474 
OBITUARY. 
meet  these  notions,  well  or  ill-founded  as  the  case  may  he.  Believing  that 
Podophyllin  and  Leptandrin  in  combination  possess  nearly  the  same  effects, 
and  can  he  used  when  Calomel  otherwise  would  he,  we  have  prepared  the 
following  pill,  which  has  been  used  very  satisfactorily  by  Dr.  Bates  and  other 
Physicians.  It  appears  on  our  List,  as  the  Improved  Compound  Cathartic 
Pill,  without  Calomel,  and  we  give  the  formula  of  preparation,  that  every  Phy- 
sician may  understand  its  contents. 
Compound  Ext.  Colocynth       ....  1  part. 
Alcoholic  Ext.  Jalap        .       .       .       .  '    .  1-2.  " 
Podophyllin     .       .       .       .       ,       .       .  1-2  " 
Leptandrin   1-2  " 
Alcoholic  Ext.  Hyoscyamus     ....  1-4  " 
Ext.  Gentian   1-8  " 
Oil  of  Peppermint   q.  s. 
Make  into  3  grain  pills. 
It  is  important  that  a  pill  of  this  character  should  be  efficient  and  reliable. 
The  above  has  all  the  purgative,  alterative,  and  cholagogue  properties  of  the 
U.  S.  P.  Compound  Cathartic,  at  the  same  time  not  being  open  to  the  objection 
of  including  Calomel  in  its  composition,  and,  as  a  substitute  for  the  U.  S.  P. 
pill,  it  is  confidently  recommended  to  the  Profession. 
OBITUARY. 
Dr.  Robert  Hare,  eminent  as  a  philosophical  chemist  and  electrician, 
died  in  this  city,  in  the  78th  year  of  his  age,  on  the  15th  of  May,  1858. 
Dr.  Hare  was  born  in  Philadelphia  on  the  17th  of  January,  1781,  just 
two  years  before  the  close  of  the  American  revolution.  His  father  was  an 
Englishman,  and  his  mother  belonged  to  a  family  of  note  in  his  native  city. 
He  early  gave  evidence  of  a  love  of  scientific  pursuits,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  "  Chemical  Society  of  Philadelphia,"  of  which  Priestly,  Sybert,  and 
others  were  members.  It  was  to  this  society,  when  he  was  but  twenty  years 
of  age,  that  young  Hare  communicated  a  description  of  the  original  Oxyhy- 
drogen  Blowpipe,  of  which  he  was  the  discoverer,  under  the  name  of  a 
Hydrostatic  Blowpipe,  and  which  was  introduced  into  the  Yale  College  La- 
boratory two  years  afterwards  by  Prof.  Silliman,  and  called  the  "  Compound 
Blowpipe."  The  idea  of  thus  employing  oxygen  and  hydrogen  under  pres- 
sure as  a  source  of  high  temperature,  and  which  has  been  so  usefully  applied, 
is  now  generally  conceded  to  Dr.  Hare,  notwithstanding  Clarke  and  others 
have  tried  to  rob  him  of  the  discovery.  Dr.  Hare  had  a  strong  bias  for 
mechanics,  which  seems  to  have  led  him  to  bring  all  his  mechanical  talents 
to  bear  in  the  construction  of  chemical  apparatus.  Hence  his  inven- 
tions in  this  line  are  numerous,  and  several  of  them  valuable  ;  but  they 
were  generally  so  complex  and  expensive,  as  to  prevent  their  adoption  by 
others.  In  1818,  Dr.  Hare  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  chemistry  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  continued  to  discharge  its  duties  till  1847, 
when  he  resigned.  The  extensive  and  costly  apparatus  accumulated  by  Dr. 
Hare  during  his  long  career  as  a  teacher,  was  soon  after  his  resignation 
presented  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  where  it  now  occupies  a  conspicu- 
ous place  in  one  of  the  apartments  shown  to  visitors. 
