SIR WILLIAM CROOKES. 573 



forring to this experiment in his presidential address to the British 

 Association in 1898, he forecasted with remarkable accuracy the 

 manner in which the situation would be saved. " This incon- 

 siderable experiment," he said, " may not unlikely lead to the 

 development of a mighty industry destined to solve the great 

 food problem." 



In 1905 Sir William again visited South Africa on the occa- 

 sion of the meeting of the British Association in this country, and 

 the honorary degree of D.Sc. was then conferred upon him by 

 the University of the Cape of Good Hope. During this visit 

 he twice delivered at Kimberley a highly-instructive and valuable 

 experimental lecture on diamonds.* 



Sir William ever showed a predisposition towards the 

 mystical, apart from his psychic researches. His speculations 

 regarding the genesis of the chemical elements illustrated this 

 bent of mind ; so did his original view that the phenomenon of 

 the radiometer was due to a new and mysterious force. 



In 1863 Crookes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 

 in 1875 he was awarded a Royal Medal by that Society, and in 

 1888 he received the Davy Medal. The Albert Medal he gained 

 in 1900, and the Copley Medal in 1904. In 1912 he received 

 the medal of the Society of Chemical Industry. Thrice he was 

 appointed to deliver the Bakerian Lecture, namely, in 1878, in 

 1879, and in 1883. In 191 3 he became President of the Royal 

 Society. He w^as also a prizeman and medallist of the French 

 Academic des Sciences in 1880. In 1897 he was knighted, and 

 in 1910 the Order of Merit was bestowed on him. Sir William 

 Crookes was at different times President of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers, of the Chemical Society, of the Society 

 of Chemical Industry, and of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. He did much valuable work for 

 chemical science with his pen not only in writing original papers, 

 but likewise as editor and translator; his "Practical Treatise 

 on Metallurgy " was printed in 1869. his " Select Methods in 

 Chemical Analysis" in 1871, and subsequently appeared his 

 translation of Wagner's " Chemical Technology." He was 

 editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science. In 1859 he founded 

 the Chemical Nezvs, and continued to edit it up to within a few- 

 weeks of his death. 



* Chem. Nezvs, 92, 159 (1905). 



