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 correct or not, that he exerted 

 a great influence over our farming population, and that his exercise o f 

 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 without such cheering evidence of appreciation. 

 The degree of Ph. D. was conferred upon him by the University of 

 Giessen, and that of LL. 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 

 Eoyal 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 



