April 16, 1887, 
Mr. William Johnson, one of the original members of the 
Pharmaceutical Society, and for many years Government 
analyst, died at his residence, at the age of 61 years. The 
portrait above is said, by those who knew him, to be excellent. 
It is engraved from a photograph taken some fourjyears ago. 
From various sources, including “Victorian Men of The 
Time,” we gather the following account of his life He was 
the seventh son of the late John Johnson, salt manufacturer, 
of Congleton, in the Peak district of England. He was horn 
in 1825, and at the age of 14 was apprenticed at Macclesfield 
to follow the calling of a chemist and druggist. After serv- 
ing in various parts of England he became, in 1844, a pupil 
of Professor Redwood, and the late Professors Pereira, 
Fownes, and Thomson. In 1846 he commenced business in 
Birkenhead, and in conjunction with Professor Archer (now of 
Glasgow) was appointed lecturer on botany and chemistry at 
St. Aidan’s College, at Birkenhead. He arrived in Melbourne 
in the year 1853, and shortly after landing erected an imported 
house at St. Kiida, and commenced business as a chemist and 
photographic artist, photography at that time being a novelty. 
When the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria was founded 
in 1857, Mr. Johnson was one of the most active workers. 
He was a member of the first Council, and he edited the 
“ Quarterly Journal of Transactions ” in conjunction with 
Mr.^ J. Bosisto, now M.L.A., during 1858, but unassisted 
during 1859 to 1861. The insufficient support given to 
the publication led to its discontinuance, but Mr. Johnson’s 
increasing avocations would have constrained him to relin- 
quish the post. Mr. Johnson was elected vice-president of 
the Society in March, 1859, and was president from 1864 till 
1873, and in 1877-78. He remained a member of the Council 
for some years after this. He was elected trustee of the 
Benevolent Fund in 1877. In 1858 he was employed by the 
Yan Yean Water Supply Commission to report generally, in 
conjunction with Professors Brande and Taylor, of London, 
upon the quality of the water ; the same year was engaged by 
the Government of Victoria to test the quality of the various 
sorts of freestone found in the Australasian colonies, with a 
view to the selection of the best material for building the 
Melbourne Houses of Parliament. In 1866 he was appointed 
by the Government of Victoria to succeed the late Dr. 
Macadam as Government analytical chemist, and has 
held this post ever since. Mr. Johnson’s duties in the 
Government ^ service extended through every branch in 
which he might be needed, but the greater portion of his 
work was connected with the departments of Police, Customs, 
Railways, Post Office, and Central Board of Health. 
When the Pharmacy Act was passed in 1876 he was selected 
by the Government as one of the members of the first Board 
of Pharmacy appointed to carry out the Pharmacy and 
Poisons Acts ; he was long the examiner in chemistry. Mr. 
Johnson has taken great interest in, and has been intimately 
connected with, all the industrial exhibitions that have been 
held in Victoria. At the Melbourne International Exhi- 
bition of 1880-81 he was chairman of the jury appointed to 
judge malt liquors; also chairman of the jury selected to 
attest aerated waters, liquors, syrups, Ac. He served also as 
a member of the jury judging chemicals and perfumery. 
With the general public he was most nearly brought in con- 
tact by means of the frequency with which he was called upon 
to give evidence during the past quarter of a century in many 
very important criminal prosecutions. He also gave the 
results of his analyses in innumerable prosecutions for adul- 
teration. In all these matters his evidence was marked by 
strong indications of care and conscientiousness. Tho 
cleverest barristers fully recognised that there was nothing to 
be gained by any attempt at cross-examination. In his evi- 
dence in cWef Mr. Johnson was invariably lucid, and it was 
safe to conclude that he never either overstated or under- 
stated the facts science enabled him to grasp. Whenever 
science was at fault he did not hesitate to say to. His evi- 
dence in a criminal case where the turning point was the 
decision whether certain blood was human or animal is still 
remembered. One of his few friends, Baron Sir Ferdinand; 
von Mueller, has furnished us with the following par- 
ticulars : — Mr. Johnson was a gentleman of the most genial 
disposition, an original and powerful thinker, as shown by 
several essays of his, such as that on the constitution of th® 
globe. He was a most painstaking operator in the chemical 
laboratory, where various products, such as the nitrate of 
silver, were for many years prepared on a large commercial 
scale. Doubtless his close application to chemical work 
brought about the ailment to which he succumbed. He- 
gave also some time, on my suggestion, to investigate 
products of native plants, and thus furnished some of the' 
essential oils for the Victorian Exhibition of 1862, and the- 
London Exhibition of 1863. Later he brought into notice for 
the first time the valuable oil oiPimis insignis as a remarkable^ 
product. His surroundings were of exquisite taste, such as- 
the corridors with conservatory plants, the fern-tree-gully at 
the rear of his premises (annually lighted up for a great and 
charming family festival), the oil paintings, the many 
splendid and costly apparatus for his professional work, al! 
evincing a high sense of the beautiful. Withal he was most 
unassuming, living unostentatiously for his profession and his 
researches. His eldest son is a highly-accomplished medical 
practitioner at Mount Gambler, being a F.R.C.S. of Lon- 
don. His second son continues the renowned pharmacy* 
For about two years Mr. Johnson’s health had not been good. 
He suffered from weakness of the heart and bronchitis, and 
about six months ago the former became so aggravated that 
he had to take to his bed. He never recovered sufficiently to 
leave the house, and as already stated died on the morning of 
April 16. 
He was twice married, and leaves one daughter and the 
sons mentioned above. 
Medical Board. — Mr. E. M. James, of Melbourne, has been 
appointed to the vacancy on the Medical Board of Victoria, 
caused by the death of Dr. Blair. 
Medical Students. — We understand that a larger number 
of students have enrolled for the medical curriculum at the 
University of Melbourne than ever known before in the his- 
tory of the University. In the first session there were three 
students, last year about seventy, while this year one hun- 
dred entries have been made. For the new sciences for the 
Bachelor of Science degree there are only six entries, yet this 
is fairly promising. 
Mr. James Watson, of 92 Wellington-street, Collingwood,, 
has sold his business to Mr. Bendelack. 
! Rocke, Tompsitt and Co, V. Wilson and M‘Kinnon, pro- 
prietors of The Ai'gus. This case was heard on March 28 and 
29 in the Supreme Court, before Mr. Justice Holroyd and a 
special jury of twelve. The plaintiffs sued the proprietors of 
for libel and for £2000 damages. Mr. Hood and 
Mr. Hodges were for the plaintiffs, and Mr. Piirves, Q.C., and 
Dr. Madden for defendants. The cause of action was the- 
following paragraph, published in The Argus on January 1st, 
1886 : — “ The attention of the Merchant Shipping and Under- 
writers’ Association, Melbourne, has been called to the fact 
that the s.s. “Port Victor,” which arrived here on the 7th 
December, brought a consignment of 115 cases, in all about 
13 tons, of bisulphide of carbon, a chemical of a most volatile 
