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r.y Ku.NKsr W. I'.kown. 



Georg-e Gabriel Stokos was horn in IicImikI on Au.iiust IP), ISli). 

 His father, the Rev. Gabriel Stokes, was rector of the ehureh in the 

 little villao-e of Skreen, Sliyo Gounty, his mother bein<r a (lati<rhter 

 of the rectoi- of Kihca. He was sent for his early education to 

 "Walls's school in Dublin, and afterwards to the college in Bristol, 

 whence, in ISIJT, he i)i-ocee(led to Gauibrid<>e, entering at Pembroke 

 Gollege. His life was henceforth fully identified with the interests 

 of his college. He was ehvted to a fellowship just after taking his 

 degree in 1841, and retained it until his marriage in 1857 to a 

 daughter of the IJev. T. II. Ivobinson, I). I)., dii-ector of Armagh Ob- 

 servatory. Under the statutes of the university at that time in force, 

 this event compelled him to vacate his fellowship, but he was reelected 

 in 1869 under the new statutes and only resigned in 11>{)2, when he 

 was 83 years old, to become master of the college. His tenure of the 

 latter post was short; he died on February 1, \UOl]. 



Practically the whole of Stokes's scientific life was connected with 

 the interests of two bodies — his university and the Royal Society. 

 He graduated as senior wrangler in IS+l, the first of the great trium- 

 virate which attained the coveted ht)nor in three successive years — 

 Stokes, Cayley, and Adams. There were giants in those days. Sylves- 

 ter and George Green had taken their degrees in 1837, and Lord Kelvin 

 followed in 1845, and chief among thOse of note in other lines was 

 Charles Kingsley, who took honors in mathematics and classics in 

 1842. This period was in reality not far removed from the time when 

 British mathematics had been entirely isolated. Until the begiiming 

 of the centur}^ Newton's methods and fluxional notation were almost 

 exclusively employed, and it was only some ten years before Stokes 

 matriculated that the influence of AVoodhouse, aided later by Peacock, 

 J. V. W. Herschel, Babbage, Whewell, Airy, and others, was success- 

 fid in completely establishing continental methods for examination 

 purposes and in forcing the recognition of the mathematical work 



" Keprinted l»y periuissiuii fnmi Tlit> I'liysicnl Kcvicw. LaiicastiT. I';i., Vol 

 XVIII, No. 1, January, 10U4. 



773 



