238 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 17, 1870 . 
THE LATE BENJAMIN BROGDEN ORRIDGE. 
“On the 17th July, at his residence, 33, St. John’s 
Wood Park, Benjamin Brogden Orridge, Esq., E.G.S., 
in the 57th year of his age.” 
This brief announcement, which appeared in our co¬ 
lumns a few weeks ago, probably conveyed to most of 
our readers little beyond the fact that a man active in 
business and without reproach in his conduct of transac¬ 
tions involving no ordinary responsibility and delicacy, 
had passed from our midst. To some, it is true, the 
words might have a deeper meaning, but the life they 
referred to had been so unostentatious that, even to col¬ 
leagues in various engagements of a public character, it 
seemed to be associated with the single sphere of work 
they had in common. Of a many-sided existence, even 
his fellow-labourers saw but that which reflected the 
object they were mutually engaged upon, or at most it 
showed but a glimpse of its other phases. Hence a few 
details, meagre though they be, and gathered not without 
difficulty for this very reason, may have an interest alike 
for some who enjoyed his personal friendship, and others 
who knew him but by name or in connection with the 
Council of our Society. 
Mr. Orridge was bom at Malta in the year 1814. His 
father then held an official position in the island, which 
he resigned about the year 1820, and returning to Eng¬ 
land, settled at Oakham, in Rutlandshire, as Governor of 
the county jail. Here the boyhood of his son, the sub¬ 
ject of our memoir, was spent, and during his educa¬ 
tion at the Oakham Grammar School, under the late 
Dr. Dancaster, he had for schoolfellows Noble and Pratt 
and others who have since become famous. In 1827, 
whilst still a lad, he lost his mother, and a year or two 
later we are told that he was apprenticed to his uncle, a 
chemist at Colchester. Beyond this we have no par¬ 
ticulars of his early life. 
Arrived at manhood he removed to London, and we 
hear of him shortly afterwards as Dispenser to the Mary- 
lebone Infirmary. He entered the Pharmaceutical So¬ 
ciety as one of its founders, and, at a later period, settled 
in the City as a confidential agent in the transfer of 
pharmaceutical businesses and medical practices, acquir¬ 
ing eventually a high reputation for probity and skill in 
■such negotiations. 
Separated by the nature of the occupation he had 
chosen from the actual practice of pharmacy, he still 
found an ample sphere of usefulness to his fellow-mem¬ 
bers, giving his attention to such objects as the scrutiny 
of measures of general or local legislation likely to affect 
the interests of pharmaceutists. But the subject he 
laid to heart above all was the Benevolent Fund, its con¬ 
dition and prospects; and chiefly with a view to effect¬ 
ing- some alterations in its administration, he allowed 
himself to be nominated for the Council in 1864, when 
his well-known name secured his immediate election. 
It is needless to recount his various efforts in respect 
to the Fund, he was not less zealous in its augmentation 
than urgent in its liberal distribution; nor is it too much 
to say that to Mr. Orridge more than to any other single 
member, its present noble dimensions are attributable. 
Others worked with him and heartily, but to his clear 
judgment and appreciation of its proper scope we owe 
the wider basis on which it at present rests, and many 
may bless him for the provision it now affords to en¬ 
feebled age and desolate widowhood. 
Such is the simple chronicle of his life so far as im¬ 
mediately concerns us ; he had done his work, and only 
resigned his seat in our Council a few months before his 
death. 
This, however, is but one sphere in which his active 
mind courted usefulness. He was a good citizen, and 
ever ready to work for the common weal. His earliest 
public services in the City were in connection with the 
Cheap "Ward Benevolent Fund, of which he was for 
many years the Treasurer; and upon his recent retire¬ 
ment from that office the members accorded to him an 
emblazoned vote of thanks, as their testimony to the 
value of his labours. In 1865 he was elected to repre¬ 
sent the Ward of Cheap in the Corporation of the City of 
London, and soon found a department in which his 
special qualifications met with congenial employment; 
he was at once appointed to the “ Library Committee,” 
and in 1868 was chosen its Chairman. A valued member 
of our Society, a colleague in the City Council, thus speaks 
of him :—“ As Chairman of the Library Committee, he 
was over-zealous and over-anxious, and went to the work 
as if that alone were the labour of his days, instead of 
giving only that part which a man of business can afford 
to take from the steady routine of active and thoughtful 
life.” He was greatly interested in the history of City life 
under the Tudors and Stuarts, and whilst he held office as 
Chairman of this Committee, he ascertained that, hidden 
amongst the old papers of the Town Clerk’s Office in 
Guildhall, was a large collection of copies on parchment 
of letters from Queen Elizabeth, James the First, Charles 
the First, and their Ministers, to the Lord Mayor of 
London, between the years 1577 and 1640. He prepared 
an abstract of some of these relating to plays and players, 
and matters of religion, which was printed in the Athe- 
nceum last autumn; and in the spring of the present year 
he moved for and obtained an instruction to the Library 
Committee to examine and report upon the discovery 
referred to, and generally upon the condition of the 
Corporation Archives. 
His literary labours were chiefly directed to archaeolo¬ 
gical subjects. In 1868, he published a work entitled 
‘ The Citizens of London and their Rulers,’ the historical 
portion being reprinted from Norton’s ‘ Commentaries of 
London ;’ and in the following year was a contributor to 
the ‘ Proceedings of the London and Middlesex Archaeo¬ 
logical Society.’ At the time of his death he had a vo¬ 
lume in the press on ‘ The City Friends of Shakespere,’ 
which we understand is likely to appear almost imme¬ 
diately. Had his life been spared, these might have been 
but the beginning of a series of such works, for which he 
always maintained that material enough existed in neg¬ 
lected and forgotten corners of the City. 
Need we say more F His monument is with us in the 
Benevolent Fund; may the loss it has suffered in his 
removal be more than compensated by the increased ac¬ 
tivity of those younger members of our body whose wel¬ 
fare was ever an object of his solicitude. 
H. B. Brady. 
Poisoning' by Carbolic Acid. —An inquest has 
been held at Ulverston, upon a man named Lace, whose 
death had resulted from the drinking of some carbolic 
acid. It appears that it is the custom to use carbolic 
acid as a disinfectant at the sewage tanks, by pouring it 
in as often as a bad smell arises. On the day in question 
two gallons had been obtained for this purpose, and 
when the men went away to get something to eat, the 
bottle was left standing by the side of the tank. The 
deceased who had formerly been employed on the pre¬ 
mises, seems to have mistaken the contents for raw 
spirit, which was sometimes served out to the men who 
worked at the tank, and, although it was labelled 
“Poison,” drank about a gill of it. He was immedi¬ 
ately seized with symptoms of poisoning, and died about 
twelve hours afterwards. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ Sept. 10; the ‘Medical Times and Gazette/ 
Sept. 10; the ‘Lancet/ Sept. 10; the ‘Medical Press/ Sept. 
14 ; ‘Nature/ Sept. 8 ; the ‘ Chemical News/ Sept. 9 ; ‘Journal 
oft he Society of Arts/ Sept. 9 ; ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle/ Sept. 
10; the ‘Grocer/ Sept. 10; the ‘English Mechanic/ Sept. 9; 
the ‘ Pharmacist’ for September. 
