30 
TIIE LATE ME. BAREY. 
tinguished himself during a brief career. In 1834 he ascended Mont Blanc, 
and published an account of what was then a rare feat. He received the 
Gold Medal, of the Royal Society, of which he also was a Fellow, for his 
physiological researches. 
Mr. Barry himself early evinced unusual ability. Whilst still young he 
was deprived of both his parents. The direction of the education of the younger 
members of the family thus devolved upon him, and was carried out with cha¬ 
racteristic assiduity and intelligence. 
When about fifteen years of age he entered the establishment of Messrs. 
Allen and Howard, of Plough Court, Lombard Street. Here he soon displayed 
the sterling qualities of his character, and in a few years gained the entire con¬ 
fidence and firm friendship of Mr. Allen, to whom, indeed, he rendered himself 
almost indispensable. It was not long before he succeeded in reorganizing the 
old establishment, which even at that time had been carried on for three-quarters 
of a century, impressing upon it much of the systematic precision of arrangement 
which has ever since characterized it. 
At this time Mr. Allen was lecturer at Guy’s Hospital on Chemistry and Na¬ 
tural Philosophy; and Mr. Barry pursued certain branches of medical science 
in the same school, intending at this period to follow the medical profession, 
but the state of his health compelled him ultimately to relinquish the project. 
In anatomy he particularly distinguished himself. His talents were especially 
noticed by Sir Astley Cooper, who in subsequent years spoke very strongly of 
the brilliant success he might have commanded had he devoted himself to the 
practice of surgery. 
About the year 1817 Mr. Barry applied the method of evaporating in vacuo 
to the production of pharmaceutical extracts. Under the celebrated patent of 
Mr. E. C. Howard, the principle was already applied in the refining of sugar. 
Mr. Barry invented a very ingenious apparatus for the purpose, which he pa¬ 
tented, expecting it to be used in some important manufactures, but he declined 
to patent the process as applied to pharmaceutical purposes, thus leaving it open 
for the adoption of the trade. 
The apparatus was peculiar, in not requiring the use of an air pump. It con¬ 
sisted essentially of a distillatory apparatus, immersed in a water-hath to prevent 
the ingress of air, with a large receiver attached at the end of the condenser. 
Into this receiver a pipe from a steam boiler opened, and streams of cold water 
could be made to play over its exterior. The vacuum was obtained by displacing 
the air from the receiver by a jet of steam, then condensing the steam, and re¬ 
peating the process as often as required. Each “ blowing” was calculated tore- 
move four-fifths of the air from the apparatus, and thus, after a few repetitions, 
the mercury in the gauge would rise to within an inch and a half or two inches 
of the height of the barometer. Mr. Barry stated, that in actual practice the 
gauge commonly stood at 28 inches even during active ebullition, which was 
then kept up by a temperature of from 95° to 100° FA' This arrangement was 
efficient, and easily worked ; but it has never come into general use. Perhaps 
the most interesting part of the apparatus, at the present day, is the condenser , 
which was arranged in every respect exactly as that which is now known as 
“ Liebig’s Condenser.” 
The importance of guarding against inaccuracy in making and errors in using 
poisonous articles deeply impressed Mr. Barry, and so early as about the year 
1814 he introduced the plan of keeping the few poisons admitted upon the dis¬ 
pensing shelves in angidar bottles, whilst all the more virulent poisons were kept 
altogether apart. His method of adjusting the strength of hydrocyanic acid 
was greatly in advance of the time, and especially elicited the approbation of his 
* Med. CIxir. Trans., 1st scries, vol. x. pt. 1, 1819. 
