March, 1924
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
h-ext to Food he had a fondness for poisons, and whenever the contents of a murdered man came in for analysis he would call some of us boys into his room to show us, with some pride on his part and much profit on ours, how he had prepared the tests for presentation in court, and tell us how to meet a lawyer’s cross examination. Not content with analyzing foods and poisons, he began to wonder why sugar is sweet and strychnine is bitter. Not content to wonder, he began to experiment. This led him into the field of psychology, but he did not stop for that. So for several years any boy or girl who came into the building was likely to be called in to taste or smell of rows of bottles containing distilled water and other things more or less agreeable. This was pioneer work in a field that has been largely left uncultivated until recentiy, the relation of chemical composition to taste and odor. A new tariff law created a sudden demand for sugar chemists, and Professor *Bailey put a few picked students through an extemporized course of what is now called “intensive training” and sent them off to Louisiana plantations for the season. Franklin was the first to go, and Professor Bailey astonished me b y telling me that I was expected t o take his place while he was down South. I was scared a t the idea, for it is a ticklish thing to t r y teaching for the first time on one’s own schoolmates. But Professor Bailey explained that Franklin’s leaving in the midst of the term had put him in an embarrassing position, from which he hoped I would help him out. Of course, being put in that way I could not refuse him the favor. Nor did I refuse him when a year later he offered me the position of chemist in the University of Wyoming where I stayed for thirteen years. We boys had to
work awful hard t o keep him from realizing the mistake he had made in putting us in positions too big for our ability. We knew he would feel bad if he found out. Professor Bailey is a Presbyterian and a homeopathist. This is an unusual combination for, as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes showed long ago, homeopathy and Unitarianism naturally go together. I did not follow Professor Bailey into homeopathy, but I did into Presbyterianism. Whenever I went to his house he used to give me The Independent t o read, and I became so attached to it that when I left I subscribed for it and got t o writing for it and later became literary editor of it for seventeen years. So I owe t o him, not only my first job of teaching, but my second job of editing. All this sounds very egotistical. “I” appears in i t as often as “Bailey.” But I do not mean it that way. What I mean is that what Professor Bailey did for me-and I am not telling a tenth of it-he has been doing for other fellows for fifty years. All over the country you will find “Bailey’s boys,” in universities and factories, engaged in teaching, research, or industry, and they will all tell you the same story-of the peculiar personal interest that Professor Bailey took in their individual welfare, how he found for them the work they were most fitted t o do, and how he headed them toward promising careers. And how unselfishly and tactfully he did it all, always giving them full credit for a “joint” piece of research; always slipping behind them and pushing them forward when it came to honors and rewards. That is why he is loved by so many, and that is why no one will ever be able to estimate what has been his service to science.
John M. k1rancis-1867 IED, January 8, 1924, a t his home in Detroit, Mich.-Dr.
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EDWIN E. SLOSSON
to 1924
Throughout the course of his life he was actively identified with many matters pertaining to pharmaceutical and medicinal John M. Francis. With this simple statement there will come to every man who chemistry. He was a member of the Revision Committee of knew him a sense of personal loss, for he had, to a remarkable the U. S.Pharmacopceia, was chairman of the Committee on degree, the faculty of establishing bonds of sincere friendship Chemical Research on Medicinal Substances of the National between himself and almost everyone with whom Research Council, was actively identified with he came in contact. The personality of a man work of the American Chemical Society and the is that which we remember when details of his American Pharmaceutical Association for many achievements are forgotten, and yet it is fitting years, and gave much valuable service t o the that a brief review of Dr. Francis’ life should Scientific Section of the American Drug Manube presented here. facturers’ Association. Born in the little town of Jacksonville, Ala., He was for many years an elder and clerk of October 25, 1867, his early life was such as falls the session of the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian t o the lot of the average active boy in a small Church in Detroit. town, but the early bent of mind toward an inHe possessed clarity of thought and directterest in all phenomena of nature persisted ness of speech, along with a thoughtful conthrough his entire life in a love for the outdoors sideration of the views and opinion of other men, and in the pursuit of science. which led to frequent calls upon his wise Graduating from the University of Alabama, counsel. He had no patience with anything that he taught there for a short time and then took savored of sham or subterfuge, but would go to up some further studies a t Johns Hopkins Uniunusual lengths t o be of any help or service to JOHN M. FRANCIS versity. From here he went, in 1892, to Detroit, all whose effortssprang from sincerity of purpose. A lover of nature in every form, he was an ardent fisherman and entering the Analytical Department of Parke, Davis 8: Company, and shortly afterwards becoming head of this department. hunter, and found a perpetual joy and relaxation from the cares During succeeding years he did much to develop the efficiency of a busy life in a most unusual flower garden. and usefulness of this department, and in 1905 the scope of his No man can be greater than the motives that inspire him, but work was greatly increased and he was appointed to the newly oftentimes his achievements are more honored than the man created position of chief chemist-a position which in turn, as himself. Dr. Francis achieved distinction in scientific circles was characteristic of him, he developed to a very great extent. and success in business. but his highest honor will be from those He was bigger than any single niche to which he might be as- who knew him best and had come to understand the greatness of signed, arid the influence of his keen mind and striking personalhis soul. ity was felt in many circles other than that of his immediate work. FRANK 0. TAYLOR
