2 1 4 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



the work of others, where Stokes in a few pages illuminated a subject 

 hitherto obscure. By an adaptation of Maxwell's colour diagram he 

 showed (1891) how to represent the results of experiments upon 

 ternary mixtures, with reference to the work of Alder Wright. If 

 three points in the plane represent the pure substances, all associations 

 of them are quantitatively represented by points lying within the 

 triangle so defined. For example, if two points represent water and 

 ether, all points on the intermediate line represent associations of 

 these substances, but only small parts of the line near the two ends 

 correspond to mixture. If the proportions be more nearly equal, the 

 .association separates into two parts. If a third point (off the line) 

 represents alcohol, which is a solvent for both, the triangle may be 

 divided into two regions, one of which corresponds to single mixtures 

 of the three components, and the other to proportions for which a 

 single mixture is not possible. 



A consideration of Stokes' work, even though limited to what has 

 here been touched upon, can lead to no other conclusion than that in 

 many subjects, and especially in Hydrodynamics and Optics, the 

 advances which we owe to him are fundamental. Instinct, amounting 

 to genius, and accuracy of workmanship are everywhere apparent; 

 and in scarcely a single instance can it be said that he has failed to 

 lead in the right direction. But, much as he did, one can hardly 

 repress a feeling that he might have done still more. If the activity in 

 original research of the first fifteen years had been maintained for twenty 

 years longer, much additional harvest might have been gathered in. 

 No doubt distractions of all kinds multiplied, and he was very 

 punctilious in the performance of duties more or less formal. During 

 the sitting of the last Cambridge Commission he interrupted his 

 holiday in Ireland to attend a single meeting, at which however, as 

 was remarked, he scarcely opened his mouth. His many friends and 

 .admirers usually took a different view from his of the relative urgency 

 of competing claims. Anything for which a date was not fixed by the 

 nature of the case, stood a poor chance. For example, owing to 

 projected improvements and additions, the third volume of his 

 -Collected Works was delayed until eighteen years after the second, 

 and fifty years after the first appearance of any paper it included. 

 Even this measure of promptitude was only achieved under much 

 pressure, private and official. 



But his interest in matters scientific never failed. The intelligence 

 of new advances made by others gave him the greatest joy. Notably 

 was this the case in late years with regard to the Rontgen rays. 

 He was delighted at seeing a picture of the arm which he had broken 

 sixty years before, and finding that it showed clearly the united 

 fracture. 



