xxxviii Animal Report of the Council. 



numerous honorary degrees and was a Correspondent of the 

 Institute of France. He was made C. B. in 1887 and K.C.B. in 

 1892. In October, 1898, he retired from administrative work, 

 l)ut did not long enjoy his well-deserved leisure, for he died on 

 July I, 1899. He was elected an honorary member of this 

 Society on April 30th, 1SS9. W. E. H. 



By the death last summer of Sir I^dward Frankland, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., the country lost a man of commanding genius, 

 whose name will be honoured among those of the greatest 

 English chemists of the past. 



Born at Churchtown, Lancashire, in 1S25, young Frank- 

 land was educated at the Lancaster Grammar School. He was 

 apprenticed to a chemist and druggist in Lancaster, and began 

 there the study of the science he was so greatly to enrich. 

 In 1846 Dr. Lyon Playfair was appointed Professor of 

 Chemistry in the Museum of Practical Geology, and his hrst 

 assistants were Dr. Kolbe and F'rankland. Frankland's first 

 paper, written in conjunction with Kolbe, was on the constitution 

 of propionic acid ; he proved that ethyl cyanide is readily con- 

 verted into propionic acid by the action of alkalies or acids. 

 Part of the summer of 1847 ^^'^^ s[)ent by Kolbe and Frankland 

 at Marburg, where Bunsen allowed them to work in his labora- 

 tory. As a result of this work a second paper was published on 

 the conversion of cyanogen into oxatyl, and a definite proof was 

 afforded of the identity of the nitrilus with the cyanides of the 

 lower radicals. This research not only gave a method for the 

 synthesis of many new bodies, but it afforded the means whereby 

 a systematic classification of the organic acids was first rendered 

 possible. Simultaneously with this research the authors examined 

 the action of potassium on ethyl cyanide and prepared ethane ; 

 they considered the chloride which they prepared from ethane to 

 be isomeric and not identical with ethyl chloride from alcohol, and 

 therefore that free methyl and ethyl hydride were also isomeric— 

 an error afterwaids corrected by Schorlemmer. 



In the autumn of 1847 Frankland was appointed teacher of 



