390 
OBITUARY. 
unanimously of opinion that a nominal fine would meet the ends of justice in this case. 
They would advise chemists and druggists, when selling poisons, however small the 
quantity, to enter it in a hook in all cases. They should fine the defendant 5s. and the 
costs of the case. 
Mr. Griffin rose and requested their worships to tell him what articles were included 
in the Act as poisonous, but was informed that was not a matter within the province of 
the magistrates. 
BRITISH RAINFALL. 
Mr. G. J. Symons, of 186, Camden Road, London, is desirous of our giving publicity 
to the following:— 
“I have to ask your readers’attentionforafewmoments to a request on the above subject, 
the importance of which in relation to engineering and drainage questions is well known. 
It is now some years since I began collecting returns of the fall of rain—with what success 
I will mention presently, but my main difficulty has been to find out the persons who keep 
such records, and one of the most obvious source^ of assistance is the public press ; I now, 
therefore, ask from each and every journal in the British Isles their all-powerful aid. 
When the collection was first organized in 1860, scarcely two hundred persons were 
known to observe and record the rainfall; by steady perseverance, and the aid of a por¬ 
tion of the press, the number has been raised until there are now more than 1200 places 
whence returns are regularly received. Still I know there are many more, probably 
hundreds, who have either never heard of the establishment of a central depot to which 
copies of all rain-records should be sent, or they have been too diffident to send them. 
It is of paramount importance to gather these, and make the tables yet more complete. 
I therefore beg leave, through your columns, to ask every reader to think for a moment 
if he or she knows any one who keeps, or has kept, a rain-gauge ; or who has any tables 
of rainfall (or old weather journals) in their possession. And if they do know of such 
persons, I ask them on behalf of science, of my fellow-observers, and on my own behalf, 
to use every effort to secure their assistance, and to favour me with their names and 
addresses. We want old records, we want records for the past year, and from many 
parts of the country we want returns for the future, if a few persons will notify to me 
their willingness to assist, and to pay 10s. Gd. for the very cheap and simple gauge now 
supplied.” 
©Irituarjj. 
ME. SIDNEY APPLEGATE. 
We regret to record the death of Sidney Applegate, one of the Junior Bell Scholars 
for the present Session. 
Mr. Applegate was born at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts. During his early life he gave 
indications of the possession of talent, which, had his life been prolonged, would doubtless 
have been matured by riper years. After obtaining several prizes at school and passing 
the Oxford Middle Class Examination, he was articled to his brother, Mr. Edwin Apple- 
gate, of Upper Holloway, and then passed the Classical Examination and became a Re¬ 
gistered Apprentice of the Society. 
In August of this year, having previously passed the Minor Examination, he competed 
for the Junior Bell Scholarship and obtained it, but it was soon discovered that his close 
attention to study had undermined his health, and, on his application, the Council granted 
him permission to attend only a portion of the usual time allotted to the studies connected 
with the Scholarship. His health, however, became worse, and on the day intended for 
his departure for the country fye was seized with an attack, the result of epileptic disease 
of the brain, from which he never rallied. Mr. Applegate will be remembered by his 
fellow-students as a genial friend, and by the officers of the Society as a strictly moral 
and conscientious worker in his vocation. 
MR. JOSEPH WALKER. 
We have also to record the death of Mr. Joseph Walker, Pharmaceutical Chemist, 
Bootle, Liverpool, which took place November the 12th, 1865. 
