OBITUARY NOTICE OF PROF. LAWSON. xxix 
farmers of Nova Scotia, an influence which was due to a firm convic- 
tion on their part that he had their interests at heart and that he 
possessed a profound knowledge on which his advice to them was based, 
He had given great attention to agriculture, as we have seen, before 
coming to Canada ; and, though farming is carried on under very differ- 
ent conditions in Great Britain and Canada, he had the rare faculty of 
allowing for the difference of conditions, and applying his general know- 
ledge accurately in new circumstances, and rapidly gaining an insight 
into the modifications which our climate, the undeveloped state of our 
country, and our mode of life, made necessary. It is certain, at any 
rate, whether this view of its source is currect or not, that he exerted 
a great influence over our farming population, and that his exercise of 
that influence was in the highest degree beneficent. 
The outward marks which show the esteem in which scientific work 
is held by scientific men, are received only in small measure by the 
retiring worker who lives far from the centres of research. Neverthe- 
less, Dr. Lawson was not withont such cheering evidence of appreciation. 
The degree of Ph. D. was conferred upon him by the University of 
Giessen, and that of Lu. D. by McGill University, Montreal. He was 
a Fellow of the Botanical Society and of the Royal Physical Society of 
Edinburgh, and of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain, an 
Honorary Member of the Edinburgh Geological and of the Scottish 
Arboricultural Societies, a Corresponding Member of the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society of London, and of the Society of Natural Science of 
Cherbourg, one of the original Fellows and an ex-President of the 
Royal Society of Canada, and a member of various other learned 
societies. 
The indirect influence which Dr. Lawson exerted on the progress 
of science in Canada was also very great. Many of the members of 
this Institute are old pupils of his, and can testify to the stimulating 
power which he could exert and did exert in the presentation of his 
subject. I was assured some few years ago by one of the leading 
botanists of Canada, that all the leading Canadian botanists of that 
date, who had been trained in Canada, were Dr. Lawson’s pupils ; and 
such a fact speaks volumes for the ability of their teacher. His power 
of rousing enthusiasm in his pupils was more marked in his teaching of 
Botany than in his teaching of Chemistry ; for, though the latter was 
the principal subject of the Professorships which he held, the former 
