Annual Report of the Council. xhni 



•structure of bodies, and showed that the magnetic rotation 

 allows us to draw comprehensive and certain conclusions as to 

 the chemical constitution of substances." 



Sir William Perkin literally died in harness, and only a few 

 months before his death he read his last paper before the 

 Chemical Society in which he described the determination of 

 the magnetic rotation of van Romburgh's hexatriene. The 

 numbers obtained clearly showed the presence of three con- 

 jugated double linkages in benzene, thus indicating the correct- 

 ness of the Kekule formula. 



In conclusion, one cannot do better than quote a sentence 

 from the address of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, 

 presented on the occasion of the Jubilee, which ran, " You 

 have given to science the allegiance of a noble life, and have not 

 allowed the seduction of wealth to abate the loyalty of your 

 ■devotion to truth and knowledge. For this example the age 

 owes you unstinted thanks." 



J. F. T. 



Edward John Routh was born at Quebec in 1831. He 

 was educated at University College, London, and at Peterhouse, 

 Cambridge, and graduated as Senior Wrangler in 1854. Among 

 his contemporaries was James Clerk Maxwell, who stood second 

 in the same list. He soon afterwards entered on that extra- 

 ordinarily successful career of mathematical tuition which ter- 

 minated only in 1888, when a large number of his old pupils, 

 including men of the highest distinction in science and in the 

 law, joined in the presentation of a portrait by Herkomer to 

 Mrs. Routh. 



To the outside public Routh's name is chiefly associated 

 with the particular system of mathematical training which 

 prevailed so long at Cambridge, and is only now coming 

 to an end. It is probable, indeed, that he was in the fiist 

 instance chiefly concerned with mathematics as an educational 

 instrument. He attached to it the highest importance from this 



