X THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Transactions of The Royal Society of Canada, and various chemical 

 journals. 



He was actively engaged in medical education from the time of his 

 resignation from the Guards and was an interesting teacher both of 

 clinical surgery in the hospital and of chemistry in the university. 

 His name will always be associated with the development of chemical 

 teaching in McGill University. The introduction of practical chemis- 

 try as an integral part of a medical student's education in Canada was 

 first carried out by Dr. Girdwood in some classes which he gave to 

 the medical students of McGill University about 1870. The classes 

 were held in his own home in Lagauchetiere Street. In 1872 he became 

 Professor of Practical Chemistry and for ten years he gave all of the 

 instruction in Practical Chemistry in McGill University. He sub- 

 sequently succeeded Dr. Craik to the Chair of Chemistry in the 

 Medical Faculty in 1879, which chair he held up to 1902, when his 

 failing health and the pressure of work from his other activities 

 compelled his resignation. He retained his connection with uni- 

 versity education as Emeritus Professor of Chemistry up to the last. 



He was widely known both in Canada and the United States. He 

 was a man of high ideals, who took pride in his profession as a chemist, 

 and one of his great ambitions during his last illness was to obtain 

 legislation to give the profession of chemistry the same legal status as 

 the professions of law and medicine. 



His genial, kindly and humorous character won him a host of 

 personal friends in all walks of life. He enjoyed apparently above all 

 else the pleasure of adding, as he had opportunity, to the happiness 

 of those about him. 



ROBERT BELL. 



Robert Bell, I.S.O., F.R.S., M.D., CM., D.Sc. (Cantab.), LL.D., 

 F.G.S., E.G. S.A., who was formerly Assistant Director and Chief 

 Geologist of the Geological Survey of Canada and for several years 

 acted as Director of the Survey, was one of the charter members 

 of The Royal Society of Canada. He was born in Toronto on the 3rd of 

 June, 1841, and was thus in his 77th year when he died at Portage la 

 Prairie, Manitoba, on June 19, 1917. 



Both his grandfather. Rev. Wm. Bell, and his father, Rev. Andrew 

 Bell, were ministers of the Church of Scotland. His father was one of 

 the pioneers of Canadian geology, and when Sir William Logan was 

 called by the government of the United Provinces of LIpper and Lower 

 Canada to establish a Geological Survey, one of the first Canadians 

 with whom he conferred on this subject was Dr. Bell's father. Rev. 



