MEMOIR 



HENRY NOTTIDGE MOSELEY. 



TO give an account of the scientific work of the late 

 Professor Moseley, to enumerate his contributions to 

 scientific literature, and to show the place which he filled in 

 the intellectual world, would be a comparatively easy task. It 

 is far more difficult to picture the man as he was known to his 

 friends and colleagues, to describe his kindliness, his humour 

 and good common sense ; all those characteristics, in short 

 which made him the best and most loyal of friends, the mos; 

 genial and interesting of companions. 



Fortunately he has left, in the very pages to which this slight 

 sketch serves as an introduction, a better portrait of himself 

 than any biographer could hope to present. He would be a 

 dull reader indeed who failed to appreciate the exceptional 

 powers of observation, the absorbing love of nature, and the 

 numerous evidences of tact, humour, and cheerful good temper 

 under trying circumstances with which these pages abound. 

 The " Challenger " voyage was an epoch in Moseley's life ; it 

 went a long way towards determining his career and shaping 

 the final bent of his mind. So his narrative may well be taken 

 as a faithful account of his aims and feelings, and of the 

 opinions which he formed then, and held in later life. 



Henry Nottidge Moseley was born at Wandsworth in 1844. 

 His father, the Rev. Henry Moseley, a canon of Bristol and 

 rector of Olveston, near the Severn, was a mathematician of 

 much ability, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and author of 

 numerous works on applied mathematics. Brought up in the 

 country, young Moseley had ample opportunities of indulging 



