640 
Obituary. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm,, 
Dec,  1885. 
OBITUARY. 
Henry  B.  Parsons,  one  of  the  most  talented  and  indefatigable  of  the 
younger  American  chemists,  died  August  21st,  at  Tucson,  Arizona,  aged 
30  years.  He  was  born  in  Syria,  where  his  father  was  stationed  as  a  mis- 
sionary, and  was  educated  in  the  United  States,  graduating  as  Pharma- 
ceutical Chemist  from  the  University  of  Michigan  in  1876.  He  retained 
his  connection  with  the  University  as  assistant  in  the  school  of  pharmacy 
for  the  following  two  years,  and  for  the  next  three  years  accepted  the  posi- 
tion of  Assistant  Chemist  in  the  Agricultural  Department  at  Washington, 
occupying  also  for  one  session  the  chair  of  Materia  Medica  and  Botany  in 
the  National  College  of  Pharmacy.  In  1881  he  removed  to  New  York,  to 
take  charge  of  the  laboratory  of  W.  H.  Schieflelin  &  Co.,  and  subsequently 
became  editor  of  the  "Druggists'  Circular."  In  these  various  positions, 
as  well  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia, 
of  the  New  York  College  of  Pharmacy,  of  the  New  York  State  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  and  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  he 
did  the  work  assigned  to  him  thoroughly  and  well.  His  sound  knowl- 
edge, his  skill  as  an  experimenter,  and  his  clearness  as  an  observer,  had 
opened  for  him  a  career  of  usefulness,  which,  measured  by  the  results  of  the 
past,  gave  greater  promise  for  the  future,  and  his  modest  and  genial  dispo- 
sition secured  him  a  large  circle  of  sincere  friends. 
Dr.  William  Benjamin  Carpenter,  the  eminent  physiologist,  died 
in  London,  November  10th,  at  the  age  of  72,  from  the  effect  of  burns  caused 
by  the  upsetting  of  a  spirit  lamp  while  he  was  taking  a  vapor  bath  for 
rheumatism.  He  was  widely  known  as  an  author  on  human  and  compa- 
rative physiology  and  through  his  researches  on  the  Foraminifera,  and 
other  low  forms  of  life.  He  paid  a  visit  to  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  at  its  meeting  at  Niagara  Falls,  in  18S2, 
Notice  of  the  death  of  the  following  Graduates  of  the  Philadelphia  Col- 
lege of  Pharmacy  has  been  received  : 
William  Carlton  Boynton,  class  1884,  died  at  his  residence,  in  Au- 
ourn.  Me.,  August  5,  1885,  of  typhoid  lever.  He  had  been  a  student  at  the 
Jefferson  Medical  College  for  one  term. 
Franklin  S.  Garman,  class  1872,  died  July  1,  1884,  at  his  home  in  Ly- 
kens.  Pa. 
Jefferson  Oxley,  class  1872,  died  at  Nicholasville,  Ky.,  October  11, 
1885,  of  consumption,  aged  43  years.  As  a  subject  for  his  thesis  he  investi- 
gated Gaultheria  and  Epigtea,  and  proved  in  the  leaves  the  presence  of 
arbutin  and  urson,  v^^hich  principles  are  now  knovi'n  to  exist  in  many  eri- 
caceous  plants.  He  was  an  ex-president  of  the  Kentucky  Pharmaceutical 
Association. 
John  N.  Shoffner,  class  1808,  died  near  Loudonville,  O.,  August  24, 
1885,  from  the  effect  of  a  wound  received  near  Haley,  Idaho.  He  was  for- 
merly in  business  in  Bethlehem,  and  his  remains  were  interred  at  his 
native  place,  Norrisiown. 
