AmM°ay?i904arm'}  ?n  Memoriam.  231 
hand,  he  added  the  characteristic  postscript :  "  Please  don't  call  me 
professor !  " 
The  end,  in  fact,  as  I  learned  afterwards,  had  come  to  him  with- 
out warning.  One  week  after  the  date  of  that  letter,  he  retired  to 
rest  as  usual,  but  it  was  to  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no  awakening. 
"  Heart  failure"  tells  the  whole  story,  so  far  as  is  known  to  any  of  us. 
It  was  such  an  end  as  I  am  sure  he  would  have  coveted — with  no 
period  preceding  it  of  declining  powers,  with  unfinished  work  yet 
luring  him  on. 
His  life  had  been  one  of  diversified  experiences.  Born  in  Amster- 
dam, July  14,  1843,  he  began  work  as  an  apothecary  at  the  early 
age  of  fourteen.  Later  he  attended  college  at  Hague.  About  the 
year  1868  he  received  an  appointment  under  the  Dutch  Govern- 
ment in  the  hospital  service  in  the  East  Indies.  He  was  stationed 
in  Java,  and  occupied  a  position  of  weighty  responsibility.  Here 
he  married,  his  wife  being  also  a  native  of  Holland,  and  here 
several  of  his  children  were  born.  His  health  having  become  im- 
paired, he  returned  in  1878  to  Holland,  and  then  decided  to  make 
his  home  in  America.  He  took  up  land  in  Nebraska,  and  for  five 
years  devoted  himself  to  farming.  This  life,  however,  did  not  sat- 
isfy his  higher  ambitions.  In  1883  or  1884  he  returned  to  Holland 
to  pursue  further  his  studies  in  chemistry,  and  then  accepted  a  posi- 
tion in  the  scientific  department  of  Parke,  Davis  &  Co. 
From  this  time  he  became  a  frequent  contributor  to  current 
pharmaceutical  literature.  In  1892-3  he  made  a  translation  for 
publication  of  Professor  Fliickiger's  "  Reactions  of  the  More  Import- 
ant Organic  Compounds."  About  the  same  time  he  contributed  to 
the  Apothecary  a  series  of  valuable  "  Notes  on  the  Pharmacopoeia," 
in  view  of  the  decennial  revision  then  in  progress. 
In  1895  he  accepted  the  chair  of  Applied  Pharmaceutical  Chemis- 
try in  the  Northwestern  University,  a  position  he  filled  with  distinc- 
tion for  two  years.  He  then  returned  to  Holland,  and  was  for  two 
years  an  instructor  in  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Rijks  Univer- 
sity at  Leyden. 
In  1901  he  returned  to  America  to  accept  a  position  with  a  manu- 
facturing house  in  New  Orleans ;  but  his  engagement  there  was  not 
of  long  duration.  Last  year  he  found  exactly  the  position  that 
suited  his  temperament  and  gave  opportunity  for  the  use  of  his 
accumulated  resources  of  knowledge  and  chemical  skill.    A  labora- 
