ii EARLY LIFE IN LONDON 33 



poems, edited after his death by his brother-in-law 

 Richard Hutton, testify. Richard Hutton had married 

 William's sister, Mary Roscoe, and was then the prin- 

 cipal of University Hall in Gordon Square. Hutton 

 was attacked by a very serious illness, a lung trouble, 

 and he was told that his only chance of life was to 

 spend some time at St. Thomas, in the West Indies. 

 So he and his wife took passage to St. Thomas in a 

 Liverpool sailing-vessel. A few days after they had 

 left port, news came of the outbreak of a virulent type 

 of yellow fever in the island. As there was then no 

 telegraphic communication with the West Indies, it 

 was not possible to inform the voyagers on their 

 arrival ; and the next mail brought word that soon 

 after landing the strong and handsome wife had fallen 

 a victim to the epidemic, whilst the patient had escaped. 

 On hearing of this sad event, William Roscoe, at the 

 risk of his own life, set out for St. Thomas to bring 

 back his brother-in-law, an act of self-forgetfulness 

 which may well be compared to a deed of military 

 heroism. Richard Hutton, a man of great talent and 

 a charming character, was for many years the well- 

 known editor of the Spectator. After some time he 

 married another of my cousins. He died in 1897. 



To return to my studies. I soon made up my mind 

 to follow chemistry as a profession, much to the 

 astonishment and even dismay of some of my friends 

 and relations, who asked me if I intended to open a 

 shop with red and blue glass bottles in the window. 

 And this was not an extraordinary question, for in the 

 early 'fifties the position of science in public estimation 

 was very different from that which it now holds in 

 England. At the beginning of my second session at 

 University College I entered the Birkbeck Chemical 

 Laboratory, which had just been placed under the 



