22 



NATURE 



[September 2, 1920 



heat supply. Lockyer was chief of eight Govern- 

 ment eclipse expeditions in which a brief exam- 

 ination of the isolated chromosphere became pos- 

 sible. In these he had the assistance of the Navy, 

 and their success was due not only to his capacity 

 for leadership and organisation, but also to his 

 ability to inspire interest and enthusiasm in the 

 work in both officers and bluejackets. The in- 

 stallation of a temporary observatory in some re- 

 mote and uninhabited spot was not seldom diffi- 

 cult. 



In 1869 Lockyer and Alexander Macmillan 

 founded Nature ; English science in other respects 

 owes much to the latter and his successors. 

 Henry Woodward, who is still with us, 

 was present at a dinner at the Garrick Club to 

 celebrate its birth. It needed a good send-off, for 

 Sir H. Trueman Wood thought that at the time 

 it "can scarcely have been regarded as a very 

 promising speculation." Probably it was not, but 

 both founders — and Lockyer the most — had a dif- 

 ferent aim. It may be permitted to quote from 

 the present Vice-Chancellor of the University of 

 Leeds a record of how it has been attained : — 

 "The exacting care with which it has been 

 edited, the impartiality and precision of its judg- 

 ments, the wide range of its information, the 

 accuracy of its reports, have given Nature in its 

 own sphere unique distinction and authority." 



As to the first, I remember hearing from a dis- 

 tinguished man of science that at a dinner party 

 at which both he and Lockyer were guests, the 

 latter received an urgent printer's proof in the 

 middle of dinner and corrected it then and there. 



Lockyer's service with the Commission on 

 Scientific Instruction gave him a thorough insight 

 into the resources, or rather lack of them, through- 

 out the country. It is certainly true, as the 

 present Vice-Principal of Birmingham University 

 tells us, that through the columns of Nature 

 "there has appeared an informed and helpful 

 criticism that has furthered university growth and 

 development." The criticism was sometimes 

 pretty vigorous. Henry Smith, at Oxford, him- 

 self a mathematician of European fame, thought 

 that the editor rather trespassed on the creative 

 function of the Author of Nature. 



At Oxford Henry Acland had devoted the best 

 years of his life to getting biology and chemistry 

 admitted to the medical curriculum. Tireless 

 energy with "aeter)7a mansuetudine " succeeded 

 not merely in this, but also in the erection of the 

 New Museum, which was opened in 1861. This, 

 with its Venetian gothic and Skidmore ironwork, is 

 a shrine rather than a laboratory. It was, in fact, 

 an outcome of the Oxford aesthetic renaissance, 

 which in turn owed its filiation to the "Oxford 

 movement." So far science was in the best of 

 company with Dr. Pusey in its support. But 

 Acland really only wanted biology and chemistry 

 for his medical school ; accordingly we find in the 

 New Museum RoUeston overtaxing his strength 

 in the attempt to cover the whole biological field ; 

 Brodie, emancipated from the cellar of the 

 Ashmolean, treating inorganic chemistry with 

 NO. 2653, VOL. 106] 



originality and freshness ; and Vernon Harcourt 

 working at chemical change in a reproduction of 

 the Glastonbury kitchen. This was excellent, but 

 unfortunately it was all. As to the rest of the 

 science faculty, some never lectured, some were 

 physically incapacitated, some were frankly non- 

 resident. Much has changed since ; new professor- 

 ships have been founded and entrusted to men of 

 assured accomplishment ; new laboratories have 

 been built ; and the present Vice-Chancellor finds 

 .it convenient occasionally to borrow a number of 

 Nature to verify an appointment. 



At Cambridge we have the testimony of Dr. 

 Glaisher as to " the almost complete lack of 

 interest in natural science that existed in the uni- 

 versity when Nature was founded " ; even in 

 mathematics " there was no encouragement — quite 

 the reverse — to research of any kind." To the 

 "great expansion of thought, study, and learn- 

 ing" that has taken place since, "Nature has 

 largely and worthily contributed." 



These testimonials, borrowed from the 

 record on the occasion of last year's jubilee, 

 acquire a true significance when we read in them 

 Lockyer for Nature. He never ceased to insist 

 on the necessity of combining university teaching 

 with research. He displeased the somnolent, and 

 stilV more when he supported a better distribu- 

 tion of available funds in which the untimely 

 death of Dr. Appleton deprived him of support 

 from the side of the "humanities." He was in 

 no way deterred by the sarcasm of Henry Smith 

 and Sir John Evans — who ought to have known 

 better — that the endowment of research only 

 camouflaged — to use the phrase of the day — the 

 research for endowment. 



We may congratulate ourselves with Sir Donald 

 MacAlister that Nature " still informs, chastens, 

 and stimulates the scientific worker and the scien- 

 tific teacher." Chastening is now sejdom called 

 for, but in the early days it was vigorously 

 applied. Teaching and text-books were largely 

 obsolete, and received criticism that was often 

 ruthless. Controversies in its pages were some- 

 times fierce ; they cleared things up, and Lockyer 

 kept the ring with complete impartiality. He 

 would himself submit to a little chastening without 

 ill-will. On one occasion a series of articles was 

 commenced with a general approval from Huxley. 

 But it immediately became apparent that the 

 fundamental assumption was unsound. I sent 

 him a short statement of the fact ; he admitted 

 that it was unanswerable, published it, and 

 stopped the series. 



If the early days were in some measure marked 

 by storm and stress, Lockyer's transparent sin- 

 cerity and enthusiasm carried him through. 

 When Nature had completed its twenty-fifth year 

 the publishers assembled for a dinner at the Savoy 

 Hotel in Lockyer's honour some fiftv of the most 

 active and representative of our scientific men 

 then available. Huxley emerged from retirement 

 to be present. With slv humour he hinted at the 

 chastening, and recalled a story of an aggrieved 

 wife who had received some discipline from her 



