Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Jan.  1,  1872.  J 
Obituary. 
45 
Vick's  Illustrated  Catalogue  and  Floral  Guide  for  1872.    Rochester,  N.  Y., 
James  Yick,  8  vo.  120  pages. 
We  never  refer  in  these  columns  to  trade  catalogues,  which  we  receive 
frequently.  If  we  make  an  exception  with  the  one  before  us,  it  is  done  for  two 
features  of  it,  which  we  consider  particularly  appropriate,  not  merely  to  the 
lover  of  flowers,  but  to  the  student  of  botany;  we  refer  to  the  very  numerous 
well  executed  illustrations  of  flowers  and  ornamental  plants  and  to  the  addition 
of  the  natural  order  after  the  common  names.  The  botanical  names  of  the 
species  are  given,  as  also  of  the  varieties  produced  by  cultivation.  These 
features  we  consider  a  valuable  aid  to  the  beginner,  and  even  to  the  more  ad- 
vanced botanist,  whose  time  does  not  permit  him  to  pay  much  attention  to  the 
botanical  origin  of  the  numerous  ornamental  plants  usually  cultivated. 
OBITUARY. 
Robert  James  Taylor  died  December  21st,  1871,  at  Newport,  R.  I.  The 
deceased  had  succeeded  his  father,  and  continued  the  business,  for  nearly  40 
years,  until  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  highly  esteemed  for  his  sterling  qua- 
lities as  a  man  and  citizen  in  the  community  in  which  he  spent  nearly  his  entire 
life,  and  this  respect  was  evinced  by  the  numerous  offices  of  honor  and  trust  to 
which  he  had  been  elected.  After  the  passage  of  the  law  regulating  the  prac- 
tice of  pharmacy  in  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  Governor  Padelford  appointed 
Mr.  Taylor  a  member  of  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Board,  which  office  he  held 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  American  Pharmaceu- 
tical Association  for  12  years,  and,  though  never  taking  any  active  part  in  its 
proceedings,  always  evinced  considerable  interest  in  its  welfare.  He  leaves  a 
wife,  a  daughter  and  four  sons. 
John  Balmer  died  recently  at  St.  Leonard's,  in  his  seventy-second  year. 
He  was  fond  of  experimental  pharmacy,  and  the  occupation  of  what  might  be, 
perhaps,  called  his  leisure  was  devoted  to  the  investigation  of  new  and  supposed 
better  methods  of  exhibiting  pharmaceutical  preparations.  He  was  connected 
with  the  introduction  of  pancreatic  emulsion,  of  the  sulpho-carbolates,  &c. 
George  Whipple  died,  at  an  advanced  age,  on  Oct.  31st.  He  had  been  a 
very  active  member  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain  during  the 
first  twenty  years  of  its  existence,  and  contributed  many  valuable  papers  to  the 
44  Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  Transactions."  Since  1858  he  had  been  living  in 
retirement,  in  consequence  of  advancing  years  and  declining  health. 
Dr.  Adolph  Strecker. — The  University  of  Wiirzburg  has  sustained  a  heavy 
loss  in  the  unlooked-for  death  of  this  excellent  chemist,  who  departed  this  life 
in  the  prime  of  manhood,  on  the  7th  of  November  last,  as  we  learn  from  the 
November  number  of  Buchner's  N.  Repertorium.  One  of  the  most  capable  of 
Liebig's  pupils,  he  became,  while  rather  young,  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  the 
University  of  Christiania.  Subsequently,  he  followed  a  call  to  Tubingen,  and 
about  two  years  ago  accepted  the  chair  at  Wiirzburg,  made  vacant  by  the  death 
of  Prof.  Scherer.  Many  of  Strecker's  investigations  are  of  great  importance 
to  pharmacy,  and  have  been  noticed  more  or  less  extensively  in  this  journal 
during  the  last  16  or  18  years. 
Correction. — The  paper  entitled  Solvents  for  Indigo,  published  on  page  562 
of  our  last  volume,  was  taken  from  the  "American  Chemist,"  Nov.,  1871. 
In  the  third  line,  second  column  of  the  table  on  page  9  of  this  number,  Ifiij 
should  be  corrected  so  as  to  read  ^iij. 
