294 
Notes  and  News. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
May.  1896. 
During  the  Civil  War  he  was  apothecary  to  the  Volunteer  Corps  stationed  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  city.  In  1855  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Health  of  Philadelphia.  For  many  years  he  was  President  of  the  Third  Sec- 
tional School  Board.  About  fifteen  years  ago  he  was  nominated  by  the  reform 
element  of  the  ward  for  Select  Council,  and  received  the  endorsement  of  the 
Committee  of  One  Hundred. 
The  Pharmaceutical  Examining  Board  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia  was 
created  in  1872,  and  at  the  request  of  Mayor  Stokley — who  had  been  vested  by 
the  Legislature  with  the  power  of  appointing  its  members — the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Pharmacy  submitted  names  of  representative  pharmacists  for 
appointment  on  the  Board.  Mr.  England's  name  was  on  this  list,  and,  after 
appointment,  he  served  as  a  member  of  the  Board,  and  as  its  treasurer,  until  it 
went  out  of  existence  in  1887,  upon  the  passage  of  the  law  creating  the  State 
Examining  Board.  The  local  law,  at  the  time  of  its  passage,  was  very  unpop- 
ular, but  the  aggressive  and  yet  tactful  work  of  the  Board — of  which  Mr. 
England  was  a  most  active  member — soon  won  the  respect  of  local  druggists, 
and  paved  the  way  towards  the  passage  of  the  State  law. 
Mr.  England  believ  d  that  one  of  the  evils  of  the  drug  trade  was  that  many 
pharmacists  confined  tneir  energies  too  closely  to  their  every-day  work,  instead 
of  allying  themselves  with  interests  in  the  world  at  large,  and  that  such  action, 
in  view  of  the  very  detailed  nature  of  the  drug  business,  must  oftentimes 
result  in  the  taking  of  a  too  contracted  view  of  life  and  its  real  purposes. 
Hence,  he  actively  identified  himself  with  a  number  of  charitable  and  educa- 
tional institutions.  He  was  a  member  of  St.  Paul's  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  treasurer  of  the  Board  of  Sustentation  of  the  Philadelphia  Meth- 
odist Conference.  He  was  treasurer  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference  Tract 
Society,  a  manager  of  the  Church  Extension  Society,  a  trustee  of  the  Phila- 
delphia House  of  Industry,  and  a  director  of  the  Moyamensing  Soup  Society. 
Robert  England's  sterling  qualities  were  his  sturdy  manliness,  his  high  ideals 
of  life,  his  firmness  of  purpose,  and  his  earnestness  in  fighting  for  the  right,  be 
the  result  what  it  might.  Allied  with  these  was  a  singularly  genial  and  happy 
temperament  that  persisted  all  through  life's  sunshine  and  shadows,  and 
brought  pleasure  into  the  lives  of  many.  Generous  to  a  fault,  his  greatest 
happiness  was  in  making  others  happy,  and  the  memory  of  his  being  will  live 
in  the  hearts  of  his  friends  through  the  years  to  come. 
His  wife,  two  sons  and  four  daughters  survive  him.  Both  sons  are  graduates 
of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy — the  one,  Joseph  W.,  of  the  Class  of 
'83,  the  other,  William  T.,  of  the  Class  of  '92.  W.  E.  K. 
NOTES  AND  NEWS. 
The  University  of  Chicago  has  established  a  department  of  botany,  with  J.  M. 
Coulter  as  chief  professor.  On  this  account  the  Botanical  Gazette  has  passed 
into  the  possession  of  the  same  institution,  and  will  be  issued  by  it  in  the  future. 
Professor  Wyndham  R.  Dunstan,  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society's  Research 
Laboratory,  London,  has  resigned,  to  accept  the  directorship  of  the  Department 
of  Scientific  and  Technical  Research  in  the  Imperial  Institute.  His  work  in 
the  future  will  deal  with  the  vegetable  products  of  the  Colonies  and  India. 
