SKETCH OF PROFESSOR RAN KIKE. 237 



Scotland ; and in 1850, forming a partnership with Mr. John Thom- 

 son, C. E., he settled in Glasgow. 



Meanwhile he had been busy in purely scientific pursuits not con- 

 nected with his calling, and the value of his w T ork was generally 

 recognized. He was elected to various learned societies, and in 1853 

 was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London. The same year 

 he became a member of the British Association, in which he subse- 

 quently held several important positions. During the Dublin meet- 

 ing of the Association in 1857, the honorary degree of LL. D. was 

 conferred upon him by the university of that city as a mark of the 

 eminence he had gained as a physical investigator. He was then but 

 thirty-seven years old. 



In 1855 he was made Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and 

 Mechanics in the University of Glasgow, a position which he held 

 with distinction for seventeen years. He was an able instructor, his 

 aim being to develop the understanding of the student by the culti- 

 vation of natural knowledge, and to beget those habits of close ob- 

 servation and persistent and exact verification which are so essential 

 to the scientific worker in any field. 



Prof. Rankine was the first President of the Institution of Engi- 

 neers of Scotland, and in 1801 was made President of the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Glasgow, contributing many papers to the Pro- 

 ceedings of that Society, and on a wide range of topics. The honors 

 he won in his profession, and in thermo-dynamics, were rivaled by his 

 achievements in naval architecture, to which his attention was for 

 some time given. 



His writings were exceedingly voluminous. His published trea- 

 tises and manuals included, among others, " Manual of Applied Me- 

 chanics," "Manual of the Steam-Engine and Other Prime Movers," 

 " Civil Engineering," " Useful Rules and Tables," " Cyclopaedia of 

 Machine and Hand Tools," "Manual of Machinery and Mill- Work," 

 besides a very long catalogue of papers on physics, especially thermo- 

 dynamics, applied mechanics, etc. His style was a model of scien- 

 tific writing elegant, exact, lucid in explanation and apt in illustra- 

 tion. In short, his was a mind of the first order, his original investi- 

 gations were of the highest value, and his excellent influence as an 

 instructor in moulding the minds of his students will be far-reaching. 



His early death w T as the penalty of overwork, and was preceded 

 by an impairment of vision and a derangement of the heart's action 

 that were very distressing. He yielded to the demand for bodily rest 

 when it became imperative ; but it was too late. His is another name 

 added to the long list of those who, understanding perfectly the limits 

 of human endurance, seem to think that their case is exceptional, 

 that their organisms can be continuously overworked with impunity, 

 and so go on, heedless of the dumb protests of the abused body, until 

 the ruin is utter and irrevocable. 



