OBITUARY NOTICES. 2973 OBITUARY NOTICES. RICHBRD BURTLES. BORN MAY 25m 19OO; DIED JULY 3RD 1925. RICHARD BUBTLES was the younger son of the late Alderman Richard Burtlea of Manchester. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and at the College of Technology Manchester. He obtained the BSc. Tech. degree in July 1921 being placed in the Grst (Honours) division and was awarded a Manchester Education Committea Research Scholarship. This enabled him to devote a year to research during which he carried out an investigation on the tautomerism of the diphenylglyoxalines by which he earned the M.Sc.Tech. degree. He was then given a maintenance grant by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and investig-ated the preparation of 2-aminoglyoxalines and their behaviour towards nitrous acid.The patience skill and enthusiasm which he showed in these researches led to his appointment in July 1924, aa the writer's research assistant. In January 1925 he took a position aa chemist to the Goodrich Rubber Company Ltd. of Leyland and held this position until his death which was due to a bicycle accident. Burtles was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society in May 1923, and published three papers jointly with the writer in the Journal (1923 123 361; 1925 127 581 2012). He was greatly inter-ested in stained glass no doubt owing to the fact that his father had been a glass manufacturer and contributed articles on " The Colouring of Medkeval Glass " and " The Decay of Ancient Glass " to the Journal of the blanchter University Science Federation (1923 2 i 18; 1924 2 ii 62).He took a useful part in the social life of the college becoming Secretary of the Manchester University Science Federation and also of the College of Technology Chemical Society and was very popular with the staff and students. During his school career Burtles underwent training for military service in the Officers Training Corps and reached the rank of lieutenant but owing to his age he was not called upon to serve a broad. Burtles married Vera daughter of C. E. Chalmers Esq. of Wellington Salop in July 1924 and leaves a son born a few days after his death. F. L. W. 6H 2974 OBITUARY NOTICES. REGINALD ARTHUR JOYNER. BORN JANUABY IOTH 1887; DIED OCTOBER 7TH 1925. DR. R. A. JOYNER lost his life as the result of an accident on Wednesday October 7th 1925 through an explosion in the research laboratories of Messrs.Nobel’s Explosives Co. Ltd. Dr. Joyner studied a t University College Bristol taking a London degree with Honours in Chemistry in 1909 followed by the M.Sc. degree of the newly-founded University of Bristol in 1910. His work during this period is recorded in three papers on amalgams of silver and tin published in the Journal of the Chemical Society. These exhibit his careful and thorough experimentation and stand unaltered. They form the accepted basis of the treatment of dental amalgams in modern courses on Dental Metallurgy. Joyner proceeded as an 1851 Exhibition Scholar to Zurich and afterwards followed Bredig to the Technische Hochschule Karls-ruhe where he qualified for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, which has seldom been obtained by students from abroad.Bredig recognised his exceptional ability and independent judgment. Joyner published two very neat experimental papers; one dealt with the afhity constant of hydrogen peroxide; the other on the catalysis of camphorcarboxylic acid by bases in various solvents, further elucidated the remarkable parallelism between ordinary reactions and life processes showing a mechanism through which optical activity may play its well-known r6le. For 12 years Dr. Joyner served on the Research Staff of Messrs. Nobel’s at Ardeer. Most of the important work which he carried out on such war-time problems as mustard gas and explosives is, of course not available for publication but an estimate of his unusual experimental skill and scientific acumen may be obtained from a study of the paper which he published in the JourmZ of the Chemical Society on the “ Viscosity of Solutions of Cuprammonium.” His skill in the field of chemical technology is well illustrated by his patented process for the continuous manufacture of hydrazine (Brit.Pat. No. 199750 of 1923). Those who came in contact with Joyner must have realised that few scientists showed such whole-hearted devotion and enthusiasm. He had many other interests having been versatile in athletics and a keen territorial officer for many years. His straightforward and unassuming personality gained him not only esteem but also affection from all who knew him. In spite of the tragedy of his loss at the age of thirty-eight his widow and three children can look back with pride on his devoted work in the cause of science.J. W. McB OBITUDY NOTICES. 2975 GUGLIEUWO * KORNER. BORN APRIL 2oTH 1839; DIED MdscH 2 9 r ~ 1925. GUGLIELMO Komm was born in Cassel on April 2Oth 1839. Having completed his come at the Polytechnic he decided to devote himself to chemistry and studied under Will Kopp and Engelbach a t Giessen where he graduated in 1860. He remained at Giessen as assistant for 3 years and shortly after spent a year as student under Kekul6 a t Ghent. Early in 1865 he became assistant to Professor Odling at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; but at the end of the year returned to Ghent as private assistant and secretary to Kekul6 remaining there until the end of 1867 when the latter was elected to the chair of chemistry a t Bonn.At this time Kekul6 was engaged in developing his theory of the aromatic compounds and in preparing his treatise on the same subject and with this work Korner was closely associated. It is well known that Kekuld regarded his theory merely as a philosophic system which c o ~ e ~ t e d in a simple fashion the many isolated facts of aromatic chemistry and served as a useful means of explain-ing their relations; but he failed to grasp to the full extent its practical consequences. Korner with a clearer and broader out-look foresaw the possibility of establishing the theory on a sound experimental basis. During his stay at Ghent Korner found time to carry out a number of researches the most important of which were “the synthesis of reaorcinol” and one entitled “Faits pour servir ii, la d6termination du lieu chimique dans la s6ie arornatique,” published in 1867.In the preface to the former he points out that KekulB’s theory involves two problems not yet solved. He says, “Dam 1’8tude des cas d’isomerie dam les substances aromatiques on peut cons6quemment se poser deux problhmes principaux: on peut d’abord chercher B Btablir par exfirience quels sont les corps de m6me constitution c’est-&-dire dans lesquels la substitu-tion se fait 21 des places correspondantes; on peut ensuite sptkifier davantage ces places en cl~rchant par d i e n d’atomes d’hydrogh eUes aont sdpar&s entre dh. Dans sa plus grande gh6ralit6 ce dernier problhme pourrait s’appeler la d6termination du lieu Chirnique de l’atome substituant.. . . La solution du second problhme parait it premihre vue inaccessible B l’exp6rience. Je pense toutefois qu’on pourrait y parvenir.” He embodies here the idea which * KiSrner waa christened Wilhelm and strictly speaking should bear that Christian name ; but as he lived most of his life in Italy and never returned to his native laud and was known by and published under the name Guglielmo, it txems right 80 to designate him [To face p. 2976. 2976 O B m A R Y NOTICES. underlay his life’s work. In the same paper he brought forward a new fact in support of KekuI6’s theory for he succeeded in adding to the few di-derivatives then known in three isomeric forms a new and third iodophenol.In the second paper published in 1867 he gives an indication of the principle upon which his method of orientation is based. “ Sup-pose,” he says “ that the three dihydroxybenzenes give the same trihydroxybenzene by the introduction of a third hydroxyl it is obvious that the three hydroxyls must occupy the positions 1 2 4. In short it is only this arrangement of the three hydroxyls which can combine in one compound the three dihydroxy-derivative..” It must be remembered that a t this time methods of orientation were largely speculative.* It is true that by a fortunate act of intuition Baeyer assigned the correct constitution to mesitylene and Graebe gave the true formula to phthalic acid; but on the other hand some of the suggestions were less happy.Quinol for reasons into which we need not enter was assumed to be an ortho-compound salicylic acid a meta-compound and ordinary dinitro-benzene a para-compound and so forth assumptions which subse-quently led to ever increasing confusion as relationships became more clearly and closely established. For reasons of health Korner left Ghent for PaIermo in 1867 and entered the laboratory of Cannizzaro where he continued to work indefatigably collecting fresh experimental facts connected with the problem which he had set out to solve. In the two years which followed this material had so far accumulated that Canniz-zaro induced Korner to publish it although the latter would have preferred to withhold it until it had reached a more complete form.This memoir which involved a stupendous amount of brilliant experimental work appeared in 1869 in the Giornale d i Scienze Naturdi ed Econmniche of Palermo under the title “ Facts which serve for the determination of the chemical position in aromatic compounds.” After a short introduction by Cannizzaro the memoir begins with a clear account of KekulB’s theory on the constitution of benzene and the kinds of isomerism to which it gives rise. Korner shows that the non-existence of more than one monoderivative and the special kind of isomerism existing among the polysubstituents of benzene is based on the hypothesis of the equivalence of the six valencies of the carbon atoms of the * An excellent account of the development of the views on orientation is given in Roscoe and Schorlemmer’s “ Treatise,” vol.iii part iii (Introduction) and also in the introduction by Richard Meyer to Erlenmeyer’s “ Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie,” vol. ii (Leipzig 1882) OBITUARY NOTICES. 2977 nucleus and the relative positions occupied by two or more sub-stituent elements or groups. He then proceeds to bring expen-mental evidence of the equivalence of the six atoms of hydrogen. Beginning with the three hydroxybenzoic acids he shows that by eliminating carbon dioxide the same phenol results. Thus the differences in the three acids must be due to the relative positions of the groups. By substituting chlorine for hydroxyl and replacing the halogen by hydrogen with the aid of sodium amalgam he ob-tained the same benzoic acid in all three cases.These experi-mental facts due partly to Korner and partly to Graebe and Beil-stein demonstrate completely the equivalence of three pusitions in the nucleus. A fourth position was determined as follows the nitroaniline (para) of Arppe can be transformed into chlorobromobenzene in two ways either by substituting chlorine for the amino-group and bromine for the nitro-group or vice uersa and the same product results. As this nitroaniline can be proved to belong to the same series as one of the hydroxybenzoic acids it follows that the position occupied by the phenol residue in the three acids is equivalent to that in a fourth position corresponding to the amino- or nitro-group in nitroaniline. The fifth and sixth positions were attacked in a similar fashion.One of the nitrophenols belongs to the same series as salicylic acid. A bromine atom and an additional nitro-group can be introduced into this nitrophenol with the result that the product is identical with that obtained by substituting two nitro-groups for two atoms of hydrogen in bromophenol and thus bromonitro-nitrophenol C,H,~NO,~Br~OH*NO, is identical with dinitro-brm-pknol C,H,~NO,~NO,*OH~Br which signifies that in nitrophenol there are two positions of equal value and symmetrical one with the other in respect of the hydroxyl. There are therefore five equivalent positions. Granted the existence of two symmetrical positions and imagining a plane drawn at right angles through the centre of these two positions the molecule will be divided into two symmetrical halves which implies the existence of a second symmetrical pair and’% may be therefore concluded that the six positions occupied by hydrogen in the molecule of benzene axe of equal value.Unfortunately the publication in which this paper appeared was little known to the chemical world and it was only later that its full sigmficance was realised and its conclusions accepted. Meanwhile as already stated the confusion which reigned on the subject of orientation continued to grow. Whilst at Palermo Korner sent a paper to the Academie de 2978 OBITUARY NOTICES. Sciences on the “Synthesis of a base isomeric with Toluidine,” which he obtained by nitrating and reducing p-bromotoluene. The paper is interesting from the fact that in it he proposes the formula for pyridine which is now adopted.His reference to this formula was however suppressed in the paper sent to the Academie, probably from its purely theoretical nature but was afterwards published (1869) as a note in the G w m l e d i Scienze Natu~ali ed EconOmiche. We will l a v e for a moment Korner’s experimental work in order to take up the thread of his subsequent career. In 1870 the ‘‘ Scuola Superiore di Agricoltura ” was founded a t Milan and Korner was elected to the chair of organic chemistry, where he continued with his usual energy to prosecute his experi-mental studies. In 1874 his classical memoir on “Studi sull’ Isomeria delle cose dette Sostanze Aromaticee a shi atomi di car-bonio” appeared in the Gazzetta Chimica Itulianu in which is collected a mass of new material the preparation of which had occupied him during the preceding five years.He begins by explaining the weak points in the views of previous observers on orientation and shows that the only satisfactory method is the one outlined in his paper of 1867. “ For more than six years,” he says “ a number of distinguished chemists have occupied themselves with the study of isomerism of the so-called aromatic compounds and still continue to do so. Nevertheless it is a curious fact that no definite solution has up to the present been reached.” “ The most certain method I still believe to be the one suggested seven years ago in my first work on this subject namely the trans-formation of the three isomeric di-derivatives into the isomeric tri-derivatives .” He suggests then the utilisation of the three dibromobenzenes as affording the fewest experimental difficulties.“The equivalence of the six positions of hydrogen in benzene being granted it sufEces to prepare any complete series of tri-substituted derivatives with these three compounds and to study their relation and in this way an unequivocal solution of the problem will be attained. Thus by preparing the three possible tribromo-benzenes from the dibromobenzenes and discovering for each one of them how many and which of the tribromobenzenes can be prepared or vice versa finding from the latter to which of the dibromobenzenes it gives rise a direct and definite method will be afforded for determining the structure of both the di- and tri-bromobenzenes according to the following scheme : Further he says OBITUARY NOTICES.2979 I 4 Br A I I \/ Br Br f)Br Br 1:3:4 \/ 1:3 fir \/ Br Br 1:3:4 1:3:5 1:2:3 1:2 !,,!Br Br /\ Br / /\Br I )Br ()Br Br \/ Br 1:2:4 1:2:3 = L:3:4 In the same way it is possible to prepare the six modifications of dibromoaniline and also the six nitrodibromobenzenes.yy The principle as we know is simple elegant and beyond criticism and has never been seriously questioned. We have only to survey the number and variety of new com-pounds new reactions and new and ingenious devices for obtaining the same substance by Merent methods to realise the amount of patient and careful work and experimental skill which this truly classical research entailed.As his fellow-worker and biographer Professor Menozzi has said, “the work suEices fo raise Korner to a distinguished position among the peak chemists.” In addition to devising a method of orientation independent of any speculation Korner was able to lay down certain rules of substitution which possess not only a scientifk interest but one of great practical value. Putting it very briefly he showed that if the halogens or nitric acid act on the halogen derivatives of benzene or on aniline phenol or toluene so that one atom of hydrogen is substituted the principal product is the 1 4-derivative and as a secondary product the 1 2-derivativeY and the more violent the reaction the larger the quantity of the latter. Where the original group is CO,H NO, or SO,H the principal derivative is a 1 3-compound and at the same time a certain amount of 1 2- and occasionally 1 4-derivative is produced.If sulphuric acid is allowed to act on the members of the above series the product is mainly the 1 3-derivative with smaller and variable quantities of the 1 2-derivative. At the end of the paper Korner discusses KekuIB’s formula for benzene with the alternate double linkages. He shows that the simultaneous formation of 1 2- and 1 4-derivatives in certain cases and of 1 3-derivatives in others cannot be explained b 2980 OBITUARY NOTICES. Kekulb’s formula. He proposes one which had already been indicated in a former paper and resembles that of Clam inasmuch as each atom of carbon is linked with three others.This arrange-ment presupposes the twelve atoms to be disposed in four parallel planes; in each of the outer planes are three atoms of hydrogen I 3 5 and 2 4 6 and in each of the inner planes three atoms of carbon. This arrangement affords the maximum symmetry, represents absolute equivalence of the hydrogen atoms and the three cases of isomerism among the di-derivatives. Besides his work on the constitution of benzene to which he devoted the greater part of his time and thought his deep interest in botany led him to the study of many vegetable substances. Between the years 1875 and 1895 he published a series of papers dealing with products of the vegetable kingdom such as the con-stitution of veratric acid and veratrole the conversion of aspartic into fumaric acid on two acids isomeric with vanillic acid on caffeic acid from cinchona cuprein on the alkaloids of angustura bark the constitution of siringina and in collaboration with Menozzi on the transformation and synthesis of amino-acids.By the action of methyl iodide on amino-acids in presence of alkali, ammonia is eliminated and an maturated acid results thus aspartic acid gives fumaric acid alanine is converted into acrylic acid and leucine into an unsaturated acid containing six carbon atoms. The reverse process was also investigated and carried to a successful issue. Of Korner’s personal character Professor Angelo Menozzi a former student and collaborator has given his impressions in a memorial address from which the following abstracts have been taken.* The first thing that strikes one he says is that Professor Korner possessed in an eminent degree that quality of the true scientist who devotes himself to the study of science for its own sake, independently of any practical application his discoveries may be found to possess.It so happened that Korner’s discoveries though of scientific importance of the h t order have brought in their train practical results of great value. Korner belongs to that group of scientists who affirm nothing without a rigorous and complete proof and are never in a hurry to publish results. This quality he possessed in an excessive degree. It is certain that it took some pressure on the part of Cannizzaro to persuade Korner to publish his first paper on orientation.Furthermore the con-* I wish here to express my indebtedness to my friend Prof. Nasini for the many documents relating to K6mer which he wm good enough to place at my disposal and also for the photograph which is reproduced here OBITUARY NOTICES. 2981 stitution of orcin had been established in Korner’s laboratory before Tiemann’s research appeared in the Berichte. The same is true of leucine the constitution of which was fully known before its publication elsewhere. He recognised this weakness in him-sell but as it was of secondary importance to his work he put it aside as a matter of small sigmficance. Whilst one cannot but regret this excessive caution which led him to control with scrupulous care every conclusion and statement before publication and which may have robbed him of priority in certain discoveries one cannot but admire a quality which is only too rare among scientific workers of the present day.Korner possessed a keen intuition which was soon recognised by those with whom he worked. He declared the acid isolated from aspartic acid to be fumaric acid long before its identity was dehitely established and the same thing occurred with caffeic acid from angustura. As a teacher Korner was lucid profound and effective and his lectures left a lasting impression on the many students who attended his classes. His method was largely based on experimental demonstrations and Cannizzaro relates that when acting as lecture assistant his arrangement of the experiments was a model of precision and ingenuity.He was skilled in analysis by the dry way and insisted on his students becoming proficient in this method. In the execu-tion of his own researches in his skill as an experimenter in the originality of his idem and in the novelty of his methods he showed a master mind. He had a passion for preparing his specimens in a state of extreme purity and it is this personal characteristic which is responsible for that remarkable collection of organic substances which is one of the scientific treasures of the School of Agriculture of Milan and is unique in the variety purity and beauty of the preparations. Korner’s system of imparting information was essentially practical, for he never forgot that he w&s teaching in a school of agriculture. If a substance was connected with plant life-he was a passionate lover of flowers and plants and possessed a profound knowledge of plant physiology-he never failed to enlarge upon this relation ; similarly any reference to an industrial commodity led to an account of ifs technical application.He completed his 75th year in 1914 when according to the existing rule he reached the retiring age; but at the instance of fhe staff of the agricultural school supported by the Chemical Society of Milan his services were exceptionally retained until 1922 when for reasons of failing health he resigned his chair at the advanced age of 83 2982 OBITUARY NOTICES. He lived his last three years in peaceful retirement happy in his family life and in the visits of his former colleagues and pupils, and passed quietly away on the evening of March 29th 1925.Korner was elected honorary member of many Italian and foreign institutions wiz. the Reale Accademia dei Lincei the Reale Istitufo Lombard0 di Scienze e Lettere La Societit Italiana delle Scienze received the honorary doctorate of Oxford Cam-bridge and Giessen was awarded the Davy medal of the Royal Society and made honorary member of the Royal Institution of the Chemical Society of London and of the German Chemical Society. He was enrolled chevalier of the civil order of Savoy for work of scientific merit. J. B. COHEN. GEORGE DOWNING LIVEING. BORN DECEMBER 21ST 1827; DIED DECEMBER 2 6 ~ ~ ~ 1924. BY the death of Dr. G. D. Liveing Professor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge a t the great age of ninety-seven the Society loses its oldest member as he was elected Fellow in 1853.He was the son of Edward Liveing of Nayland Suffolk. Entering a t St. John's College Cambridge he was eleventh wrangler in 1850 and in the following year he took the Natural Sciences Tripos then instituted for the first time and obtained a first class with distinction in Chemistry and Mineralogy. After working in Berlin with Rammelsberg he was elected to a fellowship a t St. John's College in 1853 but under the Statutes of that period he had to resign on his marriage in 1860. After acting as Deputy to the Professor of Chemistry (Reverend J. Cumming) he was elected to the Chair in 1861. It is difEcult to convey an idea of the attitude of the University a t this period towards the experimental sciences steeped as it was in the tradition of centuries of classical mathematical and theo-logical teaching.There was no laboratory instruction for students, although some experiments seem to have been shown in the lectures. Liveing relates how in 1850 he was attending Mr. Griflin's lectures on Physical Optics and whilst dealing with the subject of the Fraunhofer lines the lecturer askkd any who wished to come again later and he would demonstrate their formation. Liveing was the only one in the class who accepted the offer. The apparatus consisted of Wollaston's arrangement for producing a pure spec-trum. A prism a lens a slit illuminated by an oil lamp and a screen. Between the lamp and the slit was placed a bottle con [Po face p . 2982.OBITUARY NO!CIcEs. 2983 taining some copper turnings on which nitric acid waa poured. A series of ~e black lines appeared on the screen. The explanation of the formation of the black lines was not given by Bungen and Kirchoff until 1860. Liveing had to fight a long and hard battle to persuade the University that it was their duty to teach the experimental sciences not by merely showing experiments on a lecture table but by the only sure method of making the students perform them themselves. St. John‘s College soon after Liveing took his degree built him a chemical laboratory and “sowed the fmt seed towards the growth of a large chemical school,” and they allowed him to use this laboratory after he became Professor of Chemistry. The question of providing teaching in experimental sciences had still to be fought out.Plans were drawn up but when the tenders came in they far exceeded the money the University had to spend. The laboratory proposed for Chemistry by Professor Willis consisted of ‘‘a building which was capable of standing violent explosibns and as uninflammable as possible containing a aeries of vault^.^' Liveing would have none of this and begged that Chemistry should be left out of the scheme. The result of his action was that Chem-istry was only housed in a temporary structure for many years until in 1887 a laboratory was built on the Pembroke Street site. This building was added to in 1908 and again in 1920 and the department of Physical Chemistry has also taken over the large laboratory vacated by the Engineering department.Altogether the laboratory has accommodation for more than 700 research and ordinary students and is the largest chemical laboratory in the country. Liveing’s contributions to science were on the transmutation of the elements in 1855 and a few papers on geological and chemical subjects. In 1875 Sir James Dewar was appointed Jacksonian Professor of Chemistry and the two professors almost at once began their researches on the spectroscope which continued until 1904. These papers have been collected in one large volume and published by the University Press (1915). The work mas charac-terised by its great accuracy originality and the patience with which one difllculty after another was overcome and is now regarded as one of the standard books on the subject.As a lecturer Liveing was inspiring to those who had sdicient mathematical ability to follow him. The lectures were illustrated by experiments carefully chosen and invariably rehearsed but the experiments not unfrequently failed from his over-anxiety to make them succeed. As the head of a large department he maintained a stern discipline and to the younger men he appeared somewha 2984 OBITUARY NOTICES. unapproachable. Those who knew him intimately however were aware that he was the kindest and most liberal of men and a delightful companion especially wheh he was in the mood to tell stories of byegone Cambridge and of his travels during which he collected specimens of minerals to illustrate his lectures. Liveing in addition to his professorial duties found time to attend with great regularity the magisterial bench and many philanthropic and benevolent committees.For several years he held a commission as captain in the Town and County Rifle Corps; he was also an enthusiastic gardener. It is not generally known that for the last four years of his life he was actively engaged in an experimental investigation on the absorption of radiant energy by dense substances such as barium sulphate lead sulphate cassiterite litharge etc. Each vacation he devoted an hour or two every day to working at these problems in the Goldsmiths’ metallurgical laboratory and he spent much time a t home in working out his results. This research is far from complete although it is an amazing testimony to his vigour and perseverance.It was whilst on his way to the laboratory that he met with the accident which caused his death a few weeks later. Liveing resigned his professorship in 1908 and was given the degree of Sc.D. C. T. HEYCOCK. ALEUTDER MITCHELL WILLIAMS. BORN SEPTEMBER 20TEC 1888; DIED FEBRUARY 21ST 1925. THE son of a master-baker Alexander Mitchell Williams was born on September 20th 1888 at Burntisland in Fifeshire. He attended Burntisland School and later George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, where at the age of seventeen he was dux and gold medallist. With the John Welsh mathematical bursary (a foundation of Thomas Carlyle in memory of his father-in-law) Williams entered the University of Edinburgh and had a brilliant record in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.In 1910 he graduated as B.Sc. and as MA. with first-class honours in Mathematics and Natural Phil-osophy. During his University period he gained many scholar-ships and prizes being awarded finally an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship which enabled him to proceed to Sweden and work under the guidance of Arrhenius. His chief study in Stockholm was adsorption a subject which occupied his attention for many years afterwards. On returning to this country he continued research work in the laboratories of Professor Donnan in Liverpoo OBITUARY NOTICES; 2985 and in London. In 1915 he was appointed science teacher in Hawick High School and while there had a seriom breakdown in health from which he never entirely recovered. After temporary service in the Science Department of his old school in Edinburgh, he became a lecturer in the Chemistry Department of Edinburgh University in 1916.Continuing his research work he graduated as DSc. with a thesis on Adsorption. In 1919 he was appointed joint Head of the Physico-chemical Department a t the Shirley Institute Didsbury the headquarters of the Cotton Industry Research Association. Soon after his appointment he married Miss May Shaw an Edinburgh lady. While in Edinburgh William published four valuable papers on adsorption (“ Thermodynamics of Adsorption,” Proc. Roy. 8oc. Edin. 1918 38 23; “ The Adsorption Isotherm at Low Concen-trations,” ibid. p. 48; “ The Adsorption of Gases a t Low and Moderate Concentrations,” Parla I and 11 Proc. Roy. SOC. 1919, 96 A 287; Part 111 ibid.p. 298) together with one on “ Periodic Precipitation,” jointly with Miss M. R. Mackenzie (J. 1920 117, 844) and a paper on the “ Depolarisation by Oxygen of a Voltaic all” ( J . soc. Chem. Ind. 1920 39 28511). The work of Williams at the Shirley Institute was chiefly con-cerned with the moisture relations of cotton and the swelling of cotton cellulose under the influence of alkalis. The results of his researches are published in the JcrurnaZ of the Textile Institute. He showed that the swelling in mercerisation cannot be simply referred to the concentration of the hydroxide ion in the alkali solutions but is dependent to some extent on a specific effect of the alkali metal. The work so far published may be regarded as a considerable instalment of a systematic account of the nature and reactions of the cotton gel-an account which when complete, should give to those who use cotton in the textile arts increased powers in manipulating their material.One positive technical success Williams achieved by his discovery of a method for pre-paring cotton yarn of high insulating power so making it possible for English firms to compete in a trade which had long been a continental monopoly. Williams had a first-rate scientific intellect both critical and constructive. He was a sympathetic and kindly teacher and his investigations like all that he did were carried out with an energy and a fervour of enthusiasm which the state of his b d y health could ill support. A final attack of his insidious malady at the end of 1924 led to his untimely death on February 21st 1925.J. W 2986 OBITUARY NOTICES. GEORGE YOUNG. BORN SEPTEMBER QTH 1867; DIED APRIL 3RD 1925. GEOB~E YOUNG the younger son of Archibald Young surgical instrument maker was born in Edinburgh on September 9th 1867. He was educated in Edinburgh at the Collegiate School George Watson’s College and Mint0 House. He pursued the study of chemistry a t the Polytechnik Munich and graduated in 1891 at the University of Erlangen. Soon after returning home he was appointed demonstrator of chemistry at Firth college Sheffield, and was afterwards promoted to the lectureship in organic chemis-try a post which he filled with eminent success. Young was an excellent teacher and was most successful in interesting students in research. He contributed many papers on organic chemistry to this Journd between the years 1895 and 1905 dealing with the constitution of amidines the action of ammonias on acetyl urethane, triazoles and their derivatives and kindred subjects. He was a Fellow of the Chemical Society of the Institute of Chemistry and a member of the Society of Chemical Industry. In his school days Young was well h o r n in athletic circles as a good sprinter. At Firth College he took a lively interest in the life of the College; he started a students’ Chemical Society and at the outbreak of the Boer war he played a vigorous part in organising a company of students which was attached to the West Yorkshire Royal Engineers. He served with marked success as sergeant-major to the company. Young severed his connection with the College in 1904 owing to ill health and moved to London in 1906 where he established a consulting practice. During the Great War he directed his energies to industrial problems with a view to the production of chemicals formerly imported from Germany. Dr. Young died on April 3rd 1925 leaving a wife and three daughters to mourn his loss. w. c. w