December 23, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
517 
In reply to Mr. Meredith, it was stated that this was 
the first offence of the nature in which proceedings had 
"been taken in this district. 
Mr. Hughes said his client bore a good character. For 
six or seven years he had been dispenser in the surgery 
of Dr. Williams, of Wrexham; and, subsequently, he 
was employed as an assistant to Dr. Davies. He re¬ 
gretted extremely to have to appear before the Bench. 
The offence charged was not of a very seiious nature, 
the only offence being not having his name printed on 
the label; and he hoped the magistrates would mitigate 
the maximum penalty, which was £5. 
Fined 4Os. and costs, Mr. Meredith advising the de¬ 
fendant to he very careful in future. 
Robbery by a Chemist’s Assistant. 
At the Newcastle Police Court, December 4th, James 
Marlee, 19 years of age, was charged with stealing £25, 
belonging to his master, Mr. Boe, chemist, Hinde Street, 
Scotswood Road; whilst a woman named Isabella Pear¬ 
son, aged 30 years, was charged with receiving the 
money, knowing it to have been stolen. It appeared 
that on Monday the prosecutor sent Marlee with £25 
and the bank book to Messrs. Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease 
and Co.’s bank to deposit the money, but he never re¬ 
turned to the shop. Information was given to the police, 
and on inquiries being made it was found that he was 
cohabiting with the female prisoner, who is a married 
woman, but living apart from her husband. It was also 
ascertained that they had taken part in furnishing a 
house in Wellington Street. Detective-officer Fawcett 
traced them to this house, and found them there, about 
half-past twelve o’clock at night. Marlee was concealed 
in an inner room, with the door fast on the inside, when 
the officer entered the house, but shortly afterwards he 
was apprehended and sent to the police-station. Fawcett 
searched the house, but could not find the bank book or 
the money, and the woman denied having any know¬ 
ledge of the robbery. About two o’clock in the 
morning, Fawcett, accompanied by Superintendent 
Dixon, returned to the house and a second search was 
made, during which Pearson pointed to the bank book, 
which was lying in the place that had been searched be¬ 
fore. In a water closet they found a purse containing 
£2. 135. The officers then took the woman into custody. 
It was proved that the money in question had not been 
deposited in the bank, and the magistrates then re¬ 
manded the prisoners for a week. 
On December 12th, the prisoners were brought up on 
Demand, when prosecutor informed the court that he had 
received £ 10 from the lad’s father, and he did not wish the 
matter to be carried further. The magistrates reminded 
Mr. Boe that the compounding of a felony constituted an 
offence against the law, and that the case must proceed. 
Marlee was then committed for two months, with hard 
labour, and the woman, who has been cohabiting with 
the other prisoner, was discharged .—Newcastle Daily 
Chronicle. 
fxtMtfo. 
Useful Chemical Tables, arranged for the use of 
Teachers and Students. By Adolphus Collenette, 
Professor of Chemistry, Elizabeth College, Guernsey. 
(F. Clarke, publisher. Price Qcl.) 
Cynics say that laziness, and not necessity, is the 
mother of invention, but it is unfair so to designate the 
sincere endeavours of an intelligent mind to smooth and 
make straight the paths of science. Mr. Collenette, in 
compiling these tables, has certainly taken a step in the 
right direction. They will become more useful to phar¬ 
macists than the author is aware of, he, apparently, only 
recommending them to teachers. How many pharma¬ 
cists there are, men of this generation, who "may have 
passed with honours five or six years ago, and are yet 
quite at sea with the new notation ! It is here so simpli¬ 
fied that the veriest tyro in chemistry may see the whole 
thing at a glance. The oxides, sulphides and chlorides 
of the sixty-three elements are all tabulated and the 
number and manner of their respective unions visible at 
once. To damn with faint praise is perhaps as bad as 
unqualified laudation, so before the compiler proceeds 
further (and we hope he may), his attention must be 
called to one or two points. 
What necessity exists for establishing such a marked 
difference between metals and metalloids P a word gene¬ 
rally objected to by physicists of the day, and not without 
reason, its meaning being contrary to its application. 
Even should, however, the compiler view II, etc. as the 
gaseous state of hydrogenium, etc., the objection grows 
stronger; the so-called metalloids becoming metals. The 
incorrect succession of the molecular arrangement of the 
combining elements would be likely to mislead a student, 
had not the author given his reasons for deviating from 
that course, which are, perhaps, advantageous from a 
professorial point of view, but seem odd from a purely 
scientific stand-point. A few apparent discrepancies 
are accounted for by the author, by having followed Dr. 
Frankland’s plan, “ whose hypothesis of absolute, latent 
and active atomicity gives a clear and reasonable expla¬ 
nation of the poly-atomicity of some elements.” 
The tables will prove of immense value to practical 
chemists, giving at a glance the various combinations of 
the elements with O, Cl and S. The blank forms at¬ 
tached can easily be filled-in for iodides, bromides, hy¬ 
drates, acids, etc. ; and it is to be hoped that the compiler 
will enlarge upon the idea, and give us a few more of 
these “useful tables.” 
BERTHOLD SEEMANN, Ph.D., M.A., Y.P.A.S.L., 
F.L.S., F.R.G.S., etc. 
It is our sad duty to chronicle the death of Dr. 
Seemann, the well-known botanist and traveller. He 
was born at Hanover, February 28th, 1825, and was 
educated at the Lyceum of his native town ; Dr. Grote- 
fend, a celebrated scholar, being at that time head 
master. 
Dr. Seemann published his first article when only seven¬ 
teen years of age; but his botanical career may be said 
to have commenced from 1846, when he was appointed 
naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, then on a surveying expe¬ 
dition in the Pacific. He left England in August, 1846 ; 
but on his arrival at Panama the ‘ Herald’ and ‘Pandora’ 
had not returned from Vancouver’s Island, and he pro¬ 
fited by the delay to explore the greater part of the 
Isthmus. His observations were extended to every 
branch of science. On the return of the ‘ Herald ’ to 
Panama he joined, and remained with her until the com¬ 
pletion of her voyage. 
He also took the opportunity of making himself ac¬ 
quainted with the Pacific coast of South and Central 
America by frequent journeys inland, traversing Peru 
and Ecuador, and crossing the Cordillera of the Andes to 
Loja, one of the Cinchona regions. In his journey 
through part of Mexico he narrowly escaped with his 
life from the Comanche and Alpache Indians. In 1848, 
the ‘ Herald,’ in company with other vessels, made three 
attempts to reach the Arctic regions to search for Sir 
John Franklin. In 1850 the ‘ Herald ’ began her home¬ 
ward voyage, staying for some time at Hongkong, Singa¬ 
pore, etc., and reached England in 1851. I he narrative 
of this voyage Dr. Seemann, at the request of the Ad¬ 
miralty, published in 2 vols. 8vo, under the title of 
