46o 



NATURE 



[December 23, 19 15 



He had acted for a short time as Williamson's 

 private assistant, and had helped him in the ex- 

 perimental illustration of his lectures. William- 

 son was* then in the heyday of his activity. It was 

 the beginning of a new epoch, which was destined 

 to have a profound influence on the development 

 of chemistry, theoretical and practical^ — a move- 

 ment in which Williamson was a pioneer, and 

 Gerhardt, Laurent, Hofmann, and Kekul^ were 

 active agents. It is perhaps idle to speculate 

 what would have been the course of Roscoe's 

 career had he remained at University College in 

 association with Williamson. In mental habi- 

 tudes the men had not much in common. Roscoe 

 at no time had any active sympathy with the 

 philosophical side of chemistry, and chemical 

 speculation had few attractions for him. His 

 mind was essentially practical, and hence the 

 achievements of determinative chemistry were 

 what he chiefly valued. He probably, therefore, 

 did wisely in going to Heidelberg, for he found 

 in Bunsen a type of mind like his own, and a 

 worker with whom he was in complete accord, 

 and their acquaintance soon ripened into a friend- 

 ship which ended only with Bunsen 's death. How 

 completely the two were in sympathy may be seen 

 in Roscoe's admirable memorial lecture on 

 Bunsen which he gave to the Chemical Society, 

 and it is reflected no less clearly in the pages of 

 his autobiography. 



Roscoe's life in Heidelberg and his intimate 

 association with Bunsen brought him into close 

 contact with all that was worthiest in German 

 university life, and he contracted firm friendships 

 with many of the most eminent men of that 

 period — the two Roses, Magnus, Kirchhoff, 

 Helmholtz, Kopp, Koenigsberger, Quincke, and 

 others. He always looked back upon this time 

 as one of the happiest memories of his life. He 

 had to the last a very tender regard for what is 

 best in the German character as it was revealed 

 to him in the many friends he learned to know 

 and to love at this period. He viewed with in- 

 creasing anxiety and regret the growth of the 

 strained relations between the governing powers 

 in Germany and this country, and his last literary 

 efforts were directed, so far as it was possible to 

 him, to mitigate them. " It would be an outrage 

 to civilisation," he wrote, "if two countries so 

 closely allied in blood and intellectual develop- 

 ment should ever come to blows." And when the 

 rupture did come it clouded the few remaining 

 months of his life. 



Roscoe's first and only professorship was at 

 Owens College, Manchester, to which he was 

 elected in 1857 as successor to the late Sir Edward 

 Frankland. At that time it was the day of small 

 things with the College. As an institution it was 

 looked at somewhat askance by reason of the 

 terms of its founder's intentions in regard to 

 religious tests and instruction. It was in- 

 adequately endowed, and poorly housed in a build- 

 ing of which the only claim to distinction was 

 that it was formerly the residence of Richard 

 Cobden. Fortunately it was staffed by an excep- 

 NO. 2408, VOL. 96] 



tionally able body of young and enthusiastic 

 teachers, Umited in number but united in their 

 determination to keep the lamp of learning alight 

 in the squalid and benighted regions of Deans- 

 gate. This is not the place, even if space per- 

 mitted, to dwell upon the progress and develop- 

 ment of Owens College, or to show how it grew 

 eventually into the University of Manchester. 

 During the thirty years of his connection with the 

 institution Roscoe took a leading part in stimu- 

 lating and fostering this development, and before 

 he severed his connection with it as an active 

 teacher he had the gratification of seeing it attain 

 to full university honours. To this success his 

 efforts in erecting a school of chemistry in no 

 small degree contributed. He made its chemical 

 laboratories famous throughout the world, and at 

 one time or another students from nearly every 

 civilised country were to be found working within 

 its walls. This result was due not so much to 

 Roscoe's influence as a leader in chemical inquiry; 

 students were not attracted as in a German uni- 

 versity, solely by the fame of the professor's re- 

 searches; they came, in the first instance, on 

 account of the thoroughness and comprehensive- 

 ness of the instruction ; they remained because of 

 the stimulating effect of the atmosphere of re- 

 search into which they were eventually led. 



The scheme of instruction which Roscoe intro- 

 duced was essentially that at Heidelberg, and he 

 followed Bunsen 's methods and example. His 

 success as a teacher was largely owing to his 

 energy, his power of organisation and business 

 aptitudes, his judgment of men and capacity for 

 getting the best out of them. He was not what 

 could be termed a brilHant lecturer; he had 

 nothing, for instance, of the fire and enthusiasm 

 of Hofmann ; but his language was simple, direct, 

 and to the point, with not the least pretension to 

 rhetorical effect, in all of which, as in other 

 respects, he resembled Bunsen. Like Bunsen, too, 

 he took considerable pains in the experimental 

 illustration of his teaching ; in this he was assisted 

 by a skilful and ingenious collaborator, Heywood, 

 well known to Owens College men of a generation 

 or so ago. How affectionately Roscoe was re- 

 garded by his students, and how gratefully they 

 recalled their obligations to him, may be seen 

 from the terms of the address, signed by three 

 hundred of them, which they presented to him on 

 the occasion of his jubilee as a doctor of philo- 

 sophy of the University of Heidelberg. It may 

 be seen, too, in their gift of his portrait by Her- 

 komer to the late Lady Roscoe on his retirement 

 from his professorship, and in the presentation 

 of his bust by Mr. Drury to the Chemical Society 

 on the attainment of his eightieth birthday. 



The volume of Roscoe's original work in 

 chemical inquiry when compared with the output 

 of many of his contemporaries, especially on the 

 Continent, cannot be considered large. His most 

 important investigations were his photochemical 

 researches, partly done in concert with Bunsen, 

 and his work on the chemistry of vanadium. His 

 first memoir on the latter subject was made the 



