Am.  j our.  Pharrn. 
June.  1S9-J. 
Obituary. 
335 
OBITUARY. 
Sereno  Watson,  one  of  our  best  known  American.botanists,  died  March  9, 
last.  He  was  born  at  East  Windsor  Hill,  Conn.,  December  1,  1826,  graduated 
from  Yale  College  in  1847,  taught  school  for  several  years,  then  graduated 
in  medicine  from  the  University  of  New  York,  and  subsequently  devoted  his 
time  to  the  study  of  botany.  His  report  on  the  "Botany  of  the  40th  parallel," 
which  appeared  in  1871  as  part  of  the  report  of  the  geological  survey  by 
Clarence  King,  established  his  reputation  as  a  botanist.  In  the  same  year  he 
became  Asa  Gray's  assistant  at  Cambridge.  The  polypetalse  of  the  Flora  of 
California,  the  first  volume  of  which  made  its  appearance  in  1876,  were  elabo- 
rated by  the  joint  labor  of  Professor  Brewer  and  Dr.  Watson  ;  and  the  entire 
second  volume,  published  in  1880,  was  his  sole  work.  Another  fruit  ripened 
through  these  labors  was  the  "  Bibliographical  Index  "  of  the  North  American 
polypetalae,  published  in  1878.  After  the  death  of  Asa  Gray,  in  1888,  he  was 
made  Curator  of  the  Gray  Herbarium  and  Library,  and  together  with  Professor 
John  F.  Coulter,  of  Wabash  College,  was  selected  for  the  revision  of  the 
"Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United  States,"  which  was  published 
two  years  ago.  His  "Contributions  to  American  Botany,"  published  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy,  embrace  the  revision  of  several  orders 
and  of  quite  a  number  of  genera  belonging  to  other  orders  of  plants  growing 
in  the  United  States  and  in  Mexico. 
August  Wilhelm  von  Hofmann,  the  celebrated  chemist,  died  suddenly  at 
Berlin,  Ma\~  5,  of  pulmonary  apoplexy.  The  deceased  was  born  at  Giessen, 
April  8,  iSiS,  and  entered  the  university  in  his  native  city  in  1836,  at  first  for 
the  study  of  law,  but  afterward  studied  chemistry,  and  graduated  in  1841,  his 
inaugural  dissertation  being  on  the  organic  bases  of  coal  tar,  in  which,  among 
others,  he  proved  the  identity  of  Runge's  cyanol  with  aniline.  He  remained 
at  the  same  university  as  Liebig's  assistant  until  1845,  when  he  became  lecturer 
on  agricultural  chemistry  at  the  University  of  Bonn,  and  in  1848  accepted  a 
call  to  the  Royal  College  of  Chemistry  in  London.  In  1853  ne  succeeded 
Playfair  in  the  chair  of  chemistry  to  the  ROyal  School  of  Mines,  became 
assayer  of  the  mint  in  1856,  was  elected  President  of  the  Chemical  Society  in 
1861,  accepted  the  chair  of  chemistry  in  Bonn,  in  1862,  and  removed  to  Berlin, 
-  in  1867,  becoming  the  successor  of  Mitscherlich,  and  in  1868  the  founder  of 
the  German  Chemical  Society,  and  continuing  in  his  professorship  to  the  time 
of  his  death.  Of  the  greatest  importance  for  theoretical  chemistry  were  his 
researches  on  the  relation  of  the  alkaloids  to  ammonia,  which  led  to  the  dis- 
covery of  fuchsine  in  1858  and  opened  up  an  almost  unlimited  field  in  chemical 
research,  and  in  the  application  of  its  results  in  the  arts.  It  is  impossible  in 
this  limited  space  to  even  refer  to  all  of  his  important  researches  in  organic, 
inorganic,  ana^tical  and  applied  chemistry,  which  were  published  in  the 
"  Annalfen,"  the  "Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society,"  and  the  "  Berichte  der 
Deutschen  Chemischen  Gesellschaft."  Among  the  separate  works  from  his 
pen  maybe  mentioned  his  "  Handbook  of  Organic  Analysis"  (1853),  "Intro- 
duction to  Modern  Chemistry  "  ( 1S65  ;  the  edition  in  German  appeared  in  1868). 
"The  Lifework  of  Liebig  in  Experimental  aud  Philosophical  Chemistry" 
(1876),  and  in  the  German  language  reports  on  chemical  exhibits  at  inter- 
national expositions ;  necrologies  of  scientists ;  correspondence  between 
.Liebig  and  Woehler  ;  the  relation  of  organic  chemistry  to  medicine  ;  alche- 
