io8  Professor  John  Attfield,  F.R.S.        { *mi/£ch,i£%?m' 
as  seven  separate  proofs  were  sent  out  to  the  members  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  committees  of  the  General  Medical  Council  and  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society.  In  each  case  at  least  four  proofs  were 
submitted ;  the  first  for  general  examination  and  for  any  additional 
adaptations  of  general  principles,  the  second  for  revision,  the  third 
for  provisional  acceptance,  and  the  fourth  for  confirmed  acceptance. 
Each  separate  set  of  proofs  was  carefully  examined  by  the  editor 
when  returned,  and  the  suggestions  and  corrections  were  incorpo- 
rated in  his  own  copy  for  the  printer.  The  writer  was  privileged  at 
the  time  to  render  some  little  assistance  to  the  editor  in  the  library 
of  his  private  house,  the  headquarters  of  the  editorial  work,  and 
remembers  particularly  seeing  a  large,  strong  room  in  the  base- 
ment, provided  with  shelves,  on  which  were  carefully  arranged  each 
set  of  proofs  which  had  been  employed  in  the  production  of  the 
work,  and  annotated  by  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  compilers, 
as  well  as  all  the  correspondence  connected  with  the  undertaking.  * 
As  illustrating  the  strong  practical  bent  of  the  Professor,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  trays  of  freshly  burnt  lime  were  kept  on  the 
shelves  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  dry  these  valuable  papers  relat- 
ing to  the  formation  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  As  a  result  of  this 
careful  filing  of  documents,  the  editor  could  at  a  moment's  notice  trace 
any  change  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  back  through  all  its  transforma- 
tions to  the  original  suggestion.  The  nine  annual  reports  (1886-94) 
on  the  Progress  of  Pharmacy  in  relation  to  the  revision  of  the 
1885  British  Pharmacopoeia,  prepared  by  him  for  the  General  Medical 
Council,  form  a  model  of  method  and  thoroughness.  The  editor 
took  care  that  all  original  and  trustworthy  pharmaceutical  work 
should  be  reflected  in  the  pages  of  these  reports.  Considering  the 
years  of  labor  which  he  spent  on  the  Pharmacopoeia,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  on  one  occasion  at  least  it  formed  the  subject  of  an  address. 
The  paper  was  entitled  "  The  Pharmacopoeia  as  a  Student's  Man- 
ual." The  occasion  was  an  introductory  address  delivered  before 
the  Students'  Association  of  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Society  of  Great  Britain  in  1882.  This  address  was  re- 
printed at  the  time  for  distribution,  and  in  a  masterly  manner 
showed  the  student  how  best  to  understand  the  Pharmacopoeia,  the 
complexity  of  its  composition,  and  the  necessity  for  the  student  to 
be  familiar  with  the  various  sciences  allied  to  pharmacy. 
The  Professor  has  always  been  felicitous  as  a  maker  of  phrases. 
