668 



NATURE 



[January 20, 192 1 



Obituary. 



Sir William Peterson, K.C.M.G. 



NOT only his own university, but also the uni- 

 versity world at large, has suffered a great 

 loss by the regretted death, on January 4, of Sir 

 William Peterson at the comparatively early age 

 of sixty-four. Among university presidents 

 Peterson's range of college experience and activi- 

 ties was exceptional and probably unrivalled. A 

 Scottish education at the High School and Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh was followed by a course at 

 the University of Gottingen, from which he went 

 with high classical distinction to Oxford as a 

 scholar of Corpus. After Oxford an assistant 

 mastership at Harrow introduced him to the life 

 of an English public school, and as assistant pro- 

 fessor of classics at Edinburgh he strengthened 

 his association with that ancient university. I'Vom 

 that post he was selected at an unusually early 

 age for the principalship of the newly established 

 University College of Dundee, over the growth of 

 which he watched for thirteen years. Its affilia- 

 tion with St. Andrews gave him intimate acquaint- 

 ance with that ancient institution. 



When, therefore, Peterson went to McGill in 

 1895 to enter upon the main work of his life, he 

 carried with him the classical and literary spirit 

 of the old Scottish and English universities, the 

 critical training of Germany, and experience in 

 directing university work on modern lines at an 

 industrial centre. It was an excellent preparation 

 for one who had to build at Montreal on the 

 foundations so nobly laid by the distinguished 

 Canadian man of science. Sir William Dawson. 

 He had to deal with the practical needs of a 

 young country busy in developing great natural 

 resources, and at the same time to uphold the 

 best intellectual traditions of the motherland. 

 Both aims were kept steadily in view during his 

 twenty-five years as principal of McGill. 



Peterson had the good fortune to secure the 

 support of men whose ample means were re- 

 inforced by high ideals of civic duty. Sir William 

 Macdonald had already begun his generous bene- 

 factions to the university in aid of applied science. 

 To the Schools of Engineering and Physics and 

 of Chemistry and Mining, and for the foundation 

 and endowment of the Macdonald College of 

 Agriculture, Household Science, and Teaching, he 

 gave during his life or by his will more than 

 12,000,000 dollars. The School of Medicine had 

 already gained a well-earned fame, but large con- 

 tributions from Lord Strathcona helped to con- 

 firm its place in the front rank of medical institu- 

 tions. The same benefactor supplied the money 

 for building and endowing the Royal Victoria 

 College for Women, and, in conjunction with Sir 

 W. Macdonald, that for the Conservatorium of 

 Music, both in close alliance with McGill. 



In giving direction to these and other streams 

 of munificence, Peterson found a large and con- 

 genial field for his marked organising ability. His 

 knowledge of English and Scottish universities 

 NO. 2673. VOL. 106] 



and the close connection he maintained with them 

 gave him a great advantage in filling the numer- 

 ous posts created by the new foundations. 



A striking proof of the growth of McGill under 

 Peterson's rule, of the large lines on which he 

 planned, and of the insatiable demands of a great 

 and growing modern university is furnished by the 

 fact that his successor in office, Sir Arthur Currie, 

 found it necessary to appeal for a further sum 

 of 5,000,000 dollars to carry on the work. That 

 the graduates of the university and the citizens 

 of Montreal responded by subscribing more than 

 6,000,000 dollars indicates the confidence felt in 

 McGill as Peterson left it. 



Peterson's selection as one of the trustees of 

 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 

 University Teaching — of which he was for some 

 time chairman — opened "up for him a new field of 

 experience, since it gave him an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the leading university presidents of the 

 United States, and made him familiar with all 

 aspects of American university life. It empha- 

 sised the unique position he held among heads of 

 universities. 



The strain put upon Peterson by the war broke 

 him down. An ardent believer in the British 

 Empire, he spared no personal effort in speech 

 and writing to maintain Canada's interest and 

 full share in the struggle for its safety. What 

 he accomplished in his own institution to this end 

 is best shown by the terms in which the Carnegie 

 Foundation made it a grant of a million dollars 

 "in recognition of the noble and devoted service 

 and sacrifice of McGill towards Canada's part in 

 the Great War." It was while speaking in sup- 

 port of an appeal for the sick and wounded that 

 the collapse occurred which closed his academic 

 career. G. R. P. 



Alexander Muirhead, F.R.S. 

 Alexander Muirhead, P'.R.S., who died 

 at Shortlands, Kent, on December 13, 1920, 

 was born in East Lothian in 1848. His father, 

 John Muirhead, abandoned farming and was 

 attracted to London in the early days of cable tele- 

 graphy, starting a business in Re|fency Street, 

 Westminster, in partnership with Mr. Latimer 

 Clark. Young Alexander, who was afflicted 

 with partial deafness all his life, the result of 

 a childish accident, went to University College 

 School, Gower Street, and then to the college, 

 where he made rapid progress in chemistry and 

 mathematics, and became a devoted pupil 

 of De Morgan. He afterwards worked at St. 

 Bartholomew's Hospital under Mathiessen, in 

 whose laboratory, amongst other things, he 

 worked out the problem of the Latimer Clark 

 standard cell, and laid the foundation of life-long 

 accurate work in connection with electrical stand- 

 ards. He took the D.Sc. in 1872, in electricity, 

 and became scientific adviser to his father's firm, 

 where John Perry and many another later distin- 



