PROCEEDINGS FOR 1919 VII 



was characterized by great care and precision, for his study of current 

 literature in his chosen field was extensive and exhaustive, and he 

 spared no pains in making his abstracts clear, complete, and useful 

 to the student and investigator. It was his long training as abstractor 

 on the staff of the Journal of the Chemical Society (England) which 

 specially qualified him to take such an important part in organizing 

 the organic abstracts for the American society. 



Dr. Tingle was appointed professor of chemistry at McMaster 

 University, Toronto, in 1907. In this important post he laboured 

 energetically and faithfully until his death, accomplishing an excel- 

 lent work for the future of Canadian chemistry in the thorough 

 training he gave his students. It was perhaps as a teacher that Dr. 

 Tingle did his best and most valuable work for the country of his 

 adoption, one which is bearing good fruit to-day in many a Canadian 

 educational institution and laboratory. It was a work for which he 

 possessed a special talent. The foundations of chemistry in fact and 

 theory were well and truly laid and the student found himself on 

 graduation thoroughl}^ equipped to proceed in post-graduate studies 

 to successful investigation in such a field of chemistry as he might 

 choose for his life work. The writer of this sketch wishes to particu- 

 larly emphasize that Dr. Tingle was insistent in all his teachings 

 on the importance of careful, accurate, clean craftmanhip. He held 

 that theory was useless and sometimes worse than useless, misleading, 

 unless the student had the knowledge of how theory was deduced 

 and how it could be applied in practice. He laid special stress on the 

 fact so often lost sight of in our teaching institutions, that manipu- 

 lative skill — craftmanship — of the highest order was essential to 

 the success of the chemist in no matter what branch of the science 

 he might eventually work. Orderly, cleanly, careful laboratory 

 practice was with him a sine qua non, a necessary prerequisite to 

 orderly and clear reasoning. 



In his own original work as.embodied in upwards of thirty publica- 

 tions Dr. Tingle wholly concerned himself with problems of organic 

 chemistry; it centred chiefl}'- round two points, the mechanism of the 

 "Claisen reactions" and the nature of the products and the mechanism 

 of nitration in the benzene series. His last paper, which did not 

 appear in print until after his death, was concerned in elucidating 

 certain minor points previously undetermined and was intended to 

 clear the way for a comprehensive study of the laws governing nitra- 

 tion and the means by which nitrations could be held in control. 

 Though for periods in his professional life, and especially between 

 1890 and 1896, research was impossible, he carried through to a 



J Proc, Sig. 2 



