September 23, 1920] 



NATURE 



119 



Salford School Board for ten years, from 1872, 

 and for a time on Salford Town Council. He also 

 entered Parliament, where his intimate knowledge 

 of industrial and educational matters proved of the 

 greatest service. On the appointment of the Royal 

 Commission of 1881 on technical education at 

 home and abroad, the report of which did so much 

 to direct the attention of the nation to its short- 

 comings in the means of education and training in 

 science and its applications. Sir William Mather, 

 because of his intimate experience of the condi- 

 tions of industry in the United States and Russia, 

 iiccepted the position of special commissioner in 

 those countries and wrote two valuable reports 

 which were included with that of the Royal Com- 

 mission. The inquiries of this Commission un- 

 doubtedly led to the passing of the Technical In- 

 struction Act of 1889 and to the subsequent Excise 

 and Customs .'^ct of 1890, by which a fund of 

 8oo,ooo2. was placed at the service of technical 

 instruction. 



Sir William Mather's intimate association with 

 educational institutions in the United States, and 

 his sympathy with the system of manual training 

 prevailing there, enabled him to invite its chief 

 exponent, Prof. Woodward, of St. Louis, to a 

 conference in Manchester in 1882 on " Education 

 under Healthy Conditions," with the result that 

 there was established in the Manchester 

 Mechanics' Institution the first manual training 

 M-hool in Great Britain. He gave to Chetham 

 College (for orphan boys) in Manchester ^ com- 

 plete manual training equipment, and likewise did 

 the same service for the engineering department 

 of the college at Khartoum, in the Sudan. He 

 identified himself with all types of educational 

 .idvance, founding in Manchester the Mather 

 College for the training of kindergarten teachers, 

 and taking a deep interest in the activities of the 

 L'nion of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes, of 

 which he was president from 1908 until 1919, in 

 connection with which he founded a valuable 

 scholarship and exhibitions. 



One of the chief features of the Franco-British 

 I'xhibition of 1908 was the fine display of British 

 "(lucational enterprise, which owed its initiation 

 to Sir William Mather, and of which he bore the 

 ■itire cost. The value of the exhibition was much 

 :ihanced by the addresses of eminent educationists 

 whom he invited. He was a warm supporter of 

 the British Science Guild, founded in 1905, and 

 was its president from 1913 to 1917. He 

 regarded it as "a body capable of development 

 up to the rank of a powerful national institution 

 permeating the industrial life of the Empire with 

 the fruits of scientific research," and to it he 

 gave the most liberal financial support. On the 

 foundation of the .Association of Technical Insti- 

 tutions he became its first president, and gave it 

 effective aid in many ways. By Sir William 

 Mather's death the causes of education and of 

 s( ientific ediciency in industry suffer an almost 

 irremediable loss. He was laid to rest on Wed- 

 nesday in the grounds of Prestwich Parish Church, 

 Ticar Manchester. 



NO. 2656, VOL. 106] 



The death is announced, on August 19, at fifty- 

 six years of age, of Prof. T. Ridler Davies, 

 associate professor of mathematics at McGill 

 University, Montreal. 



Sir WiLLiA.vi Babtie, V.C, who held many 

 important posts in the Army Medical Service, died 

 on September 11, in Belgium, where he was spend- 

 ing a holiday. Sir William was born in 1859 at 

 Dumbarton, and was educated at Glasgow Uni- 

 versity, where he took his M.B. degree in 1880. 

 In the same year he became L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. 

 of Edinburgh, and in the following year entered 

 the Army Medical Service, of which he was made 

 Deputy-Director-General in 1910. He retained 

 this post until 1914, when he was appointed 

 Director of Medical Services in India; later he 

 filled the same office in the Mediterranean. He 

 was created a K.C.M.G. in 1916 and a K.C.B. in 

 1919, and was known as an administrator rather 

 than for his medical work. 



Sir James B. Ball, chief engineer of the London, 

 Brighton, and South Coast Railway, who died 

 suddenly on September 17, was born in 1867, and 

 started as a railway engineer with the Great 

 Northern Railway in 1890. He served with various 

 companies until he became engineer-in-chief of the 

 Great Central Railway in 191 2, a post which he 

 occupied until 1917, when he went to the London, 

 Brighton, and South Coast Railway. During the 

 latter part of the war. Sir James Ball was ap- 

 pointed Controller of Timber Supplies for the 

 Board of Trade, and in 1918 he was knighted. He 

 received the Telford gold medal of the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers, and was the author of several 

 technical papers communicated to that body. His 

 work included the design and execution of many 

 large-scale railway and dock enterprises. 



Sir J. W. BvERS, one of the leading physicians 

 of the North of Ireland, who died on September 20, 

 was born in China in 1853, but was educated and 

 spent his life in Belfast. He commenced practice 

 in the Children's Hospital at Belfast in 1879, and 

 in 1882 he took over the department for diseases 

 of women in the Royal Victoria Hospital in that 

 city. In 1896 he was elected honorary president of 

 the International Congress of Obstetrics and 

 Gynaecology. He was president of the Section of 

 Obstetric Medicine and Gynsecology of the British 

 Medical Association in 1901, and from 1902 to 

 1906 was a member of the council of that body. 

 In 1907, Sir John Byers was president of the 

 Section of Physical Education and Training in 

 Personal Hygiene of the International Congress on 

 School Hygiene, and in 1916 he was knighted. 

 During his lifetime he took a prominent part in all 

 movements concerned with public health, particu- 

 larly those dealing with tuberculosis and infant 

 mortality. He was the author of many medical 

 works, and of some papers and a book on the folk- 

 lore of Ulster. 



