E. Frankland, H. E. Roscoe 149 



chemical structure. Frankland only stayed six years in 

 Manchester; on returning to London, he became lecturer 

 in Chemistry at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and subse- 

 quently Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution 

 and the School of Mines. The latter years of his life were 

 spent in work connected with the examination and purifica- 

 tion of the water supply. He was made a K.C.B. in 1897, 

 two years before his death. 



When Frankland, in 1857, resigned his position at 

 Manchester, the choice of a successor lay between Robert 

 Angus Smith (1817-1884) and Henry Enfield Roscoe (1833- 

 1915). The former was personally known in Manchester, 

 where he resided, and had already done some meritorious 

 work on the impurities found in the air and water of towns, 

 a subject to which he devoted the greater part of his life. 

 Roscoe was only twenty-four years old, but the promise of 

 future success was already foreshadowed in his academic 

 career, and fortunately for Owens College, whose fortunes 

 were then at a low ebb, he was elected to the Professorship. 

 At the age of fifteen, Roscoe had entered University College, 

 London, where he came under the influence of Thomas 

 Graham and Alexander Williamson. After taking his B.A. 

 degree at the University of London, he spent four years at 

 Heidelberg under Bunsen. His activity in Manchester is 

 marked by the foundation of a school of chemistry through 

 which many men of high distinction have passed, and by the 

 happy relations which he established between the industrial 

 community and the academic life which was centred in the 

 college. The prosperity of that institution was soon secured 

 by his strong and genial personality, and when other men 

 eminent both in science and literature had joined its staff, 

 its rise to the dignity of an University became only a question 

 of time. Roscoe was one of the first to point out the need 

 of technical education in this country, but he did not interpret 

 that term in a narrow sense. With him it meant a sound 

 scientific instruction directed towards industrial ends, but 

 not excluding a wider culture. He served on the Royal 

 Commission on Technical Education appointed in 1881, and 

 at the conclusion of its labours received the honour of 

 knighthood. His earnest desire to spread the knowledge and 



