PHILLIPS, RICHARD, an eminent mineralogical and pharmaceutical chemist, was born in London in the year 1778. He spent the earlier part of his career as a chemist and druggist; and in 1805 he first attracted the attention of the scientific world by his "Analyses of the Bath Waters," followed by analyses of our mineral waters generally, and of minerals of a rare kind. These papers were published for the first time in the Annals of Philosophy, a journal partially conducted by Phillips both before and after its subsequent incorporation with the Philosophical Magazine in 1827. He was appointed lecturer on chemistry to the London Hospital in 1817; and about the same period he was elected by government professor of chemistry at the Military College, Sandhurst, and became lecturer on chemistry at Grainger's School of Medicine in Southwark. It is, however, in the character of editor and translator of the London Pharmacopœia that Richard Phillips is best known. In 1816 he produced a review, consisting of an Experimental Examination of the Last Edition of the Pharmacopœia Londinensis, which established his name as a scientific critic, and raised his reputation as a chemist. During the same year he wrote another brochure entitled Remarks on the Editio Altera of the Pharmacopœia Londinensis. These pungent criticisms had the effect of drawing upon their author the notice of the College of Physicians; and Phillips was accordingly induced to come forward with his first official translation of the Pharmacopœia in 1824. From that period down to the time of his death Phillips took a lively interest in the improvement of this important publication, and much of its present excellence is mainly due to his industry and skill. In 1822 he was made a fellow of the Royal Society; in 1832 he became lecturer on chemistry at St Thomas's Hospital; in 1839 he was appointed che-
mist and curator of the Museum of Practical Geology; and in 1849 he was chosen president of the Chemical Society, a position which he continued to occupy till his death, which happened on the 11th of May 1851.
The numerous and valuable contributions to science which Richard Phillips left behind him are to be found scattered throughout the Transactions of the Royal Society, the Philosophical Magazine, and the Pharmaceutical Journal. He likewise contributed the principal articles on chemistry and mineralogy in the Penny Cyclopædia. "Of modern British analytical chemists," said Dr Thomas Thomson in his History of Chemistry, published in 1831, "undoubtedly the first is Mr Richard Phillips, to whom we are indebted for not a few analyses conducted with great chemical skill, and performed with accuracy."
Richard Phillips was younger brother of William Phillips, the mineralogist, who will be found noticed in a subsequent article.