OBITUARY NOTICES. JOHN PERCY BATEY. BORN MARCH 22ND 1889; ICILLED IN ACTION APRIL gTH 1918. J@m PERCY BATEY M.Sc.(Tech.) was educated a t the Manchester Municipal Secondary School where he was awarded a three years’ scholarship to the Mancliester School of Technology. He took the degree of B.Sc.(Tech.) in 1908 when nineteen years of age and was also awarded the Schuster Research Scholarship. Twelve months later he was made M.Sc.(Tecli.). For a time he was lecturer and demonstrator and in 1911 he became assistant to Dr. Liebmann of Weybridge where1 he remained until he enlisted in January 1915. He joined the Public Schools Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, transferring later to the Royal Engineers and went to France in August 1915. He was promoted to the rank of Company Sergt.-Major in September 1916.I n 1917 he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre and in 1918 the D.C.M. With regard t o the D.C.M. the Gazette published ths follow-ing : “He volunteered on no less than eleven times in one month to conduct parties carrying rations and supplies over a very much exposed area that was being heavily shelled by the enemy to gun emplacements in the front line. The fine example of courage and devotion t o duty of this warrant officer had an excellent effect on the N.C.O.’s and men of his company.” F. B. LIEUT. CHARLES WILLIAM DICK. BORN APRIL ~OTH 1895; DIED ON SERVICE NOVEMBER ~ T H 1918. LIEUT. CHARLES WILLIAM DICK R.A.F. died of pneumonia on November 9th last in Cliff Military Hospital Felixstowe. Mr. Dick, who was the younger son of the late Mr.J. Dick schoolmaster, North Shields took 1st Class Honours in his Inter B.Sc.(London) 011 leaving Rutherford College Newcastle-on-Tyne in June 1912 OBITUARY NOTICES. 409 arid in the autumn of the same year gained an open science scholar-ship a t Cambridge University and became a scholar of Trinity Hall in the autumn of 1913. €10 passed his final for the B.Sc.(Lond.) iii 1914 and on completing two years’ residence he postponed further study to become a chemist a t Messrs. Curtiss’ and Harvey’s explosives works a t Cliffe near Chatham and whilst there was elected a Fellow in 1917. H e joined the Meteorological Section of the R.N.V.R. in April 1918 and after completing his training was appointed meteorological officer a t Felixstowe Air Station and on the creation of the R.A.F.wits transferred to its establishment in August 1918. J. E. D. JAMES HECTOR BARNES D.Sc. BORN 1879; DIED 1917. ‘‘ I AM sorry t o say I have been in very poor health all the summer and had to take six weBks’ leave in Kashmir this autumn; it was no holiday however for I spent four weeks of it in bed with an irregular pulse-the old story of India malaria and the doctors say overwork. I hope t o come home next summer f o r I do not think I can stand another Indian summer here without first having it rest in a decent climate. I shall look you up then and I hope you will be kind and put me in the way of being useful while a t home on leave as I really cannot idle about.” These extracts am from a letter dated November 30th 1916, received from Hector sBarnes.He did not come home and his prophecy was fulfilled; h0 did not stand another Indian summer but a t the age of thirty-eight in the fullness of his intel-lectual powers with high hopes and with great opportunities open-ing before him he died in India. It is difficult indeed to write any adequate record of the worth and work of such a man. The scien-tific work which he acconiplished had it been carried out in the most favourable environment was such as any chemist might be proud t o have to his name. But it was carried out under condi-tions which would only be met by a man of heroic temperament. Such a man Barnes in truth was. In the plains of Northern India a t Lyallpur a remote station, on lan’d recently transformed from a sterile desert into a luxuriant agricultural colony by the marvellous system of Indian irrigation, Barnes betook himself in 1906.Born in 1879 he had received his scientific training a t the University of Birminzham where h 41 0 OBITUARY NOTICES. studied chemistry and physics under Professors Frankland and Poynting and graduated B.Sc. He had previously been appren-ticed t o Messrs. Southall and Barclay pharmaceutical chemists and the experience of the practical conditions of manufacturing opera-tions which he there acquired no doubt added greatly to his equip-ment for the work that was in store for him. A t Lyallpur he held the position of agricultural chemist to the Punjab Government and professor of chemistry in the Agricultural College then a t the stage of inception.He threw himself wholeheartedly into the work of designing the chemical laboratories and in 1908 his responsibilities were increased by his appoint’ment as Principal of the College. A year later the College was open for the reception of students. There was an immediate response as there is t o every new educational enterprise in India; but when it was found that the College was not as it was expected to be a certain path to Government service, the numbers fell with great rapidity and any belief that there was widespread zeta1 among neighbouring landowners for agricultural science could not be sustained. Barnes however had cherished no illusions and he knew from the first that the foundation on which he must build was sound scientific research addressed as directly as possible to vital questions of Indian agriculture and to this he and his colleagues bent their energies.It is not easy to give an idea of whht that meant. The physical obstacles imposed by tlie climate and ever-recurrent sickness the isolation from the scientific world and from the meagre supplies of apparatus anywhere avail-able in India-these alone might daunt a strong man. Add thereto, only in a more intense form what we have in England-Govern-ment officials in authority whose ‘‘ humanisation ” has precluded the slightest knowledge of what science is what it does and how i t can be applied t o do ‘more-and it may be understood that it is only the very exceptional man who can succeed. This Barnes did in the most colnspicuous degree.Standing in the laboratories a t Lyallpur after some hours’ journey from Lahore through great tracts of solitude and finding apparently all the resources of a European university science department and men busily engaged in employing the experimental methods of modern physical chemistry in the elucidation of fundamental problems in agriculture the greatness of the achievement was very striking to the imagination. Within a stone’s throw were the mud walls of an Indian village with its population living unchanged in the beliefs the thoughts the habits of life and work that belong to distant centuries of the past. The chief lines of work on which Barnes was engaged were salt lands and their reclamation ; seepage and the rising of ground water OBITUARY NOTICES.41 1 level under irrigation conditions ; the sugar cane and the sugar in-dustry in the Punjab; the intensihy of solar radiation; the Kangra tea industry; the chemical aspect of wwvil attacks upon wheat. It is to be feared that his published papers and records will g v e no adequate idea of the comprehensive plans which he had in his mind in relation to the elucidation of these problems. He talked of them eagerly and in the most interesting way showing a t once his wund knowledge of fundamental science and his appreciation of practical conditions. He had erected a workshop and turned out from it many of the fine tools required in his work and his laboratory rriethods exhibited the play of great experimental skill and resource. Space does not admit of any extended account of these investiga-tions but a little more may be said of one of them.On ’his last visit to Lyallpur in 1914 the writer was taken by Barnes to Narwala. This spot is twelve miles distant from Lyallpur and is or was, infertile salt-land that is land which owing to triumph of evapora-tion over rainfall has become impregnated with a variety of salts, carbonates chlorides and sulphates especially of sodium calcium, and magnesium evident as a crust of “white alkali” or “black alkali ” upon the soil. This condition of soil has been the subject of much study in America but Barnes believed that t h e work had “ failed to prove useful and practical for want of a better knowledge of the scientific principles of the causes of sterility. If such causes had bsen first investigated time and money would have been saved, and in the end tihe practical result would as it always does justify the scientist.” Accordingly Barnes set himself t o study as closely as possible the physical chemical and biological aspects of the problem.Having satisfied himself of the principles involved he applied himself to the practical problem of redeeming the land a t Narwala and a t the time of the visit referred to a tract of infertile land was being mole drilled. Leaving fields where the leisurely ryot was urging his bullock t o pull the wooden plough and gently scratch the surface soil one passed to the Narwala tract where a Yorkshire artisan was found in contest doubly bitter to him by the futility of his native tongue with native inaptitude in dealing with a steamdriven mechanical monster from Leeds.The plan was to mole drain the land and then irrigate out so much of the salts as was shown by Barnes’s biological methods to be necessary. The results of this trial were extraordinarily SuccessfuI and it is scarcely possible to believe that the luxuriant crops (of which photographs afterwards arrived) can have been grown on what was just before the war a stricken desert. Barnes in the end estimated that the system of reclamation would pay between 300 and 400 per cent. on the capital outlay and its general application would of course ad 412 OBtTUARY millions to the wealth of India. the system to non-irrigated areas the subsoil. I n 1914 Barnes married Nora NOTICES. He was proposing also to apply by the use of water pumped from daughter of the late Colonel Francis Thomas Steven Indian Army.As soon as the war began he bestirred himself to bring into action all the scientific and material resources that India could supply but i t is impossible a t present to quote his important observations on this subject. Shortly before his death Barnes not without some reluctance on his part left Lyallpur to take up at Pusa the post of chief agricul-tural chemist to the Government of India. What he might have accomplished from there it is idle to conjecture but the thought, of i t only deepens the sense of calamity both to India and to Science that surrounds his untimely death. When the writer first saw him he had just come from among his students in the playing fields and was in football attire a splendid figure of a man eager resolute honest and kindly.He was beloved by 'his students and colleagues and respected by everyone. I n summing up his qualities in our mind it is impossible not to be struck with the strength and number of endowments that are needed to produce the type of man who; is to be the true pioneer of progress in India-endowment of body mind and spirit. Happily such pioneers have been found in the past. They will long be needed in the future of India and it is difficult to think of any better service to mankind than is open there to those who can bring themselves to the standards that ruled the life and work of Hector Barnes. A t Lyallpur his portrait and an annual prize have been set up to preserve his memory and shortly before his death he was made a Doctor of Science of his University of Birmingham.His work and influence will endure in many fields and many hearts. Barnes was every inch a man and an Englishman. A. S. GEORGE CAREY FOSTER. BORN 1835; DIED FEBRUAWY ~ T H 1919. IN the death of Professor Carey Foster in his eighty-fourt,h year on February 9th there are many who will feel the loss of a kind and generous friend to whose gentle sympathy and encouragement much of the happiness as well as much of the success of their own lives has been due. A man of extreme modesty and of hig OBITUARY NOTICES. 413 if not commandiiig ability Carey Foster had made few direct con-tributions to scientific literature ; but the soundness of his judgment his almost passionate love of exact knowledge and his enthusiasm earned the respect of all and made his presence invalu-able on the many committees of learned societies the British Association and the various university boards of which he became a member.An extreme diffidence and a nervous shyness that was not without a peculiar charm to those who came to know him well as well as a hesitation to express a definite opinion on subjects on which he did not feel on the firmest ground made it easy to undervalue the services he rendered to science and education during the course of a long and active life. George Carey Foster was t-he only son of George Foster a calico printer and a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire and was born a t Sabden in Lanca-shire in 1835.After an early education a t private schools he entered as a student gt University College London where his studies were a t first mainly directed to chemistry. He graduated in Honours and with a prize in chemistry in his twentieth year, and acted for some years as chemical assistant t o Professor Alexander Williamson who had then occupied the Chair of Chein-istry for six years and a warm attachment and regard sprang up between the two men. He left England in 1858 and spent some years in study a t the foreign Universities of Ghent where he was a student under Auguste KekulB a t Paris and a t Heidelberg. A t this time however while he continued his chemical studies, his interest became more and more directed to physical science, which was then assuming a position of increasing importance through the work of such men as Clausius Lord Kelvin and Clerk Maxwell and it was natural that the refined accuracy of physical measurements and the readiness which they admitted of mathe-matical treatment should have presented a strong attraction to a man of his type of mind.The first evidence of his new interest was the appearance in 1863 of two articles on ‘‘ Heat” in the first edition of Watts’s ‘‘ Dictionary of Chemistry.” These articles, extending together t o more than 150 pages of closely printed matter formed an admirably concise and critical statement of the position of an important branch of science and a t once established Carey Foster’s reputation as a clear thinker and able exponent of physics.I n the meantime in 1862 Carey Foster had accepted an invita-tion to assume the duties of professor of natural philosophy at, the Andersoniaii University alasgow and in 1865 he was encouraged by his friend and former teacher Williamson t 414 OBITUARY NOTICES. become a candidate for the vacant professorship of experimental physics a t University College. His elecfon was mainly due to the high reputation he had established as the author of the articles in Watts’s Dictionary and in October 1865 he entered on his career a t the London College of which he was elected a fellow in 1867 and with which his name will always be associated. He resigned his professorship in 1898 a t the age of sixty-three but was recalled to act as principal of the college for a period of four years from 1900 during a critical time in its history.The last years of his life were spent in the quiet and refinement of a country life on a small estate a t Rickmansworth although until quite near the end he was always ready to place his services a t the disposal of the educational causes that had been so near his heart in former times. He became a Justice of the Peace for Hertford-shire and took an interest in politics in which he was a supporter of the Liberal Party. Towards the end of 1917 after the death .of his wife he began to feel the weight of advancing years but up to within two weeks of his death he was a t work on manu-scripts submitted to him for publication in the Philosophical Magazine. At the end of January of the present year he had a slight abtack of congestion of the lungs which his heart was not strong enough to resist and after gradually becoming weaker he passed away in the presence of his children on February 9th.Carey Foster’s contributions to chemistry were published between 1857 and 1867. The writer who is profoundly ignorant in chemical matters is indebted to his friend Dr. Forster Morley for the following summary of these researches. Dr. Morley was engaged in several physical researches under the direction of Carey Foster while a student a t University College and was intimately acquainted with him during the remainder of his life. “The first paper by Carey Foster appeared in the notes and abstracts appended to the British. Associatiop Reports for 1857.It is entitled On suggestions towards a more systematic nomen-clature for organic bodies.’ Gerhardt having introduced the term lzomoEogous ta denote that two carbon compounds differed in their formulae by CH or a multiple thereof Foster now proposed a new adjective isolugous t.o indicate a difference of H or a multiple of H,. This adjective is still employed to denote the difference. He further suggested words composed of two Greek numerals the first of which related to homology and the second to isology. Thus dcutbtic would mean ‘belonging to the second homologous series and the third isologous series.’ This suggestion together with many other ingenious proposals for new nomenclature did not receive support from other writer OBITUARY NOTICES.416 “ I n 1859 Carey Foster presented a preliminary report to the British Associat?on ‘On the Recent Progress and Present State of Organic Chemistry’ (Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1859 1). This was a review of recent work particularly from the point of view of the development of ideas about formulae. “ I n the Chemical Society’s Quarterly Journal (1860 13 235) we find a paper ‘On Acetoxybenzamic an Isomer of Hippuric Acid,’ by G. C. Foster. It is dated Ghent 1860 and is an account of a very careful piece of work carried out under the direction of Pro-f essor KekulB and describes the first preparation of m-acetylamino-benzoic acid which is shown to be related to hippuric acid from which it might in imagination be derived by an interchange between the radicles of benzoic and acetic acids.“ A paper published in 1861 ‘ On Piperic and Hydropiperic Acids ’ appeared in the Chemical Society’s Journal (1862 15 17; also in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1861 78 and BmaZen 1862 124 115). I n this it is shown that piperic acid C1&1004 is reduced to hydro-piperic acid Cl,Hl,O, and a large number of the salts of the labter are described. “ The post important chemical work carried out by Carey Foster is contained in three papers published in conjunction with Matthiesen. The first is entitled ‘ Preliminary Notice of Researches into the Chemical Constitution of Narcotine,’ and was read before the1 Royal Society in 1860 (PTOC. Roy. Soc. 1861 ii, 55; Phil. Mag. 1861 [iv] 22 398). I n this the authors establish the formula C,,H,O,N for narcotine and show that this alkaloid gives off methyl iodide when heated with hydriodic acid.The oxidation of narcotine to opianic acid is discussed and the formula for opianic acid C10H1005 correctly determined. It is also shown that on heating with concentrated potash opianic acid can be neatly split up into meconin and hemipic acid. A new acid, cotarnic acid was obtained by the gentle oxidation of cotarnine. “The second paper on this subject entitled ‘Research& into the Chemical Constitution of Narcotine and of its Products of Decom-position,’ was published in 1863 (Phil. Trans. 1863 345; an abridgment is given in J. Chem. Soc. 1863 16 342). The authors here describe how by acting on hemipic acid with hydr-iodic acid an acid C7HF04 which they call ‘hypogallic acid,’ but which is now known as probcatechuic acid is obtained.As an intermediate product they isolated methylhypogallic acid,’ now called ‘ isovaleric acid .’ “The third paper is entitled ‘Researches into the Chemical Con-stitution of Narcotine and its Produch of Decomposition Part 11,’ and was read before the Royal Society in 1867 (Proc. Roy 416 OBITUARY NOTIOES. Soc. 16 39; J . Clhem. SOC. 1868 21 357). It is shown that opianic acid when heated wit4h hydrochloric or hydriodic acid, forms methyl chloride or iodide and a new acid ‘ methylnoropianic acid,’ C,H,O,. Thus opianic acid may be called dimethyl-noropianic acid. Methylnoropianic acid yields with nitric acid nitromethylnoropianic acid. Meconin on heating to looo with concentrated hydrochloric or hydriodic acid yields methyl chloride or iodide and methylnormeconic acid or rather methyl-normeconin C,H,O,.By similar means narcotine can be con-verted into methylnornarcotine C,,H,,O,N. “ These three papers by Foster and Matkhiessen made a long step forward in the knowledge of the constitution of the alkaloids and may indeed be termed classical. The accuracy of the work has been amply confirmed by subsequent investigation. “While this work was in progress Carey Foster published two papers entitled ‘On Chemical Nomenclature and chiefly on the Use of the Word Acid.’ Both appeared in 1865 (Phil. Mag. [iv], 29 262; 30 57). I n these he protests against t.he word acid being used to denote’ an oxide and recommends that SO,.be called sulphurous oxide SO sulphuric oxide and C,H,O acetic oxide.“ I n 1869 Carey Foster took part in a discussion on the atomic theory held a t the Chemical Society the subject having been introduced in a lecture by Professor A. W. Williamson. An account of the discussion will be found in the Chemical Society’s Journal for 1869. “Carey Foster’s work in chemistry shows that if he had decided to devote himself to‘ that science he would have taken a dis-tinguished position among his colleagues. He was a member of the Council of the Chemical Society from 1865 to 1868 again from 1872 to 1875 and again from 1885 to 1886 and Viice-Presi-dent from 1888 to 1890. His Fellowship of the Society dates from 1856.” During the early years a t University College Carey Foster made a number of contributions of niinor interest to scientific journals, but his first important paper “On a Modified Form of Wheat-stone’s Bridge and Methods of measuring Small Resistances,” was read before a meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers in 1872 (Telegraph Engitieed Joicrnal 1872-1873 1 196).Previous to this date Wheat-stone’s bridge had provided electricians with a convenient and fairly accurate method for comparing resistances and as is well known the result of the experiment expresses the ratio of one resistance to the ot,her. Carey Foster OBITUARY NOTICES. 417 however so modified the bridge method that the difference between instead of the ratio of the resistances was determined. The advantage of the change is only apparent’ where the resistances to be compared are of nearly equal value as is generally the case for instance in the testing of standard coils; but where this condition is fulfilled the new method transformed the bridge method from being merely a fairly accurate means of measurement into one of the most refined accuracy comparable with that attained in the use of a sensitive balance.It also supplied the means of dealing with a very small resistance such as that of a short? thick wire by determining the difference between it and the zero resistance of a short copper bar and it was indeed for this alone that the met-hod was first suggested. Carey Foster’s method has proved of the highest value to the science of exact electrical measurement and has made it possible to issue standards of electrical resistance of an accuracy that would otherwise have been impossible of attain-ment.Alike in its simplicity and its refined accuracy the method is thoroughly characteristic of his mind. He furtlher showed how the principle involved might be applied to the important process of calibrating the wire of the bridge. In 1881 Carey Foster published “An Account of Preliminary Experiments for the Determination of the Electromagnetic Unit of Rssistance in Absolute Measure” (Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1881, 426). The accurate determination of this important unit had been undertaken by the British Association in 1863 and the value that had been accepted in this country as well as widely in other parts of the world was expressed in the “B.A. unit of resistance,” the value of which had been determined by a Commit$tee of the Associa-tion consisting of Clerk Maxwell Fleeming Jenkin and Balf our Stewart.The classical method of experiment adopted by the Com-mittee consisted in revolving a large flat closed coil of insulated copper wire about a vertical diameter in the earth’s magnetic field and measuring the consequent deflexion of a magnet suspended a t its centre. The deflexion was due to the induced current developed in the coil and this depended on its resistance as well as on the intensity of the earths magnetic field. The last how-ever affecting the induced current and the deflexion equally, although in opposite senses disappeared in t-he final equation that expressed the result of the experiment, leaving a relation between the resistance of the coil its geometrical form and dimensions and the speed of its revolution.During the years that had elapsed since the issue of the B.A. unit the rssulta of other measurements had led to a growing con-viction that it was appreciably too mall and Carey Foste 418 OBITUARY NOTICES. described an experiment in which whilst the general principle of the British Association experiment was maintained it was modified i n an important detail. The two ends of the wire composing the coil were unconnected throughout the greater part of its revolu-tion; but for a short interval the centre of which coincided with the transit of the plane of the coil through the magnetic meridian, they were placed in connexion through sliding contacts with the two ends of a standard resistance coil that formed part of an ‘‘ auxiliary ” circuit in which a steady current was maintained by a tlhermopile.By the principle originally applied by Poggen-dorff i n the potentiometer no current is developed in the coil if the electromotive force developed in it by its rotation in the earths magnetic field is equal to the fall of potential Between the two points in the auxiliary circuit with which it is connected this being the product of the current supplied by the thermopile and the resistance of the standard coil and the method of experiment consisted in so regulating the current of the thermopile that the deflexion of a sensitive galvanometer included between the revolving coil and one of its points of connexion with the auxiliary circuit should disappear whilst a t the same time the deflexion of the magnet of a tangent galvanometer included in the auxiliary circuit was recorded.The general principle is simple and a rels-tion is readily established between the resistance of the standard coil the deflexion of the magnet of the tangent galvanometer the geometrical form and dimensions of the revolving coil and its speed of revolution. The chief refinement that Carey Foster hoped to effect in this modification of the original experiment consisted in the possibility of t’he direct determination of the resistance of the standard coil. In the original experiment the resistance determined was that of the revolving coil and the reeistance of the standard could only be obtained by subsequent comparison.To obtain the maximum induced current it was essential that the revolving coil should be wound with copper wire and as the resistance of copper with that of all pure metals is seriously affected by changes of temperature, it was necessary that the temperature of the coil should be known with great accuracy during the time that the experiment was in progress a very delicate matter. I n Carey Foster’s method how-ever the resistance of the standard coil was directly determined while it formed a part of a fixed and independent circuit. The wire composing it might equally well be of copper or of one of the many alloys the resistaices of which are scarcely affected by changes of temperature whilst it was an easy matter to determine its temperature with great accuracy.Further the new metho OBI!tWARY NOTICES. 419 reduced the correction for the self-induction of the revolving coil, an important and rather delicate detail in the original experi-ment to insignificant proportions but a t the same time it un-fcrtunately introduced the necessity of taking its capacity into consideration a feature that Carey Foster did not probably a t first realise. The apparatus for carrying out the experiment was constructed with great refinement and was erected a t University College and a series of preliminary experiments were made by Carey Foster with the assistance of Mr. G. W. van Tunzelmann. These experi2 ments showed that the method was capable of yielding consistent results and there is no doubt that a far higher consistency would be possible if they were repeated in a modern laboratory more completely removed from the disturbing magnetic influences of large masseg of iron of continually varying temperature.The results were not however sufficiently consistent to satisfy t.he critical judgment of Carey Foster and the experiment was aban-doned. Whilst they were in progress Lord Rayleigh and Professor Schuster were engaged in repeating the original experiment adopt-ing precautions that experience of the intervening years had been shown to be necessary and in 1882 they published an account of their experiments and during the next ten years independent evidence supplied by other methods has shown the value they obtained to be a close approximation to the truth. In 1886 Carey Foster contributed a paper t o the Physical Society of London “On a Method of determining Coefficients of Mutual Induction ” (Phil.Mag. 1887 [v] 23 121-129) the method de-pending on the cumparison between the coefficient of mutual induc-tion of two coils and the capacity of a condenser. On forming or breaking a current in one of two coils the primary a discharge of electricity takes place through a neighbouring secondary coil the discharge being determined by the coefficient of mutual induction of the two mils; also if the coatings of a condenser are oonnected to two points of the primary circuit a charge proportional to the resistance of that part of the circuit that is included between the two points of connexion enters the condenser and will be dis-charged on the cessation of the primary current.To combine these two examples of “ Ballistic ” discharge Carey Foster succeeded in so connecting the two circuits that on the break of the primary current the condenser was discharged through the secondary circuit in the opposite direction to that of the induced discharge and on varying the charge of the condenser by regulating %he resistance between the points of its connexion with the primary circuit its discharge and that of the induced current neutralised one another 420 OBITUARY NOTICES. The disappearance of discharge in the secondary was indicated by a galvanometer and a simple relation was given between the coefficient of mutual induction of the coils and the capacity of the condenser. The capability of the method had been thoroughly tested a t University College by Mr.F. Womack and i t had been shown to be capable of yielding results of a high order of accuracy. Carey Foster’s method of determining the cosffrcient of mutual induction between two circuits has taken its place among the accurate methods of elect’rical measurement. I n 1876 Carey Foster devised a method based on the principle of Wheatstone’s bridge of tracing the equipotential curves in a sheet of tinfoil conveying an electric current and in collaboration with Sir Oliver Lodge he published two papers ‘(On the Flow of Electricity in a Plane Conducting Surface” (Proc. Phys. SOC. London 1876 1 113 193) in which this method of experiment was adopted. A further paper by Carey Foster and the present writer ((On the Difference of Potential required to give Sparks in Air,” was presented to the Physical Society in 1884 (Chem.News 1884 114). I n the method of experiment adopted in this research potential differences were measured by it modified form of absolute electrometer that had been designed by Carey Foster and that was found to supply an accurate method for measuring potential differences necessary to produce sparks of from 0.1 to 5 cm. in lengt4h. Among Carey Foster’s other publicatiocs were further articles on ( ( Heat,” (‘ Thermodynamics,” (‘ Electricity,” and (( Magnetism ” in later editions of Watts’s “Dictionary of Chemistry,” and in these he fully maintained his reputation for accuracy clear judg-ment and power of scientific exposition. I n later years he pub-lished a text-book on electricity in collaboration with Professor A.W. Porter. Carey Foster became a member of the British Association in 1857 and continued to take an active part in its proceedings until late in life. Besides his direct cont’ributions to which reference has already been made he was a member of a number of its com-mittees the more important of which were those on “Standards of Electrical Resistance,” ( ( The Selection and Nomenclature of Dynamical and Electrical Units,” “The State of Knowledge of Spectrum Analysis,” and ‘( Electrolysis.” As President of the Mathematical and Physical Section in 1877 he gave an address on “The Mutual Relation between Mathematics and Physics,” in which he dwelt on his favourite theme of the importance of accurate measurement as the foundation of discovery in science.He was Treasurer to the Association from 1888 to 1904. He was one o 0 IiT.TT J A RY NOTT CE S . 431 the founders of the Physical Society Q€ London the first meeting of which was held in 1873 and of which he was President for two years from 1887. He acted as President of the Society of Tele-graph Engineers now the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1880 and in 1881. He was elected t o the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1859 acting as one of its Vice-Preeidents from 1891 to 1893 as well as from 1901 to 1903 and he took a keen interest in rlie work of Kew Observatory Committee of the Society. He received the1 honorary tl egrees of TAPd .I). f roni GI asgow and D. 8 c . from Manchester. From the first Carey Foster took a deep interest in the reconsti-tution of the University of London.Whilst fully recogmising its services to education in its earlier days he was sensible of the grievous anachronism by which the University of the greatest city of the world should continue t.0 be solely engaged in examining and in conferring degrees. He had a high ideal of a universitly as a body of men and women earnestly engaged in t.he pursuit and extension of knowledge rather than in preparation for ex-aminations and he strove without ceasing to bring about the foundation of a university in London that should be worthy of it. He was an active member of the many early committees the aims of which were a constructive policy that? should achieve his ideal, and he felt keen disappointment whe’n the conflicting of many interests made it impossible of full attainment in the present university alt,hough i t received his full and loyal support.He never ceased however to look forward to a time when by further reconstruction London should possess a university fully worthy of its position and he welco’med Lord Haldane’s Report as indicating tlie possibility of a further step in this direction and possibly its fill1 attainment. The writ’er is indebted to Sir T. Gregory Foster Provost of Ui1iversit.y College €or a sketch of Carey Foster’s work while act’-ing as Principal o€ the College from 1900 60 1904. “Dr. G. Carey Foster resigned the Quain Chair of Physics in 1898. It was a time of crisis in university affairs in London as the reconstitution of the University was pending.“ I n view of the impending reconstitution the Council of Uni-versity College appointed a special committee t o consider the posi-tion of the College. On the recommendation of this committee, the office of Principal later changed to Provost of the College was instituted. Dr. Carey Foster was invited t o be the first occupant of this office. “ I n his .capacity of Principal he1 was appointed to represent University College on the Senate of the University under its new VOL. cxv. R He held it from 1900 to 1904 492 ORITUARY NOTICES. constitution. He threw himself heartily into the new problems that arose and brought to them all his ripe judgment and experience . “It soon became evident that the new constitution under which the University was given a teaching side as well as an examining side made it desirable that University College which had been originally founded to be the University of London should be merged into the reconstituted University.Dr. Carey Foster took an active share in the negotiations that led up to the incorporation of the College in the University. He regarded i t as ‘ a step towards securing unity of aim and interest in all that relates to advanced education and the promotion of original research in London.’ He hoped that it was the beginning of a movement that would lead to the concentration and the consolidation of university work in TJondon. ‘‘ This view is expressed in the final paragraph of his sketch of the History of University College which is as follows: ‘“The step taken by University College has been followed by King’s College which was incorporated in the TJniversity on September lst 1909.It may be hoped that similar action will be taken by other analogous bodies and that in course of time the University of London perhaps with some modification of its present constitution may become a centre about which the various bodies in London that are qualified to take part in university work may be united into a single organised system in which they shall supplement instead of competing with each other each doing the work for which by its special circumstances it may be best fitted.’ “During the four years of his Principalship great progress was made in various directlions in t.he reorganisation and development of university work in London.The plans for the removal of University College School were matured. The buildings formerly occupied by the School were as a consequence set free fur uni-versity purposes. The accommodation provided a t University College for university work was materially increased. There was a rapid growth in the intellectual and social activities of the College and in t’hese Dr. and Mrs. Carey Poster took a prominent share. ” A t an early period of his work a t University College Carey Foster recognised the importance of practical work in physics as an essential elment in scientific education. The first physical laboratory for studenth had been opened by Magnus a t Heidelberg in 1846 and i t was followed in 1863 by the addition of a physical laboratory to the University of Berlin.From 1845 Lord Kelvi OBITUARY NOTIOES. 423 had invited his senior studdnts to work in his laboratory for a time a disused wine cellar a t Glasgow and his example was followed by Carey Foster who thus introduced the teaching of practical physics in this country. A t the beginning this work formed no recognised part of the College curriculum but regular practical courses in physics were arranged in 1867 the laboratories a t that time consisting of two of the College rooms only one of which was fitted with benches. Later a third room in the base-ment known as the “dungeon”-it was indeed a veritable dungeon-was added and the privilege of working in it was reserved for the professor and students engaged in research.For s m e years the only apparatus available was of the simplest character but instruments were being constantly designed by Carey Foster himself whilst tlhe designs were executed by a clever Scotch mechanic William Grant who acted as his assistant during the whole time of his professorship and without whom no reference to the laboratory would be complete. Grant who was q u i b a character in his own dour way became a permanent feature of the Physical Department. His love of the apparatus so much of which he had constructed and the agony he experienced in seeing it misused made him a source of terror to all students other than those few who proved themselves worthy to be entrusted with it; whilst many will remember with humiliation his lofty refusal of the tip that was occasionally offered either from gratlitude or from a desire to acquire merit.He was of the most faithful of servants, and was devoted to Carey Foster whilst elach regarded the other with a simple affection Sir Oliver Lodge who was a student in the laboratory in those days, and who later became Assistant Professor of Physics a t the College, has rendered a grateful as well as a graceful tribute to the educa-tional value of the work done in the old physioal laboratory of University College (Letter to Nature December 3rd 1908). I n the years that followed physical laboratories for students were opened at other colleges and it was inevitable that as many of these were attached to new institutions in which it had baeu possible to design the buildings with a view to their subsequenc use as laboratories the simple equipment a t University College should have been left behind.Carey Foster in consequence con-tinually urged the governing body of the College to undertake the building of a physical laboratory that should be worthy of its tradi-tions although no doubt by reason of financial considerations, his representations were for a long time without success. A t length however he had the satisfaction of preparing the plans for the present laboratories which were opened to studen& in of which both alike were worthy, R 424 ORITTJARY NOTICES. 1893 and forin a. fitting ineinorixl t,08 the value of his work as Professor of Physics. There was an old asphalted tennis court within the College walls from which some of us have often returned in exhilaration a1t.houg-h witb begrimed hands and flannels and now only lives in memory; the building that now occupies its former site is the ‘ I Carey Foster” Laboratory.His nervous manner prevented Carey Foster from ever becoming a good lecturer and his failure in this respect was perhaps due in addition to a conscientiousness that made it difficult for him t o be content with a simple statement that he knew t o be only an approximate expression of a hruth and a t the same time made him reluctant to adopt t,he customary method of illustrating physical laws by the use of simple alt*hough entirely imaginary, experimental data. I n place of these his illustrations would often consist of the actual results of laboratory measurements and the younger students unless they were’ of a rather exceptional type, were apt to lose both attention and interest in the details of laborious computation.The more able students however were inspired by this very quality in their teacher. They grew to rever-ence exact expression and to regard it as the foundation of all scientific knowledge. They continually brought their difficulties to the Professor and were encouraged to do so by his unlimited patience in dealing with them. It was not unusual to find Carey Foster surrounded by a small group of students engaged in close discussion half an hour aft$er the close of a lecture although the dining-room had long since claimed the attention of the rest of the College. The same quality of enthusiasm for his work and his infinite patience in dealing with its smallest det’ails appeared in his work in the students’ laboratory.He never found lecturing easy but, after. having given a lecture in the morning and having a furt.her lecture for senior students in prospect at’ the close of a long after-noon he would frequently come t o the help of some duffer in difficulties in the laboratory and would devoste the best$ part of an hour to the details of a simple experiment in physical measure-ment. On these occasions indeed there was a danger of his being led by his own love of accurate detail not only t o conduct tho whole experiment himself making all the observations but to carry out whatever computation might be involved while the student looked on wonderingly as from a distance.Iti may be that some who have worked in the old laboratory a t University College in those days have preserved the scraps of paper covered with logarithmic calculations that Carey Foster often left on th OBITUARY NOTICES. 425 benches all execut’ed in his wonderfully neat writing as a memento of the most patient of teachers and most lovable of men but such prescience is rarely bestowed on yonth. His nervousness made conversatiion with Carey Foster difficult, even to those who came to know him intimately. Whilst how-ever it remained a source of some embarrassment t o them his friends came to regard i t as so essentially a part of him that it. too became lovable and they would have feltl still more embarrassed if he had suddenly succeeded in overcoming it.Closely associated with his manner was a quaint and entirely original sense of pure humour that. found frequent opportlunity for expression both in his professional work and in his private life. That his nervous-ness and hesitation did not arise from any defect in character would be shown were any such evidence necessary from his letters. In these Carey Foster found no difficulty in expressing himself with perfect clearness and precision whilst botlh were emphasised by the beauty and strength of 11;s handwriting. It was in his letters perhaps that his quaint humour found its best opportunity for expression. Through the kindness of Mrs. Minchin the writer has before him a number of letters written by Carey Foster to her husband the late Professor G.If. Itinchin which are so character-istic that littde apology is necessary f o r the introduction of a few short extracts. A close friendship existed between Carey Foster and Minchin and in their unassuming simplicity and gentleness there was much resemblance between the characters of the two men. Carey Foster had a profound respect for Mincliin’s rnathe-Inatical powers and consulted him when he feltl a doubt as to his own grasp of the mathematical treatment of a physical problem, whilst Minchin had an equally deep regard for Carey Foster as an authority on physical matters and has expressed his regret to the writer thatt Foster’s nervous manner together with his extreme jnodesty should have1 made it difficult for some even of his friends, t o realise his true greatness.The first extract is from a letter dated 1882: “My dear Minchin, ‘‘ The lesson of the day t’ouching electric endosrnose is written iii the First Book of Wiedemann beginning a t the 392nd verse of the second chapter . . . wherein i t is written how the ions dc wander when a current passeth through their midst. This I take it is the whole secret of electric endosmose; the porous diaphragw causeth not the flow but maketh the same manifest by hindering tho returu tliercof. 426 OBITUARY NOTICYES. The second is also dated 1882 : ‘‘ My dear Minchin, and it’s bad I did not write before. ((I hope the enclosed may serve your riverence’s purpose. Sure, But I had to think and that goes slow. * * * * * * “As to your telegraphic friend; let hiin take to himself a tangent galvanometer and a set of resistance coils and sundry cells accord-ing to Daniel1 and Grove.. . .” and then follow instmctions as to what the telegraphic friend should achieve. An extract from a letter referring t,o a fairly well-known man: “ The gentleman’s surface integral suggests to me a considerable amount of self-esteem. But. I am willing to believe that the charge is purely superficial. . . . I am told by a friend who knows hiin much better t,han I do that he is a good fellow.” And tihe last is fr0.m a . letter writ,teu in 18S7 congratulating Minchin on his marriage: “My dear G. M. M., (‘1 heard awhile ago that you had entered into coinbination and were no longer a dissociated atom. Accept my warmest con-gratulatJons and my fervent1 hope that you may appreciate the blessings of home rule more fully from year to year.” Several of the letters deal with Minchin’s work with photo-electric cells.The private life of Carey Foster was one of quiet beauty. His transparent hqnesty and high regard for truth earned him the respect’ of his friends whilst has unvarying kindness and courtesy won their affection. I n 1868 he married Mary Anne Frances, daughter of Andrew Muir of Greenock. Recalling that time Dr. Forster Morley writes : “It seems only yesterday when my father (the late Professor ITeniry Morley) said to me ‘ I have been walking ro,und tlis Square with Carey Foster who has just told ine that he1 is engaged t o be married and has been speaking most charmingly ~n the subject of love of a inaii for a wornam.’ OBITUARY NOTICES.427 There was a striking resemblance between the character of Mrs. Foster and that of her husband and she even acquired a suspicion of tlhe nervousness that was so strongly marked in him that how-ever only accentuated a natural charm of manner in her. There were born to them four sons and four daughters all of whom are still living. The mutual confidence that existed between Carey Foster and his wife and the evident affection with which both parents were regarded by their children gave a peculiar charm to the visits of the many friends who were always welcome la their home. Mrs. Foster died in 1917 and a year and a-half later Carey Fost’er’s body was laid to its last rest beside hers in the peaceful cemetery a t Riclanansworth.Among the number of Carey Foster’s old students a t University College who have become distinguished were Prof. W. E. Ayrton Sir Oliver Lodge Dr. H. Forster Morley Prof. Viramu Jones Prof. A. P. Chattock Prof. J. A. Fleming Prof. T. Hud-son Beare Prof. A. W. Porter Prof. F. Wmack Prof. J. Sakurai, Sir Victor Horsley and Prof. W. D. Halliburton. It is from his having been first a student then a demonstrator and thereafter a friend of Carey Foster that the writer has been able to pay in this notice his last tribute to the memory of one he loved and admired. A. H. FISON. WILLIAM JOEL KEMP BORN 1841; DIED MARCH 22ND 1918. WILLIAM JOEL KEMP was born a t Bow in 1841. He was the youngest of three sons and was educated a t Stock’s Academy a t Poplar.Owing to his father’s death he left school a t a very early age and was placed in the office of a ship’s broker. Finding this work very uncongenial he induced his relatives to article him to Carters and Green builders of t,he famous China tea clippers in t,he yard which subsequently became the headquarters of the Tharnes Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. His apprenticeship com-menced a t an unfortunate time for wood was rapidly being replaced by iron in the construction of ships and the old-established firms which did not move with the times were being left behind. All the sam0 this period 01 his life mast have been a particularly happy one. He met all sorts of seafaring men and in later life he never tired of relating anecdotes connected with their superstitions and adventures and it is not unlikely that their experiences quickene 428 OBITUARY NOTICES.the sense of imagiiiatioii which served him so well in after years. Shortly after cmpleting his articles he married Mary the daughter of John Cayzer who organised the emigration t o Australia of the East Anglian farm labourers in the starving ’forties and ’fifties. About this time he entered the service of Rickett Smith and Com-pany coal and coke shippers as buyer. I n this capacity he was brought in contact with t,he lime burning plaster and kindred industries and when in 1876 a company was formed to work the bed of gypsum discovered four years earlier through the Sub-Wealden boriiig a t Netherfield Susses he took a small financial interest in the undertaking.It was about this time1 that the necessity for technical education and scientific. training was first accepted in Englaiid. I n 1879 the City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education was formed, and almost immediately courses in chemistry under Armstrong in temporary premises in Cowper Street Finsbury were advertised. Althoagh nearly forty years of age Kenip knowing that the manu-facture of plaster a t Netherfield rested ent+irely on rule-of -thumb methods determined t o take advantage of the facilities which the City Guilds Institute afforded and to become an efficient chemist. A t Cowper Street he worked for one or two1 days a week encouraged and inspired by Arrristrong and he soon proved himself to be not.only a logical thinker but an esperti manipulator. The other students in the laboratory were all boys and the’ writer who worked a t the bench adjodning Kemp’s shared with them the admiration of his power of application and of his rapidly acquired skill. Kemp, influenced by Armstrong’s spirit of research soon began to make investigations 011 the production of sulphur from gypsum and from alkali waste and these occupied him for several years. He1 was the first t o suggest making alkali waste into a paste with water arid pumping carbon dioxide into the sludge contained in an inverted conical vessel thus making the gas do its own stirring and bring-ing every particle of the waste in contact with it. Some of the results of these investigations were subsequently embodied in Rawes’s patents which were worked by Chance.During these years the position of the Sub-wealden Gypsum Company a t Netherfield had becane very critical the output had fallen below 40 tons a month the quality of the plaster was bad and creditors were clamouring for payment of their accouiits which there were no funds to meet. There was already on the bank an immense tonnage of dump a grey stone considered useless which had to be hauled to the surface with the white gypsum and it. was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to dispose of i t on the surface-. A meeting was held with the ohject of winding up thc coi~ipaiiy OBITUA ZtY NOTICES. 429 but Karnp who had already begun to experiment with the grey stone which consisted almost entirely of gypsum persisted in the view that under proper direction the operations of the company would be successful.Two of the shareholders present were impressed and agreed to provide further funds if Kemp would undertakes the management and it was thereupon decided that operations should be continued. Kemp’s experiments with the grey stone were now pushed on with the result that in a short time he had perfected a method whereby the1 waste was converted into a plaster of the Keen’s cement variety which although dark in colour set hard and evenly. He introduced this plaster under the name of (‘ Xirapite’,” and from that tlay the success of the iiiidertaking was assured. In 1891 10 tons of ‘‘ Sirapite” were soltl; ten years later the annual sale was 15,108 tons and in 1911 the sales exceeded 31,000 tons.Kemp’s genius was shown not only in the way lie’ attacked his problems on the chemical side but also in his engineering ability and in the handling of men. From the first he recognised the inefficiency of boilers fed with water almost saturated with calcium sulphate and within two years of taking control he had scrapped the steam plant and had substituted gas producers and large gas engines. He introduced kilns of large size which reduced the consumption of fuel and greatly simplified the grinding and mixing plant. H e subsequently opened up a new shaft in the mine which he equipped with electric lighting and haulage plant. Having placed the business on a profit-earning basis Keinp devoted his attention to the amelioration of the con-dition of his workpeople.Although himself prepared to work twelve hours a day or more he reduced in 1895 the working hours to eight and afforded all workmen suiLable opportunities for recreation. A t his suggestion the company built a large number of model houses standing in large1 gardens which the workpeople were permit&ed to purchase; a t cost price. I n 1903 Kemp completed his plans by bringing about an amalgamation of the chief makers of plaster in the United Kingdom. Very few of those who travel by the So’uth-Eastern Railway from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings realise that near Mountfield hidden from but within a few hundred yards of the line and in one of the most beautiful of the Sussex valleys lie a mine fully equipped and busy works employing several hundred hands a t which a large part of the plaster used in this country is produced.It was here that Kemp conducted his experiment.s which revolutionised the industry and i t was here a t the scene of his life’s work that he breathed his last. Shortly after the outbreak of war his son who for some years had assumed the management volunteered f o r It 430 OBITUARY NOTICES. service and Kmp then seventy-five years of age returned ta take charge. Always confident and cheerful ever hard-working he resumed his former duties with an activit-y and interest which might have been expected from a man thirty years his junior. On the morning of March 22nd 1918 he rose in the usual health and spirits but shortly afterwards when about to go the round of the works he suddenly expired.GERALD T. MOODY. SYDNEY LUPTON. BORN JANUARY 3RD 1850; DIED JULY 10TH 1918. SYDNEY LUPTON who was elected into the Society in 1872 and remained a Fellow until his death was the youngest and last surviving son of Darnton Lupton and of his second wife Anna Jane Busk. He was born a t Eller Close Roundhay near Leeds, on January 3rd 1850. His father a member of a well-known Yorkshire family was head of the firm of William Luphn and Co. woollen manufacturers. He was a man of considerable influence and public spirit much respected and t'oolc a leading part in the municipal politics and social life of the town and district. His son the subject of this notice was educated a t Rugby and lived i n Dr.Jex Blake's house. From Rugby he passed to Oxford, where a t Christ Church he came under the influence of Dr. Vernon Harcourt and was led to devote himself to science particularly to mathematics and chemistry. On leaving the University after taking his degree he was appointed a science master a t Harrow School. The work of school teaching was not uncongenial to him and he had a fair measure of success in it; but his mother-now a widow-having fallen into indifferent health he resigned his position in order to live with her at Harehills near Leeds where he established a small labora-tory and continued to occupy himself with experimental work. It was during this period that the writer of this notice made his acquaintance and had the opportunity of observing the pro-gress of his inquiry on the slow oxidation of potassium the longest and perhaps the most important of his investigations.On t%hs death of Mrs. Lupbn he took a smaller house a t Roundhay where he continued to live until lZis removal i;o London in 1896. During his residence in Leeds Lupton took part in the civic life of the town was a member of thel Board of Guardians and OBITUARY NOTIUES. 431 was associated wiLh the lute Caiioii Jackson Vicar of St. 3 axnt35’5, in many charitable objects. Por four yurtrs lie was a member of the Committee of Management of the Cookridge Convalescent Hos-pital and on his resignation consequent on his leaving Leeds his fellow-members recorded their appreciation of his genial and energetic help and their sincere thanks for his services “during 5 period requiring special administration.” This last sentence has reference to the assistance he was able t’o render the institution in connexion with the erection of a wing to the building to perpetuate the memory of his friend Canon Jackson. Lupton’s intellectual tastes led him t o take an interest in the activities of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society where he occasionally lectured on scientific subjects. H e became ;I member of its Council in 1885-6 Honorary Secretary from 1886-95 and a Vice-president in 1895-6. Practically the whole of Lupton’s experimental work was done during his residence a t Leeds. His first published paper “On ths Formula of the Alums,” appears in the Journal of the Society for 1875. Although the doctrine of valency which we owe to Frankland was fairly well established at this period there was considerable uncertainty as to the true formulz of a number of inorganic compounds owing t o doubt as to the valency of par-ticular elements.This was the case with the group of the alums. Lupton a t the suggestion of Dr. Vernon Harcourt sought to establish the generic formulze of these salts independently of con-siderations of the combining values .of their constituents by a study of the conditions under which they lose their water on heating or on exposure to a dehydrating agent under reduced pressure and he showed conclusively that they mush contain a t least twenty-four molecules of water whence the general formula now universally accepted follows, I n the same year he published a now on the preparation of cuprous chloride in which he described the different mode in which water acts on this substance depending on its method of forma-tion (Chem.News 1875 30 233). This was followed in 1876 by a number of short notices (Clzem. News 1876 33 90). He showed that in preparing nitrogen by the well-known method of passing air over red-hot copper turnings the operatJon might be rendered continuous by mixing the air with ammonia gas whereby the cupric oxide was reduced as fast as it was formed or as is more probable by the metal acting catalytically and inducing the production of water : 3(2N2 + 0) + 2NH3 = 3H20 + 7N2. R” 432 OBITUARY NOTICES. 111 ihis TH~LIIIIPI’ 011ly i t rel:Ltively s1lct.l.t 1ellgt.h OT I\cxtcd cop’pcr turnings is needed anti tho idioll proceeds unint errupt-edly.I n another communication 011 the ‘‘ Solubility oi Naphthalene in Water,” he sought. to disprove Garden’s contention that Plateau’s theory of the cause of the movement of this substance on the surface of water was invalid by showing that. its solubility, and consequent high tension of its solution are sufficient t o account for the phenomenon. IIe further described a number of reactions serving to distinguish aniline from naphthylaniine and made known a number of characteristic tests for succinic acid. Lupton’s most iinportant chemical paper was his stiitly of tlic Slow Oxidation of Po$assium,” comniuiiicated t o the Socict)y iii 1876 and published in the r70(o‘?id for that year in which he care-fully repeated the observations of Davy Berzelius.Gay 1,iiss;tc and ThBnard and Harcourt and sought to clear up certain dis-crepant statements with regard t o the number ol potassium oxides capable of existence. He confirmed Vernon I-Iarcourt’s work made fourteen years previously (Qzinrt. J O I C I ~ Z . C’hem. SOC. 1862 14, 267) carefully watching the colour changes which follow the pro-gress of the oxidation and analysing the products a t the several stages by a method he devised and of which he proved the sufficiency. H e was disposed to regard the existence of the grey suboxide K,O of Berzelius as improbable and h e concluded that the intermediate products of oxidation were mixtures of I<,O and K,O in variable proportion depending on temperature and time and the nature of the oxidising medium.He compared thess intermediate products with the successive stages in the oxidation of lead and with the several lead oxides described by various observers the general nature of the change being similar. I3c obtained analytical numbers for the yellowish-green product which corresponded with the composition of a dioxide K,O, and described a number of reactions which appeared t o indicate its individuality. He gained nol certain proof‘ of the existence of the trioxide K,O, but4 was inclined to regard the brownish-yellow stage of the colour change as some evidence of its formation. I-Ie states that “the more thoroughly the air is dried the less is its oxidising action.” as proved by Baker (PJziZ. Trans.1888) and subsequently by Holt and Sims (T. 1894 65 434) who showed that potassium may be distilled unaltered in perfectly dry oxygen Lupton’s conclusions have been confirmed in the main by the last-named observers although they found it impossible to associate the differences of colour with oxides of de’finite compositioln the oxidation proceeding apparently without any break until th OBITUARY NOTIfJEf3. 433 heated mass coiisist’ed wholly od the bright orange-yellow peroxide, K,O, described by Harcourt. Holt and Sims also repeated Lupton’s experiments on the action of the oxides of nitrogen on heated potassium and with nitrous oxide obtained evidence of the formation of the buff-coloured tri-oxide and the sulphur-yellow dioxide the existence of which in solution had already been established by Harcourt.Lupton in 1888 published a short communication in the I’roceedinp of the Society on compounds of chromium and in 1891 he contributed t o the’ I~hilosoyhical LMngcxzine a controversial paper on “The Reduction of the Results of Experiments with Special Reference t o the Hydrate Theory of Solution ” (PhiZ. Mwy.. [v] 311 418) which produced a rejoinder froin Mr. Spencer Pickering . Sydney Lupton was a painstaking and conscientious worker, scrupulously accurate and a good manipulator cautJous in draw-ing conclusions o r in forming opinions but very tenacious in hold-ing them when convinced of their soundness. His knowledge and as his published work shows his sympathies were almost ex-clusively confined to inorganic and phys.ica1 chemistry ; and owing probably to the limitations of his early training and his subse quent lack of opportunity he never seemed to be attracted by the problems of modern organic chemistry.As a fellow-townsman and a member of the well-known Mill Hill Chapel he was a great admirer of Joseph Priestlep who formerly ministered in Leeds and began his chemical career there. At one time lie conceived the idea of writing the life of the old philosopher and of bringing out an annotated edition of his com-plete works for which he had gradually accumulated material. But to do justice to Priestley’s astonishing versatility and the extraordinary range of his knowledge requires an equally excep-tional man and Lupton after playing with the project f o r some time finally relinquished it being deterred from the attempt in all probability by its very magnitude.He was however well qualified to make it, especially as regards Priestley’s scientific work and philosophical opinions for he had considerable critical acumen and literary skill was an omnivorous reader and had extensive knowledge of the literature and science of the latter half of the eighteenth century. On his removal to London Lupton ceased to take any active part in experimental inquiry. He kept up his interest however, in scientific work was a frequent attendant at meetings of scien-tific socieities and at the lectures of the Royal Institution. He also interested himself in Bedford College and in the work of St 434 OBITUARY NOTICES. George’s Hospital and was for a time a member of its Committee of Management.He was perhaps most generally known by his books on “ Elementary Chemical Arithmetic ” and “ Numerical Tables and Constants in Elementary Science,” published by Mamillan’s and based probably on his experience in science teaching at Harrow. His last production was a little book of some 120 small 8vo pages bearing the modest title “ Notes on Observations being an Outline of the Methods used for determining t.he Meaning and Value of Quantitative Observations and Experiment’s in Physics and Chem-istry and for reducing the1 Results obtained.” Notwithstanding the somewhat archaic ring of its title i t is an admirable piece of work and well worthy of careful study by all engaged in quanti-tative work.I n spite of its diminutive size it must have involved a wide range of reading no sinall exercise of criticism and con-siderable skill and thought in arrangement and condensation. It shows Lupton a t his best. It is a model of clear restrained state-ment and rigorous logic and should find a place in every physical and chemical laboratory. A t all periods of his life Lupton was fond of travel and his ample means made it easy for him to make extensive journeys. He was an acute observer and a shrewd judge of character with a keen sense of humour-qualities which added t o his wide reading and knowledge of history and his readiness t o communicate his kno~vledge made him interesting as a companion. He died a t his London house 102 Park Street Grosvenor Square on July loth 1918 and was buried a t St.John’s Cemetery, Roundhay. He showed his interest in the work of the Chemical Society by bequeathing t o i t his valuable chemical library. T. E. THORPE. GEORGE MARTINEAU C.B. BORN 1535; DIED FEBRUARY 5~11 1913. BY the death of Mr. George Martineau which occurred after a brief illness at his residence Gomshall Lodge Gomshall Surrey, we have lost a member of an old and distinguished family and a man who was perhaps the greatest authority of his time in this country on sugar from its economic point of view. The deceased was the son of Mr. George Martineau of Tulse Hill and grandson of Mr. David Martineau who in 1797 established the sugar refining firm which as Pavic! Martineau and Sons was a t one time the largest in London ; it% has remained in the family for more than OBITUARY NOTICES.435 century. The fact is not without interest to our Fellows that0 this firm was one of the first probably the first in t<his country to recognise the value of scientific control and the partners appointed the late Mr. C. Haughton Gill F.C.S. first as their chemist and subsequently as their manager. Mr. Martineau was educated a t University College London and 011 coming of age entered his father’s business in which he was actively associated until his retirement’ in 1896. His connexion with sugar refining was on the commercial side but he always took a keen interest in the general technology of the industry. Although a Liberal of the Gladstonian school he recognised the defects of our fiscal system more than forty years ago; and in 1872 when the effects of the foreign sugar bounties began to make themselves felt the British refiners appointed a Cmmittee with Mr.Martineau as Secretary. This Committee visited the principal beet-growing countries of Europe. Thus commenced the anti-bounty campaign which culminated in the abolition of the bounties by the International Convention of 1902. I n recognition of his services Mr. Martineau was appointed a Companion of the Bath by King Edward VII. Imbued with the true scientific spirit Mr. Martineau possessed a thoroughly logical mind clearly shown by his numerous writings, which were continued up to the last days of his life it may bs said indeed that he died in harness. He was a chemist by instinct and few cmmercial men had a greater appreciation of chemistry and chemical research..Keeping himself a u courant with all the chief events in the progress of our branch of science, it was doubtless with this object thatl he became a Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1871. It cannot be forgotten that equally with those members of his firm connected with the practical side of sugar refining he shareld a strong belief in the precise methods which chemical analysis affords when applied to commercial ques-tions. I n this connexion we may pointl out that he was a pioneer in the establishment of the Beetroot Sugar Association of London, the functions of which were to check the weights and make analyses of the whole of the raw beetroot sugar shipped from the Continent to the Port of London.His charm-ing personality gifted conversational powers wide erudition and his deep sincerity had secured for him a wide circle of friends. Not a few have reason to be grateful to him for the assistance and encouragement he gave them a t the commencementl of their careers ; but from these he resented open thanks being quite content to view their progress with silent satisfaction. Mr. Martineau’s memory will be cherished by many. ARTHUR R. LING 436 OBITUARY NOTICES. SIR ALEXANDER PEDLER F.R.S. BORN MAY 21m 1849; DIE.D MAY 1 3 ~ ~ 1918. LIKE many ot3her chemists who have at’tained an eminent position in the scientific world Pedler began life in connexion with pharmacy. His father Mr George Stanbury Pedler was in busi-ness as a pharmacist a t 199 Fleet Street until on the removal of old Temple Bar and the widening of Fleetl Street preparatory to the erection uf t-he Law Courts the premises were swept away.Pedler received his early education in the City of London School, which he left atj midsummer 1865. I n October of the following year a t the age od seventeen he won a Bell Scholarship and began work as a student in the laboratory of the Pharmaceutical Society in Bloomsbury Square. Here he went through tlhe usual course of analytical work and a t the end of the session he was awarded a certificate of honour in practical chemistry. Before leaving he began a piece of research suggested t o him by the present writer, who was a t that ti- Demonstrator in the laboratory. It was with great regret that he parted with the promising young student, who by this time had decided to leave the comparatively narrow field of pharmacy and proceeded to place himself under Professor (afterwards Sir Edward) Frankland a t the Royal College of Chemistry then in Oxford Street.Therc after carrying on his studies for two years further he assisted Frankland in the separa-tion of the amyl alcohols of fousel oil by Pasteur’s process. This work was done in the laboratory of the Royal Institution where Frankland had held the Frof eswrship of Chemistry in succcssion to Faraday since 1863. From the optically active and inactive alcohols Pedler prepared the corresponding valeric acids and gave an account of his work to the Chemical Society in 1868 (Journ. Chern.SOC. 21 74). Further work in this direction was inter-rupted by his taking part in the solar eclipse expedition t o Sicily in that year. From 1871 Pedler served f o r two years as lecture demonstrator to Sir Edward Frankland in the Royal College of Chemistry in succession to Mr. Herbert McLed who had been appointed t o the professorship of chemistry in the then newly instituted Royal Engineering College a t Cooper’s Hill. At the same time he assisted in the research work on gaseous spectra in which Frankland and Lockyer were jointly occupied. This naturally directed Pedler’s attention to the fascinating problems connected with the physical constitution of the sun and the stars. Consequently on receivin OBITUARY NOTICES. 437 in 1873 appointment as professor of chemistry in the Presidency College Calcutta he naturally occupied himself with subjects con-nected with celestial chwistry and soon after his arrival in India he was charged with special duty in connexioin with the eclipse expedition of 1875.On joining the Presidency College' he found that no practical work in any department of science was done by the students. To remedy this deficiency in the scheme of instruction was hts first care and ultimately he succeeded in securing the introduction of a small amount of practical work into t.he science course for the M.A. degree and a practical examination was held for the first time in 1882. Ultimately he had the satisiaction of finding the university regulations require every college sending up students to provide the necessary staff and appliances for teaching practically each of the departments of science and each candidate for B.A.or B.Sc. degree t o be examined practically. Having been born in 1849 Pedler was still a very young man on reaching India and those who knew him in his early days will gladly recall those features of his character which made him not only popular in youth but remaining unchanged to his latest years contsibuted materially ti> his success in official life. In India Pedler retained the professorship in Calcutta together with the office of Meteorological Reporter to the Government! of Bengal for twenty-two years. He then became Principal of the Presidency College and Vice-Chancellor of the University. In 1899 he was appointed Minister of Public InstructJon in Bengal and became an additional Member of the Legislative Council under the Viceroy .Among other institutions Pedler took great interest in tho Itavenshaw College a t Cuttack and was instrumental in obtaining accommodation for the physical and chemical departments in that institution. These successive steps in official life explain the fact that Pedler's original contributions to scientific chemical literature were limited to the one paper on valeric acids already mentioned, and several which arose out of the circumstances of his residence in India. Soon after his arrival in that country he examined and reported on the coal-gas and water supplies of Calcutta. I n 1878 he sent home a paper on the poison of the cobra which was printed in the Proceediruqs of the Royal Society (27 17).I n 1890 he contributed to the Journal of the Chemical Society three papers which showed that he was utilising opportunities, previously neglected by chemists of studying the action of tropical sunlight on chemical change. The first of these papers was entitle 43s OBITUARY NOTICES. “The Action of Light on Phosphorus and some of the Properties of Amorphous Phosphorus.” The second paper was on “The Action of Chlorine on Water in the Light apd the Action of Light on certain Chlorine Acids.” The third paper contaiiied an account of atternpix t’o estimate hydrogen sulphide and carbon bisulphide in gaseuus mixtures by explosion with oxygen. Pcdler was a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry and of the Chemical Society.He was elected F.R.S. in 1892. He was also an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society. In recognition of his public services in India hel was created C.I.E. in 1901 and 011 his return to England in 1906 he received the honour of knighthood. On his retirement he soon found occupation in public work; he became honorary secretary to the British Science Guild which owes much to his devoted service and on the outbreak of war ho took up active duties connected with the research department of the illinistry of Munitions. Whilst attending a meeting of Committee a t that office1 on Monday May 13th 1918 he was seized with sudden illness and expired immedi-ately. His death came as a great shock and surprise to his many friends among whom no suspicion of weakness had been enter-tained.Pedler was twice married first in 1878 to Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of C. K Schmidt of Frankfurt and secondly to Mabel, youngest daughter of the late Mr. W. Warburton R.N. of Ded-ham who survives him. .He left no children. W. A. T. JOSEPH PRICE REMINGTON. BORN MARCH 2 6 ~ ~ 1847; DIED JANUARY 1ST 1918. JOSEPH PRICE REMINGTON was born a t Philadelphia on March 26th 1847 and belonged to a well-known Quaker family his ancestors having been for three generations members of tlhe Society of Friends. His father Dr. Isaac Remington was a prominent Philadelphia physician whilst his mother the daughter of John Hart was in a direct line of descent from an apothecary who prac-tised his a r t in Philadelphia early in the eighteenth centlury.An inclination for the professional pursuit of pharmacy which was manifested by Remington a t an early age would thus seem to have been inherited. At the comparatively early age of fiftesn years Remingto OBITUARY NOTICES. 439 suffered tlhe loss by death of his father and this appears to have affected his subsequent career; for a plan to supplement his pre-liminary education-obtained in private schools and in the high school a t Philadelphia-by an academic course of study had to be abandoned I n 1863 he entered the establishment of Charles Ellis, Son an*d Co. a firm of wholesale druggists in Philadelphia where he remained for four years and during that time he attended evening lectures a t the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy from which he graduated in 1866.During the years from 1867 t o 1870 Rernington was employed in the manufacturing laboratories of Dr. E. R . Squibb a t Brooklyn N.Y. and in this position he had exceptional opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of technical methods especially in their application t o chemical and pharms-ceutical products whilst also enjoying intimate association with a man who was widely known for his scientific attainments and exceedingly high ethical standards. Remingtou then returned to Philadelphia and after a sho-ri; period of service with the firm of Powers and Weightman manufacturing chemists of that city he established a pharmaceutical business on his own account which was successfully conducted for thirteen years. I n the meantime he had also served as an assistant to Professor Parrish and subse-quently to Professor Procter at’ the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and on the decease of the latt’er in 1874 he was elected to the professorship of pharmacy in Lhes college which ha,d been his ctlma mnter.The position which Mi-. Remington was thus called on to fill he retained for the exceptionally long period of forty-four years or until the close of his life and during that’ time several thousand studenh had received instruction from him. As circumstances did not permit Professor Remington to acquire a scientific training in the modern sense his attainments and talents were directed more to what may be termed the practical side of pharmacy and to editorial work. As examples of this activity there may specially be noted his participation in several revisions of the “ United St*ates Dispensatory,” the publication of his well-known text-book entitled the “ Practice of Pharmacy,” and the arduous duties committed to him as Chairman of the Corn-niittee of Revision of the “ Unit.ed States Yharmacopeia.” Professor Remington was a Fellow of the Chemical Linnean, and Royal Microscopical Societies of London as well as an active member of several scientific societies in his own land.The esteem in which he was held by his professional colleagues had moreover, been manifested by the bestowal of honorary membership in a large number of pharmaceutical organisations both a t home and abroad. He had tsavelled widely in his own country and had 440 OBITUARY NOI’ICES. several times visited Europe the last occasion having been in the autumn of 1913 which will still be pleasantly remembered by many oE his English friends.The home life of Professor Remiiigton with a devoted wife and several children was particularly happy. His genial nature and fluency as a speaker together with the fund of interesting in-format’ion which he possessed rendered him a most pleasant com-panion. I n social as well as professional circles he was therefore always gladly seen and accorded a prominent place. The writer of these lines is grateful for the privilege of render-ing a slight tribute to the memory of one with whoiii a friendship had been sustained for more than forty years and whose qualities of mind and heart had won such extended appreciation and regard.F. B. POWER. JEAN JACQUES THEOPHILE SCHLOESING. BORN JULY ~ T H 1824 ; DIED FEBRUARY ~ T H 1919. ONE of the oldest and most distinguised of the foreign members of the Society Jean Jacques Theophile Schloesing passed away on February 8th of this year. He was in his ninety-fifth year, and almost all his life had been associated with agricultural cheni-istry. He knew its illustrious f ouiiders Boussingault, Lawes and Gilbert when they were still young men almost a t the beginning of their careers; he1 introduced new ideas atl a critical stage and, finally when development had temporarily ceased he opened up a new path which is still leading t o fruitful results. At the age of seventeen he entered the Polytechnic School and left itl two years later t o take a post in the “Service des Manufacteurs d’Etat.” He thus began his career a t the molst eventful period in the history of agricultural chemistry; it was the year 1843 in which Lawes and Gilbert started their great work a t Rotharnsted one year after Liebig’s famous report on agricultural chemistry t o the British Association and four years after Boussingault had commenced his striking investigations a t Becheslbronn.He must have done well in his first posh for three years after-wards-in 1846-he became Director of the Ecole des Tabacs and within a few months published his first paper in the Comptcs Tendus; i t was on nicotine and its estimation in leaf and manu-Schloesing was burn a t Marseilles on July 9th 1824 ORITUARP NOTICES. 442 I'nctnred tobizcco.He was the first t o obtain nicotine in any quantity; it had previously been prepared as he tells us only in '' quelques rares khantdllons . " Schloesing verified its compositioii and designed a method for estiniatiiig i t within about 1 per cent.-a very accurate detlermination for the time. 'The method consisted in displacing the nicotine with ammonia extractiog with ether, eliminating the excess of ammonia by the evaporation of the ether, and then Litrating the residual base with sulphuric acid. For five years no further publications appeared then followed an ingenious paper 'on the determination of ammonia in tobacco; milk of lime was added and the mixture placed over sulphuric acid in the cold. The ammonia volatilised and was absorbed by the acid but+ a t the low temperature) of the experiment no decomposition of other substances occurred.This paper was followed shortly afterwards by one on the estimation of nitrates in presence of organic mather; hydrochloric acid and a ferrolus saltl were added and nitric oxide produced; this was washed free from hydrochloric acid then mixed with air or oxygen converted into1 nitric acid and titrated with an alkali. Subsequently however Schlmsing found that conversion into nitric acid was unnecessary and he designed a method for direct measurement of the nitric oxide. H e also introduced con-siderable improvements into the methods for estimating ammonia in dilute liquids such as rain. As an illustration of the very cumbersome nature of some of the methods then in vogue it may be mentioned that the dehermination of ammonia in rain-water a t Rothamsted carried o a t in 1853 had involved the distillation of 2 cwt.of rain and evaporation of the distillate with sulphuric acid; in spite 09 all the laborious care bestowed on the work the figure obtained was probably double thei tirue value. For the next seven years Schloeeing published no scientific work, but' from 1860 oinwards he issued a number of important publica-tions. I n 1860 also he began some cultnral experiments with tobacco which lasbd for fifteen years and were daigned t'ol ascer-tain whether the1 physical properties and nicotine content of the leaf are characteristic of the variety or the result of environmental factors. I n the first series tobacco was raised from samples of seed coming from various regions; the resulting leaf had in each case the physical characters and nicotine content characteristic of the parent plants grown in their original home.The second series was more exkended and lasted fourteen years; ite purpose was to discover whether any marked alteration occurred in the character-istic properties when a variety is cultivated in a new district. Havanna tobacco was grown and the seed saved; some was sown and some was stored; each year a certain quantity of the seed o 442 OBITUARY NOTIOES. each generation was mwn. I n no caw was any difference CybS6PBd. It was probably in this subject; more than in any other tha? the genius of the man sBone out. Looking back a t these papers their striking feature is their modernness; one can well believe that a t the time of publication they would not be fully appreciated.Again and again he broached new subjects which neither he nor his con-temporaries developed but which later workers rediscovered thirty or forty years afterwards and showed to be of signal importance. He was essentially a pioneer rather than a builder and he had the extraordinarily good fortune to discover gold almost every time ; but he never himself developed his “finds,” and the subject was not sufficiently well organised to ensure that others should develop them for him. Schlwsing’s period of greatest activity was from 1866 to 1879, when he was between forty-two and fifty-five years of age; during this time he opened up no fewer than five new fields of soil in-vestigation three of which are now proving extremely valuable.His first soil paper was on the soil solution which he separated from the solid particles by a displacement metnhcd. The subject received very little attention for nearly forty years; its importance was not fully realised until Whitney and Cameron in America published their striking paper in 1903 when investigations began again using atl first methods similar to those that Schlwing had designed. A t the present time i t receives perhaps more atten-tJon than any branch of soil chemistry. Another subject which has come inbo prominence in recent times was investigated by him in 1868. He showed that nitrates are decomposed during certain fermentations and five years later he further showed that they are reducible to gaseous nitsrogen in soils deprived of oxygen.He also delmonstrated that oxidations rather than reductions are the normal phenomena in soils under nat’ural conditions ; surf ace soils readily absorb oxygen whilst sub-soils d o not. After a lapse of nearly thirty years this phenomenon was independently rediscovered and its investigation figures promin-ently in s m e of the most recent research programmes. His most important work however was on nitrification. For a long time ii; had been known that nitlrates are gradually formed when plant or animal residues farmyard manure etc. are in-corporated in Dhe soil. The process was of much technical import-ance in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the source of nitrahs for gunpowder.During tlhe Thirty Years’ War and other great continental wars the various governments had been seriously In 1866 Schloesing began his investigations on the soil ORITlJARY NOTIUES. 443 concerned in these so-called nitre Iwds aud had done ;I great (leal to stimulate their development. An interesting collection of memoirs relating tlo the prgctical details wits published in Paris in 1776.* A study of these papers shows that the conditions of the change were tolerably well ascertained even then but nothing was known of its mechanism. It has several times happened in the history of civilisation that agriculture has benefited by knowledge gained during war. The mass of information accumulated during the eighteenth century wars and apparently rendered useless in the nineteenth century by the promise of peace and the discovery of nitrates in Chile was found ta be of fundamental importance in agriculture.Boussin-gault had realised and Schloesing a t once accepted the view that the nutrition of plants so far as nitrogen was concerned depended on the nitre-bed processes ; organic nitrogen compounds useless as plant nutrients became converted into highly valuable nitrates when added to the soil; the more rapidly this change could be brought about the better for the plant. So long however as the mechanism of the change was unknown the old knowledge was simply empirical and incapable of full utilisation. Many investi-gations had been made but the problem remained unsolved. The balance of opinion was in favour of a purely physical process but there was also a strongly supported chemical hypothesis.In 1875 a Commission was appointed to inquire into a scheme for carrying Paris sewage out to the land between Clichy and the forest of St. Germain and Schloesing was asked to draw up the report’. Rarely even in France can an essentially practical inquiry have led t o such striking scientific results. When Schloesing had finished the investigation he had not only die-covered a new and vastly improved method of treating sewage but he had realised what? was the cause of nitrification and thus founded the science of soil bacteriology. We cannot do better than let him tell the stiory in his own words: “I was selected,” he tells us “to draw up the report of this Commission. On this occasion following the plan indicat$ed in 1856 by M.€€ervQ Mangon and taking advantage also of the more recent investigations of Dr. Frankland I endeavoured to elucidate t-he principles involved in the land treatment of sewage by con-necting the process with the phenomena of slow combustion of organic matter in an atmosphere containing oxygen ; I investigated a t the same time the conditions necessary to secure satisfactmy * “Receuil de MBmoires et d’observations sur la formation et sup la f abriccttion clu Salpdtre par les Commissionnaires nomm6s par 1’Acaddmie pour le jugement du Prix du Sa1pbtre.”-Paris 1776 444 OBITTIARJP NOTTUES. ~ ~ ~ ~ i f i c a t i o ~ in pruct,ice. 1 mstle R special poiiit of distinguishing two problems which were often coiifused purification simply and solely of Paris sewage which would only require an area of 2000 hectares (SO00 acres) and ag-ricultural utilisation of Paris sewage, which would require an area twenty times as great.“ Boussingault had just published the researches on nitrification that he had carried out some time previously. Blood meat wool, straw and oil-cake did not nitrify when mixed with sand and chalk and allowed slowly to oxidise but they rapidly nitrified when mixed with soil. I had vainly tried to nitriCy ammonia by atidiiig it to sand and chalk and leaving the niixt,iire expose(1 t o air. These reaults led me t o think that t,he propertry of bringing ibhont nitlrifi-ciitiotl was peculiar to soil. “Wishing to fix my ideas on tho subject I made the following experimentl.A large tube 1 metre long was filled with 5 kg. of ignited sand mixed with 100 grams of powdered chalk. The sand was watered daily with sewage the amount being so arranged that, it took eight days to traverse the tube. For the first twenty days there was no sign of nitrification then nitrates began to appear, and the amount rapidly increased; finally the liquid flowing o u t of the tube contained neither ammonia n o r organic matter-the sewage was absolutely purified.” The quality of the man’s genius was revealed in two striking deductions drawn from this simple experiment,. One was of supreme practical importance and has revolutionised sewage dis-posal practice. “ Au point de vue de 1’6puration des eaux d’Bgor~t. l’exp4rience . . . prouve en effet qu’il n’est nullernent nMssaire que l’irriga-tion soit Btablie sur les terrains agricoles; de sables steriles se pr6tent parfaitement 8 l’6puration lorsque le ferment nitrique, apporth par les eaux nGmes a pris possession du milieu.” From this to the modern bacteria bed is no great step a t any rate in principle.The second deduction was of even greater consequence f o r the development of agricultural science. Reverting t o the delay of twenty days in the setting in of nitrification Schloesing and Muntz asked why it set in. With characteristic shrewdness they observed that this delay could scarcely arise if the process were purely physical or chemical; some biological factor seemed to be indicated. I n order to test this possibility they added a little chloroform to the sewage; nitrification a t once stopped.They then removed the chloroform and “seeded” with a little fresh sewage; after an interval nitrification began again. This showed that the process was brought about by living organisms and forthwith Schloesin OBITUARY NOTICES. 445 and Muntz announced the existence of a living ferment.. The discovery at once attracted attention ; Warington a t Rothamsbed immediately recognised its importance and proceeded to investigate nitrification i n the Rothamshd soils; he was able to confirm the accuracy of Schloesing’s deductions. Later on the proof was made more rigid by Winogradsky’s discovery of the organism. It is no diminution of the credit of the discovery that’ Yasteur in 1862 had already foreshadowed it as Schloesing himself point.ecl out in his remarkable statement : “ Beaucoup d’stres infErieurs ont la propikt6 de transporter l’oxygkne de l’air en quailtit6 considiirable sur les matikres organigues complexes c’est un des moyens doric se sert la nature pour transformer en eau acide carbonique olxyde de carbon azote, acide nitrique ammoniaque les 616ineiits des substances organiques 6labokes sur l’influeiice de la vie.” It seized the irnagiiiat ion of the.younger workers and speedily attracted recruits to the new subject. Although Schloesing did not himself develop the snbject he was satisfied that“ the “ ferment nitrique ” did not exhaust the list of soil organisms. Reverting to his earlier work on the absorption of oxygen by soils he says in one of his lectures%- ‘‘ C’Qtait lL pensait-on alors un fait purement chimique.On sait aujourd’hui que c’est principalement un fait biologigue c’est-&-dire que la combustion observge est le r h l t a t de la vie do nombreuy organismes tel par example que le ferment iiitrique lequel est charg6 de transporter l’oxyghns sur l’azote.” These investigations by 110 nieaiis represent the whole of his work on soil although they may well prove to be his most per-rrianeiit contributions t o science. By a lengthy washing process he obtained a preparation o€ tlis finest clay particles which remained iiidefiiiitely suspended in pure watel but was precipitated by traces of a calcium or magnesium salt. This was commonly regarded as being in some sense the essential clay and agricultural chemists marvelled a t the minute amount present even in heavy soils.The conception served a useful purposel but it has since been replaced by a broader one: the soil is now coiisidered t o be made up of particles varying from 1 121111. downwards to molecular dimensions the different groups merging one into another without perceptible breaks. The clay group is assigned for convenience ail upper limit of 0.002 m., but this is regarded as purely conventional. Another important investigation had to do with the movements of calcium carbonate in the soil. The conditions of solubility of This research marks the beginning of soil bacteriology. * “ Lepxis clt chixilie agricole,” 1883 446 OBITUARY NOTICES. calcium carbonate in carbonic acid were determined and the relationship between the quantities of these two substances was shown to follow a logarithmic law.Deductions were drawn which threw important light on the practice of liming and marling and on the presence of lime in natural waters. During the course of these investigations Schloesing was appointed in 1876 to the Chair of Agricultural Chemistry in the Institut Agronomique then just founded. Eleven years later in 1887 he followed the illustrious Boussingault a t the Conservatoire des Arts et Metihres. During his act’ive period his lectures were collected by his son in a volume which still remains a source of inspiration to the student. I n 1875 he began anothe’r important group of investigations : he carried out a series of determinations of the amount of ammonia in the air and published some interesting speculations as to its source.He supposed that a great natural circulation took place; the nitrates washed out from the soil find their way to streams and rivers and finally to the sea ; there they are reduced t o ammonia, some of which escapes into the atmosphere is blown over the land, and there absorbed by the soil or washed dawn by the rain. The ammonia then nitrifies and such of the resulting nitrate as is washed out from the soil by rain-water passes once more through the same cycle. In like manner he supposed a circulation of carbon dioxide between oceans and atlmosphere and in this8way he explained the smallness of the variations in amount of the carbon dioxide in the air from time to time.He considered that the proportion of carbon dioxide in the air was probably diminishing although of course very slowly. "Get appauvrissement continue-t-il encore et s’il en est ainsi, ira-Lil jusqu’an point oh il causerait la ruine de la v6g6tation et par suite la fin de t’oute vie B la surface de la terre ? La soldtion de wt probl&me d’un si haut int6rGt nous 6chappe absolument. Elle ne pourra 6tre donn6e n u e par les gGn6rations qui viendrontl longteinps apr‘es nous.” Well may we envy a man and a generation that had nothing worse to worry about! “ What,” he asked “will be the result? ” E. J. RUSSELL OBITUARY NOTICES. 447 ALFRED SENIER. BORN JANUARY Z ~ T H 1853; DIED JUNE Z ~ T H 1918. I. ALFRED SENIER was born on January 24th 1853 a t Burnley in Lancashire.Ria father wlio had been one of the early settlers in Dover Wisconsin had returned to England some six years previ-ously to engage in business as a pharmacist but for reasons of health he found it necessary to return to America shortly after the birth of Alfred his eldest son. Thus except for a brief visit to England during infancy and another during his student days, Senier’s whole youth up to the time of his graduation as M.D. at the University of Michigah in 1874 was spent in the United States, chiefly a t Mazomanie. Mr. Alfred Senier the father appears to have. been a man of romantic disposition which found its expression in a certain restlessness leading him i n early life ta spend several years a t sea and later to travel considerably in Europe.The son inherited this taste for travel and was allowed to visit both London and Paris at’ the age of eighteen in the middle of his student career. Immediately after his graduation the family finally returned to London where Senier obtained it post a t the school of the Phama-ceutical Society first as assistant to Prof. Attfield and later as demonstrator. He was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society in 1875 and a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry three years later. I n 1881 he left the school of the Pharmaceutical Society in order t o take charge of the chemistry teaching a t St. John’s College, Battersea where he remained for three years. During this period in London his interests extended beyond his professional duties which hitherto did not seem to offer him suffi-cient scope for his mental activities.Endowed as he was with the faculty of accurate reasoning and with clearness and breadth of mential vision his interest a t this time turned markedly to philo-sophical questions. We find him appointed as honorary secretary and treasurer of the Aristotelian Society on April 19th 1880, when it wa first organised. He acted in this capacity. until 1884, and in 1902 he was elected an honorary life1 member. AZ its fifth ineeting he delivered a lecture t o the Society on (‘Plato.” In 1882 we find him delivering a series of lectures on the “Elements and Early History ‘of Terrestrial Physics ” to the Positivist Society iu Newtoti Hall Fetter Lane. It is also interesting Gu observe that, 118 wrde It0 the Yhanmceutical Jo~mzctl in 1877 a spirited letter i 448 OBITUARY NOTICES.support of the proposal to admit lady pharmacists into the Pharma-ceutical Society. I n 1884 he left London for Berlin where he studied chemistry under A. W. von Hofmann. It was a t this period of his life that he received his greatest inspiration. Enthusiastic and imaginative by nature he threw himself wholeheartedly into his woyk and soon attracted the attention of Hofmann who became his ideal as a pro-fessor lecturer and teacher. A close friendship bound him to his old master in whose family circle he spent many happy evenings, and whose personality made a lasting impression on his mind. Later in life when fulfilling his duties in an academic chair he loved to think that the same happy relations existed between his students and himself as he had felt when a student of HoCmann.His interest in his past. students never flagged. He was ever ready to help them and always pleased t o hear of their success. Senier’s own exceptional powers as a teacher were no doubt due to a large extent to the powerful influence! of Hofmann of whom lie was never tired of speaking. Among his papers this idea is expressed in words thus ‘‘ I had special opportunities f o r studying the methods of teaching f o r which Hofmann was justly famous. H0 possessed that rare gift of inspiring his students with the dis-coverer’s enthusiasm. We discovered with him to lead us things known to science; and then without realising a difference we fol-lowed him to things that were new and thus became chemists with the habit of research.With such a leader in research with such a teacher in the riglit mea,tiing of the word no wonder that those who came within his influence became inquirers and teachers t ~ d ’ On June 25th 1887 he graduat.ed P1i.D. in Berlin and rchurnetl sliortly afterwards to London. Herel he remained for a few years writing articles for the standard dictionaries of Chemistry until he was called to act as locum tenens for Maxwell Simpson Professor of Chemistry a t Queen’s College, Cork in 1890. The latter resigned the following year atid was succeeded by Prof. A. E. Dixon of Galway. Ths vacancy thus created was filled by ths appointment of Senier t o the Chair of Chemistry a t Galway which he occupied until his death.This Chair when first estalrrlished in 1849 was filled by Edmund Itonalds wh? in the early days of the Chemical Society served as Searstary and also acted as Editor of this Journal. I n addition to fulfilling the duties as Professor of Chemistry a t Queen’s College Galway Senier acted as Lecturer in Medical Juris-prudence and Hygiene. In Galway his professorial duties liis work ou the College Couu ORITITARY NOTICES. 449 cil and his personal interest in his st,udents engaged his closcsts attention. His strong personality and buoyant enthusiasm made a powerful appeal to' the minds of his students with whom he was always immensely popular. He was a champion of students' interests and never tired of reminding them that he was and would remain '' always a student." Although not naturally attracted to athletic sports he quickly realised their healthy influ-ence and value in promoting esprit de corps and harmony among yonng men assembled from all parts of Ireland from homes repre-senting all shades of religious and political differences.They sought and obtained in Galway a University training unde'r a system which, although technically non-residential was by reason of the small-ness and isolation of the " Citie of the Tribes" virtually residen-tial. Senier seized his opportunity and quickly won the affection of all the students by becoming the active patron of their sports. He founded the athletic union and acted as its president and treasurer for seventeen years. The astonishing prowess of the football team in its competitions with the larger sister collegps of Belfast and Cork was in no small measure due to his sympathetic and generous Meanwhile the problelm of continuing his researches had t o be faced and was tackled courageously and successfully.A t first little progress could be made as Galway offered but a p m field for creat-ing and maintaining an advanced chemical atmosphere. Neverthe-less he persisted in his attempt and soon acquired a good chemical library and equipment sufficient to make a start. Well-furnished modern laboratories soon followe'd and in conjunction with various assistants demonstrators and senior students he was eventually able to contribute a large number of papers chiefly on acridines and on phototropic and thermotropic compoiinds t o the Tmns-cictions of this Society.In 1908 the Royal University of Ireland conferred on him tlic degree of D.Sc. Imnoris cnzisn. This event was made the1 occasion of a public presentation to him of an address and silver casket from his old students whose eager and liberal response even from the most distant parts of the world bore ample testimony t o the lasting feeling of reverence and goodwill in which they held their old teacher and patron of their sports. H e was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy and in 1912 he acted as President of the Chemical Section of the British Association a t the Dundee Meeting. When the National University of Ireland was created in 1908 lie took an active part in its organisation and development. He was s u p p r t 456 OBITUARY NOTICES.a member of the Senate until his death which took place on June 29th 1918 in Galway after a brief illness. Senier married in 1887, and is survived by his wife and two daughters. W. S. M. 11. By the death of Alfred Senier the country has lost one of its most enthusiastic and devoted workers in the domain of organic c;hemistry. The loss is felt most keenly by all his students and cocworkws who will always cherish the remembrance of his sympa-thetic and inspiring personality. I n him the spirit of scientific inquiry was st’rong indeed f o r in the face of difficulties which would have baflled and beaten many a man of less sterling wol-th, his courage never failed but enabled him to pursue unwearyingly the lofty ideals which he had formed in his youth and to achieve a measure of success and distinction which will assuredly become fruitful in the future.Even before leaving America he had shown evidence of a desire t o undertake original investigations his first paper on the analysis of soap appearing in the Amem’cm Joz~rnal of Yhawnmy in 1874. At the School 09 the Pharmaceutical Society his aspirations received encouragement from Prof. Attfield and he contributed a series of articles to the Pharmaceutical Journal chiefly relating t o the investigation of pharmaceutical preparations and including a table for the qualitative analysis of scale preparations alkaloids etc. The interaction of glycerol and borax particularly engaged his attedion, because he found that he could utilise it as a m a n s for detecting.glycerol. I n 1878 he contributed to the1 Transactions of the Chemi-cal Society ‘( A New Tesb for Glycerin.” He also published a num-ber of articles in the Samitary Engineer. I n Berlin Senier came under the powerful influence of A. W. von Hofmann. The enthusiasm which Hofmann aroused in him remained with him to the end and he spoke of him almost with veneration in his public lectures. Inspired as he wa by his experience in Germany the whole course of Senier’s later life afforded abundant evidence that ’he had learned nothing of the modern German aggrewive spirit of world-domina-tion. Indeed his realisation of its existence only came to him after war was declared and its effect on him was painful in the extreme as shown in his letters t o the writer.In Berlin his attention was first directed to the action of heat on the formyl and thioformyl derivatives of ammatic mines and later to the investigation of cyanuric acid and cyanuric chloride. H e wa OBITUARY NOTICES. 451 able to show that the alleged a- and B-isomerides obtained by Herzig by the interaction of carbamide and hexabromoacehne were in reality identical with ordinary cyanuric acid. This work was embodied in his dissertation for the! degree of Ph.D. Shortly after his appointment to Galway he reverted t o the exam-ination of cyanuric acid and found that the white solid produced by the polymerisation a t Oo of freshly distilled cyanic acid was not pure cyamelide as was supposed but consisted chiefly of cyanuric :wid mixed with 30 per cent.of cyamelide. Being greatly interestzed ill all Hofmann’s work he decided to follow up the reaction by which ethylenediamines and piperazines are f ormed from arylarnines. By using methylene dihaloids insteatl of ethylene dihaloids he found that although the simplest aryl-amines give rise to methylenediamines as the molecules increase in complexity through the inclusion of methyl groups or of condensed rings the character of the reaction changes and results in the forma-tion of acridines. Thus from $-cumidine he obtained hexamethyl-acridine and from a-naphthylamine a new dinaphthacridine. This result led him to study the subject of acridines in some detail and a series of papers appeared in the Transactions. He also introduced a new and convenient system of notation in the acridine series.This work was followed by a paper on quinazolines and a series of papers on the synthesis of phototropic compounds t o which he was led by his observations on salicylidene-m-toluidine during the course of his investigations on acridines. This discovery of phototropic change led him to prepare and examine a large number of Bimi-larly constituted anils many of which were also phototropic, although the property was by no means characteristic of the class. The change from the paler variety to the darker under the influ-ence of sunlight occurs rapidly in a few minutes-whereas the reverse change requires a much longer time. This process of reversal can he found be accelerated by raising the temperatures, but there appears to be for each substance a critical temperature above which the property of phototropic change disappears.In some cases this temperature is near the melting pint; in others it is much lower; in fact in the case of two compounds examined, namely salicylidene-panisidine and 2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl-idenecp-xylidine no phototropic change is observed until a &mpra-ture of -20° is reached. Similar colour changes were observed to take place under the influence of heat instead of light this pheno-menon being termed thermotropy by Senier. Themotropy appears to be much commoner than phototropy and in many instances the thermotropes were also found to1 be phototropic. The suggestion was put forward by Senier that these phototropic and thermotropi 452 OB’ITTJARY NOTICES.clianges me to bo ascribed to isomeric changes affecting the aggre-gation of molecules in solids rather than to changes in the struc-tures of the molecules themselves. I n his Presidential address t o Section B of the Dundee meeting of the British Association in 1912 ’he developed this idea of the existence of solid molecular aggre-gates. Several instances of polymorphic changes due to trituration were alsol examined chiefly in the case of p-hydroxybenzylidenearyl-amines. This work extending over several years was the subject of a series of papers in the l’m?Latrctio?/s and remains uiifinishecl. No doubt it will be possible in the future to’ throw more light 011 the subject by means of optical measurements. Apart from his purely scientific studies Senier took a deep interest in educational affairs.The difficulties which had to be encountered in Galway were due partly to the remoteness of the College from the main centre of scientific activity and partly to the anomalous character of the College during the greater part of Senier’s life in Galway. Sinoe the dissolution of the Queen’s University in 1879 the three Colleges a t Belfast Galway and Cork had been reduced from tho status of integral members of a university to that of colleges where students were able to study f o r the examinations of an external institution-the Royal University. In addition t o this loss of prestige the College a t Galway suffered through lack of active support by the people of Connaught. It was therefore not in close sympathy with its environment.This state of affairs has happily been remedied by the abolition of the Royal University and the creation in 1908 of two new teaching universities namely tlie National University of Ireland and the Queen’s University of Belfast. Tlie College a t Galway re-named ‘I University College, Galway,” became a constituent part of tJie8 National University and Senier was elected to a seat on the Senate. The existence of tlie College has often been tlireat,enetl but i t has survived and indeed, attained a flourishing condition. There is no’ doubt that Senier ’s efforts to foster the spirit of scientific research materially advanced the cause of education i n Galway and in Ireland. In his public lectures on “ A Visit to Giesseii; or Thoughts on Liebig and Chem-istry in Germany” and (( Bonn on the Rliine; Pages from its History and Stray Thoughts on Education” lie deals in a very attractive way with the history of the development of scientific research in Germany and in his lecture before the Royal Dublin Society in 1910 on (( The University :tnd Technical Training ” he made a very lucid and careful analysis of tlie various university systems in the1 world.I n view of modern needs these essays* are * Published at Dublin 1910 by Edward Ponsonby 116 Grafton Street OBITUARY NOTICES. 463 well wmth reading for he explains very clearly how industrial development does not depend on the technical education of the operatives but arises naturally from the development of the highest form of scientific activity a t the universities.P. C. AUSTIN. JOHN BISHOP TINGLE. BORN 1867; DIED AUGUST ~ T H 1918. JOHN BISHOP TINGLE Professor of Chemistry in McMaster Uni-versity Toronto who died on August 5th 1918 a t the age of fifty-one after a brief illness received his early training a t the Royal Grammar School Sheffield entering Owen's College Manchester, in 1884 under the late Sir Henry Roscoe. I n 1887 he proceeded to t.he University of Munich to study with Claisen and von Baeyer, where he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1889. While a t Munich his studies were1 essentially in organic chemistry his dissertation for the degree dealing with the action of ethyl oxalate on aliphatic ketones. On returning to England Dr. Tingle held certain junior appoint-ments which offered him opportunities for research.Owing how-ever to unforeseen family responsibilities he was compelled to give up for a time his chosen career of investigation and taught chemistry in secondary schools. I n 1896 he came t o America and was successively professor of chemistry a t the Lewis Institute Chicago (1897-1901) Illinois College Jacksonville (1901-1904) and assistant in charge of organic chemistry a t Johns Hopkins University under Professor Remsen (1904-1907). During his residence in the United States Dr. Tingle becaae sub-editor and abstractor in organic chemistry on the staff of the American Chenzical Jourtzal his work being characterised with care and precision and as his study of current literature in his chosen field was extensive and exhaustive he spared no pains to make his abstracts clear comple~te and useful.His long training as an abstractor on the staff of the Journal of the Chemical Society specially qualified him to take this impo'rtant part in organising the organic abstracts for the American journal. Dr. Tingle was a-ppointed professor of chemistry a t McMaster University Toront'o in 1907 in which post he laboured energeti-cally and faithfully until his death. It was perhape in teaching, for which he possessed a special talent that Dr. Tingle did his best VOL. cxv. 454 OBITUARY NOTICES. and most valuable work for the country of his adoption. €53 was insistent on the importance of careful accurate and clean crafts-manship and held that theory was useless and often misleading without a knowledge of how it had been deduced and how it could be applied in practice. He laid special stress on the need of mani-pulative skill of the highest order as a necessary prerequisite to orderly and clear reasoning and successful results. Dr. Tingle’s original work embodied in upwards of thirty publi-cations delals with problems of organic chehistry and is centred chiefly round the mechanism of the “ Claisen reactions ” and the products and mechanism of nitration in the benzene series. His last paper which did not appear in print until after his death, settled certain minor points previously undetermined and was intended to clear the way for a comprehensive study of the laws governing nitration and the means by which their reactions could be controlled. Dr. Tingle made organic research his life work and carried through tlo a successful issue a large number of investigations in his chosen field. He held a first place among organic chemists in Canada aad had he been spared i t was expected that he would have k e n able in a few years to devote himself almost exclusively to research. I n the sphere of Canadian war work Dr. Tingle wasathe first to recommend the intensive training of girls for employment in muni-tion and chemical factories in Canada and laid himself out ener-getically to instruct them towards this end. The extra work involved undoubtedly accelerated his death. He trapslated and edited several important works in chemistry. For a long time “ Spectrum Analysis,” by Landauer and Tingle, was the most comprehensive work on the subject in English. Dr. Tingle was a kind and geiierous man taking a great personal interest in his students and their work and exciting their ambition and enthusiasm for advanced study. Much has been lost by his death. He leaves a widow and two children. W. R. L