SIR JAMES DEWAR CRICHTON-BROWNE 551 



This was strikingly illustrated in the case of the phosphorescent 

 organisms. Their cells emit light which is apparently produced by 

 chemical processes of intracellular oxidation, and the phenomenon 

 ceases with the cessation of their activity. These organisms, there- 

 fore, furnished a crucial test of the influence of low temperature 

 on vital manifestations, and when cooled down in liquid air they 

 immediately became nonluminous, but, on being thawed, the lumi- 

 nosity as speedily returned. In further experiments the organisms 

 were subjected to the temperature of liquid air for seven days. The 

 results were again nil, for on thawing they renewed their life proc- 

 esses with undiminished vigor. The organisms were next, exposed 

 to the temperature of liquid hydrogen — only 28° above the absolute 

 zero — and again the results were nil. The fact that life can continue 

 to exist at a temperature at which, according to our present con- 

 ception, molecular action ceases and the entire range of chemical 

 and physical activities, with which we are acquainted, either ceases 

 or enters on an entirely new phase, affords ground for reflection, as 

 to whether, after all, life is dependent for its continuance on chemi- 

 cal reactions. 



Dewar's heroic attempts to reach the absolute zero of temperature, 

 solving problems of supreme importance and intricacy by the way — 

 time-and-strength-consuming though they were — did not exhaust 

 his scientific energies or complete his conquests. As a member of the 

 Explosives Commission in 1888, in conjunction with Sir Frederick 

 Abel, he invented cordite, which became the standard smokeless 

 powder, and during the war he contrived a light and portable ap- 

 paratus for the conveyance of oxygen so that it might be available 

 as a protection against mountain sickness for men going up in air- 

 planes. He conjured up giant soap bubbles that survived for months, 

 because the air inflating them was like Bonny Kilmenny, " as pure 

 as pure can be," and spread out films of extreme tenuity that in 

 their stream lines and vortex motion yielded to his manipulations, 

 assemblages of dancing rainbows of exquisite beauty. He took part 

 in many inquiries bearing on the public health and especially on the 

 safeguarding and improvement of our water supply, and was a 

 much sought and inexorable witness before committees of Lords 

 and Commons. Along with Professor Liveing, he conducted an 

 elaborate series of studies on spectroscopy that have now been col- 

 lected in a volume, and would by themselves place him in the first 

 rank as a man of science. 



Besides doing his own work, Dewar was the cause of much work 

 in others. He was eminently suggestive and freely helpful to all 

 who sought his assistance. He did not suffer fools gladly, and was 

 intolerant of pretentious mediocrity ; but for the earnest student and 



