i86 



NATURE 



[Feb. 27, 1879 



as a conveyancer. The natural bent of his mind, and some 

 association of his relatives with the Society of Arts, led 

 him to join it, and he soon became a member of its council. 

 The Society was then in anything but a flourishing state. 

 The necessity for such work as it had usefully done at 

 the beginning of the century had passed away, and those 

 who then controlled its destinies were hardly capable of 

 striking out for it a fresh line of action. It was, however, 

 just beginning to revive a little, when the proposal to 

 hold the first great exhibition was taken up by Mr. (now 

 Sir) Henry Cole, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Wentworth Dilke, 

 and some others of the more enterprising spirits who 

 were then gaining the upper hand in the Society. With 

 this reforming party Mr. Foster was associated, and it 

 tells much of the character of the man, of his freedom 

 from self-seeking tendencies, that while other members 

 of the little body worked their way upwards to honours 

 and high positions, he was content to remain with- 

 out reward, either pecuniary or titular, as a worker for the 

 whole of his life. When Mr. Grove gave up the secretary- 

 ship of the Society of Arts in 1853, Mr. Foster, resigning 

 the post he then held on its Council, was appointed to the 

 office, an office which he held till the day of his death, 

 last Thursday. Since then his career has been associated 

 with that of the Society. This grew in numbers and influ- 

 ence, and so the Secretary's office increased in importance. 

 During the twenty-five years in which he guided it, it did 

 a great deal of good work, and, it may be owned, some 

 which was not of much value. The trivialities soon 

 passed away and were forgotten, the good work endures. 

 In undertakings such as that of a public society most of 

 the work and but little of the credit falls to the executive 

 officer, and probably, if the truth were known, many of 

 the crude ideas first launched into the world at the 

 Society of Arts owed their ultimate success to their having 

 been hammered into a practical form by the secretary. 

 Ever ready with advice, the fruit of long experience, 

 never bored even by the most importunate of inventors, 

 ready to find something good, something to praise in the 

 most impracticable of schemes, he won the friendship, even 

 the affection, of all who knew him. 



At many scientific gatherings his genial presence will 

 be missed. His was a well-known figure at the British 

 Association meetings. For thirteen years he acted as 

 secretary to Section G (Mechanical Science), and from 

 1863 to 1866 he served on the Council of the Association. 

 Taking an intelligent interest in several branches of 

 science, it was to photography that he principally devoted 

 himself. He was one of the earliest amateur photo- 

 graphers, and continued to work energetically at his 

 favourite pursuit down to the time of his death. One of 

 his last bits of out-door work, before his camera was laid 

 aside for the winter, was to take a view of the Obelisk on 

 the Embankment, a day or two before it was swung from 

 a horizontal into a vertical position. He wrote a good deal 

 on photographic subjects, mainly in the pages of the British 

 Photographic Journal, and similar periodicals. He also 

 wrote the article on photography in the series of volumes on 

 "British Industries," published by Mr. Stanford. He 

 was an occasional contributor to several of the scientific 

 and technical journals, and wrote a good deal in the 

 Journal of his own society, which, though not founded 

 by him, was published from the beginning under his 

 auspices, for he was on the Committee of Publications 

 when it began, and his secretaryship commenced before 

 the completion of its first volume. The older series of 

 Transactions, it will be remembered, ceased some few 

 years before the Journal was started. Mr. Foster was 

 one of the founders of the Photographic Society, and served 

 till a few years ago on its council. He was also President 

 of the Queckett Club for a year. The manner of his 

 death was startlingly sudden. Returning home after his 

 day's work, he sat down to read the newspaper before 

 dinner, when one of his family coming into the room 



after he had been by himself only a few minutes, found 

 that he had fallen back from his chair dead. The cause 

 of death was fatty degeneration of the heart. He died 

 as we might all wish to die, at a ripe old age (nearly 

 seventy), quietly and easily, after a good life's work, and 

 in harness till the end. 



He did not live to receive a testimonial which his 

 friends had just collected for him, and these same friends 

 now propose to do what they can to increase the amount 

 for the benefit of those he has left behind. 



DR, APPLETON 



"I ^E were only able last week to note briefly the loss 

 * * which learning and science have sustained in the 

 death of Dr. Appleton at the early age of thirty-eight years. 

 Dr. Appleton was born at Reading, where, and at St. 

 John's, Oxford, he received his education. His special 

 bent lay more in a literary and philosophical than in a 

 scientific direction ; but, as we indicated, his services to 

 the advancement of science in this country have been very 

 great. He may, indeed, be regarded as the originator of 

 the movement for the endowment of scientific research ; 

 and it is greatly owing to his unceasing activity and influ- 

 ence that anything has been done in this direction by 

 Government. To quote the words of the memoir in 

 the Academy, of which he was the founder, and which, 

 for the sake of sound criticism and accurate know- 

 ledge, we trust will be a lasting monument to his energy, 

 and the breadth of his culture : — " With an enthusiasm 

 which nothing could chill, and a belief no opposition 

 could shake, he endeavoured to inspire his countrymen 

 with the same zeal for learning and science that he felt 

 himself, and to rekindle among them the well-nigh ex- 

 tinguished love of disinterested study and research. 

 Where others talked, he acted ; where others wavered, 

 he continued firm. Through good report and evil report 

 he struggled on towards the goal he saw clearly before 

 him, and the confidence he felt himself was communi- 

 cated to those who worked with him. Gifted with the 

 power of organisation, with boundless energy, and with 

 the art of influencing others, he was marked out as the 

 leader of a forlorn hope. Defeat was impossible for him, 

 and disappointment only increased his courage and 

 activity. It was in Dr. Appleton's hands that the move- 

 ment in favour of the endowment of research took solid 

 shape and organisation. His exertions brought about the 

 meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern in 1872, which first 

 drew public attention to the fact that the universities exist 

 for something higher than the examination of young men. 

 From that time forward Dr. Appleton took an active share 

 in the agitation that resulted in the passing of the Uni- 

 versities Act of 1877, and none of the opportunities which 

 his editorial position gave him were allowed to be lost. 

 Besides letters in the Times, the Pall Mall Gazette, and 

 elsewhere, he wrote two elaborate articles on * The 

 Economic Character of Subsidies to Education' and 

 'The Endowment of Research as a Form of Pro- 

 ductive Expenditure,' both republished in the volume of 

 ' Essays on the Endowment of Research,' of which Dr. 

 Appleton was editor." 



We are pleased also to be able to refer in this connec- 

 tion to an article in the Athenceum. Although there are 

 some parts of this article which we certainly could not 

 quote. In this it is acknowledged that Dr. Appleton had 

 raised a great question, and given it a hold on public 

 interest, " and there can be no doubt that the movement 

 which he, more than any other single man, had set on 

 foot had considerable effect on several of the provisions 

 of the Universities Act passed by the present Govern- 

 ment." ..." For a man who died before he was thirty- 

 eight it is no slight achievement to have forced such a 

 question as this on the sluggish attention both of the 

 public and of Parliament." 



