NICHOLS, James Robinson, author, born in West Amesbury (now Merrimac), Massachusetts, 19 July, 1819 ; died in Haverhill, Massachusetts, 2 January, 1888. He was self-educated, and attended medical lectures at Dartmouth in 1842, but was not graduated, became a druggist in 1843, and in 1867 founded a firm of manufacturing chemists in Boston, retiring from business in 1872. In 1878 he became a member of the State board of agriculture. In 1866 he established the "Boston Journal of Chemistry" (now "Popular Science News "), which he edited till his death. He was active in railroad matters, and founded and endowed a public library in Merrimac, Massachusetts Dartmouth gave him the honorary degree of M. D. in 1867. Dr. Nichols invented scientific apparatus and methods of chemical manipulation, and published " Chemistry of the Farm and the Sea" with other essays (Boston, 1867) ; "Fireside Science" (1869); and "Whence, What, Where ? a View of the Origin, Nature, and Destiny of Man" (1882). He has also issued Dr. James Hinton's "Mystery of Pain," with an introduction (1886).