io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



followed with keen interest the progress of mathematical research, and 

 is an active member of the Mathematical Society of London. In 1846 

 and 1847 he gained mathematical scholarships at Oxford. 



But the death of his father, occurring in the latter year, devolved 

 upon Spottiswoode the active superintendence of a great printing 

 establishment, and henceforth he could devote to his mathematical 

 and other studies only his leisure time ; nevertheless, in sundry de- 

 partments of learning and science Mr. Spottiswoode has rendered emi- 

 nent service, at the same time taking an active part in movements 

 having for their end the promotion of popular education and the social 

 and material improvement of working people. 



His favorite studies, besides the mathematics, are, in physical sci- 

 ence, light-polarization, to the explanation of which his experimental 

 researches have greatly contributed ; languages, both European and 

 Oriental, but especially Sanskrit ; and certain departments of philoso- 

 phy. Of his philosophical power and insight we have abundant evi- 

 dence in the elaborate discourse addressed to the British Association 

 in Dublin last August. (It is published in the Popular Science 

 Monthly Supple:ment for October.) Mr. Spottiswoode is Honorary 

 Secretary of the London Royal Institution, and charged with the duty 

 of arranging its winter courses of lectures on science, art, literature, 

 etc. He frequently lectures in these courses himself, taking that 

 means of bringing before the world the results of his scientific stud- 

 ies. His printed works are " Meditationes Analyticae ; " "A Taran- 

 tasse Journey " (1857), giving an account of a visit to Eastern Russia; 

 and " Polarization of Light " (1874). He was Treasurer of the British 

 Association from 1861 to 1874, of the Royal Institution from 1865 to 

 1873, and of the Royal Society from 1871 to 1878, in all these positions 

 happily combining the prudent economy of the man of business with 

 the open-handedness of the lover of science. He has been nominated 

 by the Council of the Royal Society to succeed Sir Joseph D. Hooker 

 in the presidency of that eminent scientific body. Mr. Spottiswoode 

 was elected Corresponding Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 in 1876, and honorary degrees of LL.D. and D. C. L. have been con- 

 ferred upon him by the Universities of Oxford, Dublin, and Edinburgh. 

 He is a member of nearly all of the great scientific societies of England 

 — the Astronomical, Geographical, Asiatic, and Ethnological, and of 

 the Society of Arts. He was Public Examiner in Mathematics at Ox- 

 ford in 1857-'58, and has acted as an examiner under the Civil Service 

 Commissioners ; also for the Society of Arts and the Middle-Class 

 Schools. He has always been a liberal patron of makers of philosophi- 

 cal instruments, and has thus promoted many an ingenious invention. 



