Death of Mr. S.M. Burroughs.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Death of Mr. S.M. Burroughs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    T 'h 810G. Pbb»uaet 9, 1895 THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST SIS DEATH OF MR. S. M. (jBURROUQHSJ k TELEGRAM reached us on Wednesday morning from Mr. Naftel, chemist, of Monts Carlo, conveying the ead intelligence that Mr. S. M. Burroughs had died in that city that morning from pneumonia. On inquiry at Messrs. Bur¬ roughs, Welloome & Co.’s office at Snow Hill, we ascertained that the illness must have been very brief. The firm had been advised on the previous afternoon that Mr. Burroughs was ill, but, it was added, there was no immediate danger. Mr. Burroughs was staging at the Hotel Windsor, Monte Carlo, and his sister, Mrs: Riggs, of New York, was with him. She was wintering in the south of France on account of her health, and Mr. Burroughs had gone to the Riviera to spend a few weeks with her. Immediately ^ on receiving news of his illness, Mrs. Burroughs hur¬ ried from London to join her husband, but, of course, she could not arrive in time to see him alive, and probably only learned of the fatal ter¬ mination of his illness when she reached Monte Carlo. By this calamity we lose from among us, at the early age of 48, the most original, the most attractive, and the most widely known person¬ ality in the ranks of phar¬ macy. Mr. Burroughs’s circle of acquaintance was marvel¬ lous. He had friends, inti¬ mate friends, in every part of the world. Wherever he went—and be went every¬ where—he attracted round him numbers of people who never forgot him, and very many who came to love him. He never seemed to recognise any distinction of rank. He was just as free and viva¬ cious in the society of rich and eminent people as amid a group of working men. His energy and flow of spirits seemed inexhaustible. He only came to London in 1877, and laid the foundations of the business which, with the aid of his partner, Mr. Wellcome, and of a most wisely selected staff of chiefs of departments, has probably been the greatest success ever achieved in pharmacy. And as indicative of the original ideas of its founder it should be remembered that this business when started was of a new character altogether. The methods by which it was carried on were all unconventional, and the products were practically novelties. It was not merely a case of travelling faster on the roau to success than rivals were progressing; Mr. Burroughs made his own road, and it has become a highway. , Mr. Burroughs had a perfect genius of enterprise. He knew and interested himself in every department of his business, and imported new ideas and new methods into it almost daily. But his business activities never appeared to impede him in other directions. Perhaps he was never known to send the message to any caller that he was “ too busy ” to attend to some matter, though he was always what othera would consider up to hia neck in affairs of various kinds. He seemed to live half-a-dozen other lives. When he was once known, no social, political, or religious function seemed complete without him, and we should think it was a rare- thing for him to refuse an invitation or an appeal. He- was always the favourite guest at a ball or a dinner¬ party, but he took his part with at least equal zest in a multitude of works of social beneficence which had com¬ manded his sympathy. He had adopted with enthusiasm the views on land-taxation of which his friend Mr. Henry George is the apostle. He spent money lavishly on the promulgation of these ideas, and he was often an effective speaker on the subject. But he could discuss the topio ' with opponents in so genial a manner that, if he did not convert them, he left them with a strong desire on their* part to renew the argument. The only effect his commer¬ cial prosperity had upon him was to give him opportunity to exercise his unbounded generosity. We write what we know when we say that no more faithful or unselfish friend lived in Europe or America, and many of his business competitors will en¬ dorse our belief that they never met a more honourable- or chivalric rival. Mr. Burroughs was a not infrequent visitor at The Chemist and Deuggist office, and the announcement of his untimely death leaves a sense of personal loss with every member both of the edi¬ torial and publishing staffs. Mr. Silas Mainville Burroughs was bom at Medina, New York State, in December, 1846. His father was a man of considerable influence, and was at one time a member of the United States Legislature. Young Burroughs was first em¬ ployed in a chemist’s and druggist’s establishment in Lock- port, New York, but subsequently went to Philadelphia and graduated at the famous old College of that city, where he bad been one of the late Professor Maisch’a pupils. For some years he represented Messrs. Wyeth Brothers, of Philadelphia, and travelled all over the United States for that firm. He came to London in 1877 on a joint arrangement between Messrs. Wyeth Brothers and himself. His original idea was to spend six or twelve months on this side, and perhaps establish an agency or depot. But he saw an opening, and having capital of his own he determined to risk it on the establishment of a business for the manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations Arrangements were made whereby the business became exclusively his ; but in 1880 Mr. Henry S. Wellcome, also a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, joined