112 
Professor  John  Att field,  F.R.S. 
<  Am.  Jour.  Fharw. 
\      March,  1906. 
he  questioned  any  method  of  examining  candidates  which  did  not 
take  note  of  the  quality  of  the  educational  course  which  had  been 
gone  through.  As  a  teacher  he  was  pre-eminently  kind  and  sympa- 
thetic ;  he  made  the  instilling  of  knowledge  secondary  to  the  train- 
ing of  the  innate  powers  of  his  pupils.  One  of  these,  Mr.  J.  A. 
Dewhurst,  Ph.C,  F.I.C.,  now  Public  Analyst  of  Halifax,  Yorks,  in 
a  personal  letter  to  the  writer,  thus  speaks  of  his  old  Professor : 
"  I  am  no  hero- worshipper,  but  Professor  Attfield  has  my  real 
affection,  born  of  a  perhaps  exceptionally  intimate  knowledge  of 
him  as  teacher,  employer  and  friend.  As  a  teacher  I  found  him 
unexpectedly  considerate  and  courteous  to  an  ordinary  student. 
Whilst  his  assistant  in  connection  with  editorial  work  on  the  B  P. 
and  later  in  general  analytical  practice,  I  was  impressed  with  his 
absolutely  unvarying  kindness.  In  his  home,  amidst  his  family,  I 
was  privileged  to  know  him  and  found  him  still  the  same  true  gen- 
tleman. I  count  myself  particularly  happy  in  having  known  him, 
a  living  example  which  in  my  better  moments  I  am  content  to 
emulate.  Nor  am  I  alone  amongst  his  students  in  this — far  from 
it."  As  a  citizen  Professor  Attfield  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
educational,  sanitary,  philanthropic,  social  and  recreative  move- 
ments in  his  native  county.  To  a  newspaper  reporter  he  said  not 
long  ago :  "  I  am  an  ardent  patriot  and  politician,  but  cannot  be  a 
mere  partisan.  My  vote,  spare  guineas  and  influence  will  always 
be  at  the  disposal  of  the  party  that  coquets  least  with  incipient 
anarchy,  neo-socialism  and  British  disunion."  It  remains  now  only 
to  refer  to  some  of  the  honors  which  have  been  paid  to  Professor 
Attfield.  In  addition  to  the  Fellowship  of  the  Royal  Society 
(1880),  he  is  a  Fellow  of  the  Institute  of  Chemistry,  and  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  and  was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  the  two  last-named  bodies.  He  has  enjoyed  the  rare  and 
highly  prized  distinction  of  honorary  membership  of  no  less  than 
twenty-three  societies,  associations  and  colleges  of  pharmacy  in 
Europe,  the  British  Colonies  and  America.  He  was  President  of 
the  Hertfordshire  Natural  History  Society  in  1885-7.  At  present 
the  only  special  monument  in  his  honor  is  the  Attfield  Hall  in  the 
Chicago  College  of  Pharmacy,  where  his  portrait  in  oil  is  hung  "  in 
recognition  of  his  aid  in  raising  the  College  from  its  ashes  in  187 1 
and  of  his  unselfish  devotion  to  the  cause  of  education." 
The  writer  is  indebted  for  some  of  the  facts  here  recorded  to  an 
