;46 



NATURE 



[November 25, 1915 



note and learnin^^. The name Meldola seems to 

 have been assumed from the place of that name 

 not far from Ravenna, when some of the family 

 established themselves in Italy. The earlier 

 members of the family for many generations were 

 the Chief Rabbis of their communities. 



Raphael Meldola was educated in private 

 schools and the Royal College of Chemistry. At 

 a very early age he was for a time in the private 

 research laboratory carried on by Dr. John 

 Stenhouse, F.R.S., and after two years in a colour 

 works at Brentford, he joined, in 1872, the teach- 

 ing staff of the Royal College of Science under 

 Prof. Frankland. His training, therefore, had 

 been chemical, but it is interesting to notice how 

 his inclinations often led him in other directions, 

 for the first seven papers under his name in the 

 Royal Society catalogue all relate to subjects of 

 natural history, especially in connection vi'ith 

 mimicry and protective colouring in insects. This 

 interest he always maintained, and he was twice 

 president of the Essex Field Club (1880-83 ^"<^ 

 1901-2), and later president of the Kntomological 

 Society in 1895-97. 



While still at South Kensington he assisted Sir 

 Xorman Lockyer in spectroscopic work in the 

 Solar Physics Laboratory, and in 1875 was placed 

 in charge of the British Eclipse Expedition to the 

 Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. 



By the outer world, however, Meldola has 

 always been thought of chiefly as a chemist speci- 

 ally familiar with the chemistry of colouring 

 matters. His first paper on a chemical subject 

 was, in fact, a " Preliminary Notice of a New 

 Yellow Colouring Matter," published in 1878. 

 This was followed immediately by studies in the 

 naphthalene series, and three years later he an- 

 nounced a " New Class of Colouring Matters from 

 the Phenols " in the Transactions of the Chemical 

 Society (1881). In the meantime he had joined 

 the firm of Messrs. Brooke, Simpson, and Spiller, 

 in whose works at Hackney Wick he remained 

 eight years, and where he made important prac- 

 tical discoveries, including the dye known in 

 (iermany as Meldola 's blue. While at Hackney 

 he was associated with the late Mr. R. J. Friswell 

 and with Prof. A. G. Green, now of Leeds L^ni- 

 versity, with whom he retained a close friend- 

 ship, and from whose competent pen we may 

 expect to receive before long a full account of 

 Meldola's technical as well as scientific colour 

 researches. 



In 1885 Meldola was appointed to the chair of 

 chemistry in the Technical College, Finsbury, and 

 there he taught many generations of students, in 

 the list of whom are to be found the names of 

 Profs. Forster, Morgan, and W. J. Pope, all 

 fellows of the Royal Society, besides many others 

 well known in the teaching or industrial" worlds. 



As to his work at Finsbury, Prof. Silvanus 

 Thompson, Principal of the college, writes as 

 follows : — " Meldola was invaluable to his col- 

 leagues as a wise adviser, a steady, constant, and 

 loyal colleague. He used, however, to complain 

 privately of the considerable proportion of his 



NO. 



2404, VOL. 96] 



time which was taken up by correspondence with 

 his students, and with writing testimonials for 

 them, but he never stinted the time or pains he 

 took to respond to appeals for this kind of help. 

 The quantity of work he got through during the 

 last twelve months, and more, is to me simply 

 amazing, and this in spite of the severe illness 

 (involving a surgical operation) of last spring. 

 And he wrote long letters from Bournemouth and 

 elsewhere on details of laboratory organisation 

 and questions of staff arrangements, etc., with 

 minute care. We had many long country walks 

 together, and thus, apart from my daily inter- 

 course with him for thirty years, I had the fullest 

 opportunities of knowing what a richly-stored 

 mind he had, and what a noble simplicity and 

 sincerity of nature was his." 



To this testimony, which will be most heartily 

 confirmed by his many other friends, it should be 

 added that while Meldola was by nature a most 

 amiable man, in demeanour modest and undemon- 

 strative, he was a very competent chairman, clear 

 in his judgment, firm when necessary, at the same 

 time full of tact. 



Meldola served many societies. In addition to 

 those already mentioned he was president of the 

 Chemical Society (1905-7), of the Society of Dyers 

 and Colorists (1907-8), of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry (1908-9), and of the " Institute of 

 Chemistry (1912-15). These offices gave oppor- 

 tunities for the expression of his views about such 

 important public questions as the relation of 

 science to industry and the necessity for research. 



"_We must take," he says in one place, "a broad, 

 an imperial view of original research if we desire, as 

 we all do, to influence the public mind. Every dis- 

 covery emanating from your laboratories not only helps 

 to extend the boundaries of our science, but it helps 

 also to uphold the general principle that original re- 

 search is in itself, and by itself, the most powerful 

 weapon that has been or ever can be wielded by 

 mankind in struggling with the great problems which 

 nature offers on all sides for solution." 



Nor must be forgotten the numerous occasions 

 on which Meldola pointed out the cause of the 

 departure of the coal-tar colour industry from this 

 country, where it originated, and warned the 

 British public of what would probably ensue if the 

 indifference prevalent among manufacturers con- 

 tinued to exist in this country. These warnings 

 remained practically unheeded till the outbreak of 

 war forced into prominence the unpleasant fact 

 that this country was destitute of dyes, drugs, and 

 all chemicals of the finer sort. When the historv 

 of these times comes to be written Meldola will 

 not be forgotten. 



Space does not allow us to do more than recall 

 the active interest he took in biological problems, 

 as indicated by his translation of Weismann's 

 "Theory of Descent " (1882-83) and by his own 

 work on mimicry in insects already mentioned, 

 but it is to be hoped that a full estim.ate of the 

 value of his researches in this direction will be 

 provided by some of his biological friends. 



Among the honours conferred on Prof. Meldola 

 were the honorary degrees of D.Sc. Oxon., 



