Tour OBITUARY. Warren de la Rue, D. C. L., F. R. S., died in London April 19, at the age of 74 years. He was a native of Guernsey, was educated in Paris, and succeeded his father as the head of the firm of Thomas de la Rue & Co., from which he retired in 1880. To scientific literature he contributed a number of papers on electricity and galvanism, a memoir on the coloring matter and other constituents of cochineal (1847), and with his friend Hugo Müller researches on hydrocarbons, resins, nitroglycerin etc., the memoir of special interest to pharmacy being one on some constituents of rhubarb (1857), in which the investigators proved the sediment formed in tincture of rhubarb to contain chrysophanic acid, erythroretin, phæoretin and aporetin, which compounds had been prepared (1844) directly from the root by Schlossberger and Doepping. Oskar Schlickum died in Winningen near Coblenz April 4th, aged 51 years. He was born in the same town in 1838, received a good education, in 1856 became an apprentice in his father's pharmacy, and after clerking in several stores, passed the State's examination in 1865, and in the following year became the successor of his father. He was the author of a number of practical works, such as commentaries on the German pharmacopoeias, condensed dictionaries of pharmacy, chemistry and botany, on the education of apprentices &c. His numerous practical papers were contributed to the Pharmaceutische Zeitung and to the Archiv der Pharmacie, and many of them are found, mostly as abstracts, in previous volumes of this journal. For about four years the deceased was chairman of the committee for the preliminary revision of the German pharmacopoeia. John Franklin Wilgus, Ph. G., class 1876, was killed May 5th, while crossing the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Bridesburg, Philadelphia, on the way to his place of business at 4627 Frankford Avenue; his remains were interred at Bordentown N. J. Samuel S. Garrigues, Ph. G., Ph. D., deceased, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, after a protracted sickness, May 16th, 1889, in the sixty-first year of his age. Among the Huguenot exiles who left their homes in the province of Languedoc, in France, by reason of the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, were three brothers, Matthew, Francis and John De la Garrigue. Escaping from France they landed on the island of St. Christopher, (one of Caribbee group belonging to Great Britain), and from thence they afterwards made their way to Philadelphia. Uniting in religious creed with the Church of England the brothers became members of the congreg: · tion of old Christ's Church on Second street. (The first church building was erected in 1695. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia). Samuel, one of the children of Matthew, subsequently withdrew from the church, and with his family united himself with the Society of Friends. This was the great-great grandfather of the subject of our memoir. The family name in the course of time became anglicized to Garrigues. Samuel S. Garrigues was born at the N. E. corner of Market and Sixth streets, Philadelphia, September 7, 1828. His early education was received in the schools maintained by the Society . Jour. Pharm June, 1889 of Friends. He afterwards entered the public schools of this city, and graduated from the High School in 1847. His knowledge of pharmacy was acquired in the store of his father, Edward B. Garrigues, Tenth and Fairmount Avenue, and with the late Frederick L. John, on Race street, above Third street. Graduating from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1851 he went the same year to Europe. After a year spent at the University in Berlin, he entered the University of G ttingen and, after a course of two years, graduated from that institution, receiving the degree of Ph. D. During the vacations of his student life abroad he made pedestrian trips through Germany and into Switzerland and Italy. Botany being one of his favorite studies, he collected during these excursions an extensive and valuable herbarium, which he afterwards presented to the University of Michigan. Returning to Philadelphia in 1854, he engaged with Mr. Magee in the manufacture of chemicals for photography; the firm being known as Garrigues & Magee, on Fifth street above Arch street. After the dissolution of the firm in 1857 he removed to New York, where he remained until 1863, when the development of the salt interest in Michigan led to his connection with that industry as a chemist. In 1869, he was appointed State inspector of salt in Michigan, and held that office until his declining health made it necessary for him to withdraw from active duties. The reports prepared by him on the salt and lumber interests are valuable State papers on the resources of Michigan. In 1864 he received a commission to act as assistant surgeon to the 29th Michigan Volunteers, and while the regiment was encamped in the State he was the only medical officer in charge. To malarial disease contracted at this time is attributed his subsequent declining health. Dr. Garrigues became a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1855, and while residing in Philadelphia was a member of the Franklin Institute and of the Academy of Natural Sciences. After removing to Michigan he took an active interest in the advancement of Pharmacy in that State, was at one time president of the Michigan Pharmaceutical Association, and was interested in the passing of the Pharmacy Act of Michigan. He was married in 1864 to Miss Addele M. Burt, of Saginaw, Michigan. His widow, a son and a daughter survive him. The father of Dr. Garrigues, the oldest living member of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, resides in this city; he is now in his 93d year. C. T. B. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. JULY, 1889. ON RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLOROFORM. BY SAMUEL P. SADTLER, PH. D. It is of course within the knowledge of the drug and chemical trade that along in the fall of 1885, a notable reduction in the price of chloroform took place, and that this reduction has been practically maintained since. Such a change indicates that either there has been a notable cheapening of the raw material of manufacture, a decided improvement in existing methods or the introduction of an entirely new method for the manufacture of the staple so cheapened. In the case of chloroform, it has been the latter. The old process of manufacture by the action of bleaching powder upon alcohol has given way to what is now termed the "acetone process. This is not, however, a new discovery. Liebig, in 1832, in following up his first account of the properties of the newly discovered "chloride of carbon" (chloroform), mentions that it can be gotten in very large quantities by the action of bleaching powder upon "pyroacetic spirit" (acetone) as well as from alcohol. That alcohol has all this time been preferred to acetone as a material from which to prepare chloroform, is due mainly to the fact that only in recent years has acetone been prepared pure in quantity, but also to the erroneous statement of Siemerling quoted in the works of reference like Watts' Dictionary of Chemistry that only 33 per cent. of chloroform could be gotten from acetone by the action of bleaching powder. Now that acetone is made on a large scale, and of extreme purity, and it has been shown that it is the richest chloroform-yielding substance known (206 per cent. by theory and 200 per cent. in practice at times), the case . Jour. Pharm July, 1889 assumes a different aspect. Indeed, as was testified by one of the witnesses in the recent patent litigation on this subject (Michalis vs. Roessler), this process "is one of great importance to the manufacturers of chloroform, and of great value to the public for the reason that it enables the production of chloroform at a price which is nearly one-half its cost by any other method practiced by manufacturing chemists or known by me." The writer, having had opportunity to thorougly study the new process in practice, desires to give an outline sketch of this recent revolution in the manufacture of so important a chemical as chloroform. The manufacture of a purer grade of acetone than that then in use for solvent purposes having been begun in Germany in 1881 on the part of the "Verein für Chemische Industrie," Liebig's old suggestion for the manufacture of chloroform from acetone was taken up by the "Verein Chemischer Fabriken," Mannheim, Germany, in the beginning of 1882 and a year later by the first mentioned company which made the acetone for both. In June, 1884, Mr. F. Roessler of the present Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Company, of New York, visited Germany and studied the process, which his company are now carrying out under the the patents of Gustav Rumpf to be described later. In the meantime Prof. G. Michaelis of Albany obtained in July, 1885, (application filed Nov. 18, 1884) a patent for distilling crude acetate of lime (preferably, as the patent says, crude "brown acetate of lime") and using the liquid products of their distillation in connection with a hypochlorite for the manufacture of chloroform. Under this patent suit was brought against Roessler & Hasslacher for infringement. After protracted litigation, Judge Butler of the U. S. Circuit Court has just decided that in using pure acetone alone the defendants were using an old and well-known process and were not guilty of infringement. As both the production of pure acetone and the method of manufacture of chloroform are covered by patents issued in this country, the processes can be given in outline as there published. The raw material with which the beginning is made is the "gray acetate of lime." While this is distinctly purer than "brown acetate" it still contains both moisture and tarry matter. To free it from these and to raise the percentage of actual acetate of lime, it is carefully roasted before being submitted to dry distillation. This roasting forms the subject of patent No. 393,079, issued to Gustav Rumpf, of Frankfort, Germany, and assigned to Roessler and Hasslacher, of New York. As by one of 2 (Michels the man for the res which is manufa study the this recent as chlon at then int . Jour. Pharm , 1889 shown in Fig. 1, it is done in a series of three slightly-inclined in 1881 old sugge ken up br the begin by which of the p York, vis are now ca described be in July, crude a etate of Connection der this p infringen Circuit C efendants ilty of infring method of 1. in this count de is the rown acetate it from these arefully rou g forms the f, of Frankf New York FIG. 1. tarry vapors can pass off. By this continuous roasting process, the crude material can be purified without notable decomposition of the true acetate. The second patent, No. 385,777, issued to the same and assigned to the same, refers to the method of distilling the roasted gray acetate. Here, to secure the maximum yield of acetone, the points to be attained are uniformity of temperature throughout the whole mass and slow heating to not over 300° C. The patentee claims that "in the process of subjecting acetates in a closed vessel to heat applied externally to the vessel for distilling acetone from the acetates, the desired slowness and uniformity of temperature may be |