AUGUST, 1916. Vol. XL., No. 473. THE ANALYST. OBITUARY. THE death, on May 31, of Sir Arthur Church, in his eighty-first year, removes from the Society of Public Analysts one of it8 oldest members. Sir Arthur, then known as Professor, Church, was elected a member of the Society on May 5, 1875, in the first year of its existence. He wag at about that time brought closely into touch with the work of the Society by reason of his being commissioned to write a popular guide to the National Food Collection which had been arranged, under the old Science and Art Department, at the Bethnal Green Museum.It was necessary to do a good deal of analytical work in connection with the compilation of this guide, and much of this was done in consultation with the late Mr. G. W. Wigner, the first Secretary of the Society, and one of the most active among its founders. The little book which was the outcome of Professor Church’s labours was reprinted until as many as 6,000 copies had been disposed of, when in 1889, seventeen years after the appearance of the first edition, it was revised and considerably enlarged by the author, assuming the form in which it is still familiar as a convenient and reliable work of reference for analytical and general information about everyday things.The book is, or was, published for the body then known as the Committee of Council on Education, by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, under the title of ‘‘ Food : a Brief Account of its Sources, Constituents, and Uses.” In the various obitumy notices which have come under the eye of the writer no reference has appeared to this most useful book, containing as it did the results of much original work, a8 well as of the diligent gathering together of that of many other investigators.Church’s early education was at King’s College, after which he went to the Royal College of Chemistry and to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he took his degree in the School of Natural Science; and his subsequent versatility was not a, little remarkable.For sixteen years he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Agricul- tural College, Cirencester, succeeding the late Dr. Augustus Voelcker, and preceding the present holder of the chair, Professor Kinch. During this time he became recognised as an authority in agricultural chemistry, though his more practical agricultural colleagues were wont to hint that a somewhat fastidious instinct pre- vented him from entering whole-heartedly into some of the paths of investigation which at that time, as to-day, were of fascinating interest in farm economics.A manure-heap, notwithstanding all the riddles that then, even more than now, beset340 OBITUARY: SIR A. H. CHURCH, K.C.V.O., F.R.S., M.A., D.SC.its past, its present, and its future, never came to exercise a real charm for him; and, notwithstanding his long tenure of office at Cirencester, he never quite came to play a part in practical agriculture comparable to that played by some of his colleagues and contemporaries. I t was, perhaps, more by chance than by choice that he took to lecturing to the sons of farmers; and though when at Cirencester he did, as has been said, good work, including the writing of an excellent “Laboratory Guide for Agricultural Students,” it was probably without more than passing reluc- tance that he changed his field of labour.The chemistry of vegetable physiology, however, continued to interest him long after his retirement from Cirencester.In order to pursue his studies in this direction he settled down in the neighbourhood of Kew Gardens, and he made a number of investigations on questions relating to albinism and coloration in leaves ; while in connection with zoology he discovered, and described in a well-remembered paper, the curious feather-pigment known as turacin, with its 7 per cent. of copper. His ((Food Grains of India,” a valuable illustrated work published in 1886, is still regarded as a standard treatise.The mineral kingdom, however, was said by some of his friends to possess more attraction for him than the sister kingdoms, vegetable and animal. He possessed a wide know- ledge, and a good collection, of gems, of which he wrote much, and he made many oontributions to general mineralogical chemistry; and, had he no other sphere of activity, thie work alone might have sufficed to give his name enduring reputation.I t is in another connection yet, however, that Sir Arthur Church will probably be remembered best-namely, as Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Academy, to which office he was appointed after leaving Cirencester, in 1879, continuing to fill it until four years ago.He was thus naturally brought into contact with numerous problems relating to the chemistry of pigments and painting, and he extended the educational work of his lectures to Academy students to the preparation of a well- known textbook on (‘ The Chemistry of Paints and Painting,” which has become a standard work. His position as Professor to the Academy naturally led to his being consulted by the Board of Works and other public departments on questions of the preservation and restoration of frescoes in public buildings, and thence, by an easy transition, to the arrest of decay in the stonework of public buildings and monu- ments and to cognate questions.As might be expected from the variety of his activities, Sir Arthur Church was a man of wide culture, but he was not superhial-or perhaps it would be more correct to say that, while the surface of his knowledge and interests may have been large, he dug deeply and productively even in the most widely separated patches of surface to which he turned his chief attention.His personality was gentle and of much charm, but he was shy and retiring, and for many years past had not mixed freely with his brother chemists. By those who knew him his friendship was much valued, and the writer of these lines-in common, no doubt, with others of what, to Church, was the younger generation of chemists-has grateful recollection of many kindnesses shown by him in days that now seem remote. BERNARD DYER. * * % i * E +