Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
August,  1887.  ./ 
Obituary. 
431 
lion  cubic  feet  per  day,  and  other  wells  over  8  million  cubic  feet ;  for  par- 
ties often  or  more  the  round  trip  for  one  fare. — To  Dayton  Soldier's  Home, 
for  ten  or  more  82.50  the  round  trip. 
Poisoning  by  chromate  of  lead. — Startling  developments  were  recently  made 
in  Philadelphia,  after  a  physician  had  traced  several  cases  of  lead  poisoning 
to  the  buns  eaten  by  the  patients,  or  rather  to  the  egg-color  used  by  the 
baker  to  give  a  rich  appearance  to  his  cakes  and  buns.  The  baker,  Palmer, 
himself  was  suffering  from  the  same  cause,  likewise  his  wife,  while  his  first 
wife  and  six  children  had  died  presumably  from  the  effects  of  this  poison. 
Eleven  fatal  cases  have  been  ascertained,  and  an  inquest  having  been  held 
on  four  of  the  victims,  the  use  of  chrome  yellow  as  an  egg  color  was  proved  ; 
also  the  presence  of  lead  in  the  viscera  determined  by  chemical  analysis. 
The  verdict  was  in  accordance  with  the  facts  proven,  and  the  baker  was 
held  to  await  the  action  of  the  grand  jury.  Suits  to  recover  damages  for 
sickness  and  death  have  also  been  entered  against  several  parties  charged 
with  adultering  and  selling  adulterated  articles  of  food  and  with  selling  poi- 
sonous coloring-matter.  The  full  extent  of  these  criminal  adulterations 
is  as  yet  not  known ;  but  it  has  been  asserted  that  chrome-yellow  had  been 
used  by  a  number  of  bakers,  noodle  manufacturers  and  confectioners. 
Many  of  the  products  sold  by  the  latter  are  required  by  the  public  to  be  of 
bright  colors,  for  which,  however,  non-poisonous  substances  are  most  likely 
employed  to  a  much  larger  extent.  In  fact  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  full  in- 
vestigation may  show  that  the  fraudulent  use  of  poisonous  coloring  matter  is 
the  rare  exception,  and  not  the  general  rule. 
OBITUARY. 
Professor  Jean  Baptiste  Joseph  Boussingault  died  in  Paris,  May  12th.  He 
was  born  in  1802,  devoted  himself  in  his  studies  chiefly  to  chemistry  and 
mineralogy,  and  subsequently  traveled  for  several  years  in  the  northern 
and  western  regions  of  South  America.  On  his  return  to  France,  in  1838, 
he  was  called  to  the  Chair  of  Chemistry  in  the  College  of  Lyons,  and  a  few 
years  later  accepted  a  call  to  Paris  as  Professor  of  Agricultural  Chemistry, 
to  which  branch  his  later  scientific  researches  were  mainly  devoted.  The 
earlier  volumes  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  contain  a  number  of 
his  papers,  embracing  investigations  from  both  his  fields  of  labor  in  Lyons 
and  Paris,  the  latter  being  of  particular  importance  and  simultaneous 
with  similar  researches  by  Liebig,  Dumas  and  others  in  physiological  and 
agricultural  chemistry. 
Frederick  Wolfrum  died  in  Augsburg,  May  15.  He  was  born  in  Hof,  Bava- 
ria, September  22, 1818,  and,  after  finishing  his  apprenticeship  in  pharmacy, 
studied  for  two  years  at  the  University  of  Munich,  passing  the  State's  ex- 
amination in  1S40.    He  established  himself  in  business  in  Kaufbeuren,  and 
