OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (GILBERT HALL.) 



499 



Gilbert, Sir Joseph Henry, English agricul- 

 tural chemist, born in Hull, Aug. 1, 1817; died 

 Dec. 23, 1902. He was the son of a clergyman 

 and studied chemistry in Glasgow University, 

 University College, London, and under Liebig at 

 Giessen. He was assistant to Prof. Anthony Todd 

 Thomson in University College in 1840, went to 

 Manchester to experiment in cotton dyes, and in 

 1843 became the associate of J. B. Lawes in the 

 experimental farm at Rothamstead. Together 

 they experimented in soils, fertilizers, and selec- 

 tion of seed, and published the results in over a 

 hundred papers. He journeyed in the United 

 States and Canada in 1882 and 1884 to study the 

 conditions of agriculture in America. On the 

 fiftieth anniversary of the Rothamstead experi- 

 ments he was knighted, and in 1884 he was ap- 

 pointed Professor of Rural Economy at Oxford. 



Gladstone, John Hall, Engfish chemist and 

 educator, born in London in 1827; died Oct. 6, 

 1902. He was educated at University College, 

 London, and at the University of Giessen. In 

 1850 he became lecturer in chemistry at St. 

 Thomas's Hospital, and three years later was 

 elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He held 

 the Fullerian professorship of Chemistry at the 

 Royal Institution from 1874 to 1877; was first 

 president of the Physical Society from 1874 to 

 1876; and was president of the Chemical Society 

 from 1877 to 1879. A few years before his death 

 he received the Davy medal from the Royal So- 

 ciety. He was one of the creators of that branch 

 known as physical chemistry. Among his most 

 important chemical works are that on the spectra 

 obtained at varying hours during the day; his 

 researches on the atomic refractions and disper- 

 sions of the elements; his investigations regard- 

 ing voltaic batteries ; the chemical history of gun- 

 cotton; and archeological metallurgy. The Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society contain more than 

 100 papers from his pen. He was for more than 

 twenty years, beginning in 1873, a member ,of the 

 London School Board. He was especially inter- 

 ested in a more general spread of scientific knowl- 

 edge among the people, and he strove continuous- 

 ly to modify elementary public instruction to this 

 end. The following paragraph appears in his 

 presidential address before the chemical section 

 of the British Association, delivered in 1872: 

 " The so-called educated classes in England are 

 not only supremely ignorant of science, but they 

 have scarcely yet arrived at the first stage of 

 improvement the knowledge of their own igno- 

 rance." 



Gossler, Gustav von, German statesman, born 

 in Naumburg, April 13, 1838; died in Danzig, 

 Sept. 29, 1902. He was the son of a Prussian 

 judge, and studied law in Konigsberg, Berlin, and 

 Heidelberg, becoming a local magistrate in West 

 Prussia in 1865 and legal assistant in the Minis- 

 try of the Interior to carry out district regulations 

 in 1874. Four years of this work obtained for 

 him the appointment of chief judge of the Ad- 

 ministrative Court. A year later he became Un- 

 der-Secretary in the Ministry of Worship, and was 

 elected to preside over the newly elected Reichs- 

 tag. On July 16, 1881, he succeeded Herr von 

 Puttkamer in the Prussian Ministry of Worship, 



ith the duty of giving practical effect to the 

 onciliation of the state and the Church. The 



ipeal of the Falk laws was the most difficult part 

 of his task. This he carried out without preju- 

 dice or partizanship in a way to win the confi- 

 dence of both parties in the bitter controversy. 

 He performed important services in developing 



Wgher education along modern lines and promo- 

 ng scientific investigation. He framed the law 



of elementary education. When the vivisection 

 question was raised in the Prussian Chamber in 

 1883 he took a stand for the freedom of -scientific 

 investigation. On March 12, 1891, the minister 

 was defeated on the question of an unimportant 

 remnant of the May laws which he wished to re- 

 tain as a safeguard for the state control of pri- 

 mary instruction. On June 7, 1891, he was ap- 

 pointed presiding justice of the provincial court 

 of West Prussia. 



Grant, George Monro, Canadian educator, 

 born in Nova Scotia, in 1835; died in Kingston, 

 May 10, 1902. He went from school in Nova Sco- 

 tia to the University of Glasgow in 1853 and won 

 the highest honors in classics, chemistry, and 

 moral philosophy. On his return he engaged in 

 missionary work. At the time that Canada was 

 confederated, in 1867, while he was minister of a 

 large and important congregation, he threw all 

 his influence in favor of federal union and turned 

 the scale in Nova Scotia. When the engineers 

 made their preliminary survey of the Pacific Rail- 

 road route he accompanied Sir Sandford Fleming 

 in the journey to British Columbia, and when he 

 returned he published From Ocean to Ocean, a 

 book that everybody read, describing the immense 

 productive resources of the Canadian northwest. 

 Nothing had so great an influence in winning 

 wavering and uncertain minds to the idea of fed- 

 eration, which was then on its trial. The states- 

 men made much of the author and consulted him 

 on public questions. He became in 1877 the prin- 

 cipal of Queen's University, Kingston, which ex- 

 panded under his management from a small de- 

 nominational college into an important education- 

 al center. He wrote and spoke frequently on 

 imperial unity, on the affairs of the Presbyterian 

 Church, and on educational subjects. 



Groome, Francis Hindes, English author, 

 born in Monk Soham, Suffolk, England, Aug. 3, 

 1851; died in January, 1902. He was educated 

 at Oxford, and in 1876 took up literary work 

 in Edinburgh, which was his home thenceforth. 

 He was joint-editor of Chambers's Biographical 

 Dictionary, contributed to the Dictionary of Na- 

 tional Biography, as well as to other literary en- 

 terprises, and wrote In Gipsy Tents (1880); A 

 Short Border History (1887); Two Suffolk' 

 Friends; Kriegspiel, a novel (1896); and Gipsy 

 Folk Tales (1899). 



Hall, Christopher Newman, English clergy- 

 man, born in Maidstone, Kent, England, May 22, 

 1816; died in London, Feb. 18, 1902. He was'edu- 

 cated at Highbury College and the University of 

 London. Entering the Congregational ministry, 

 he was pastor of the Albion Congregational Chapel 

 at Hull in 1842-'54. In the latter year he was 

 called to the Surrey Chapel, Blackfriars Road, 

 London, the congregation of which subsequently 

 erected an ornate church in Westminster Bridge 

 Road. From 1893 he was pastor emeritus of this 

 church. He was widely popular as a preacher, 

 and in the course of three visits to the United 

 States had become well known in the United 

 States also. During the American civil war he 

 was active in his efforts to create an English sen- 

 timent favorable to the cause of the Union, deliv- 

 ering lectures in many English towns regarding 

 the nature of the struggle and the real issues at 

 stake. His eloquence and his enthusiasm were of 

 great service in this matter, and gained him many 

 friends in the United States. He invariably had 

 the courage of his opinions, and in consequence, 

 he opposed the agitation that followed the first 

 appointment of Roman Catholic bishops to sees 

 in England. He was a firm believer in total ab- 

 stinence, and supported the temperance movement 



