April i, 1920] 



NATURE 



143 



Obituary. 



Mr. Sedley Taylor. 



THE long^ life of Mr. Sedley Taylor, 

 who died recently at the age of 

 eighty-five years, nearly all of which were 

 spent in public activities at Cambridge, was 

 in many ways notable. Theology, mathematics, 

 physical science, practical economics, and pre- 

 eminently music, occupied his attention. His 

 withdrawal from active theological pursuits (in 

 1863 he was ordained to a curacy near Birming- 

 ham) was not merely a personal event ; it was also 

 Hnked up with the movement for greater academic 

 freedom at Cambridge. About the same time 

 Henry Sidgwick (1869) and Leslie Stephen (1862) 

 gave up their fellowships. So early as 1862 ap- 

 peared the first edition of Helmholtz's classical 

 treatise on the sensations of tone. A translation 

 into English, published by A. J. Ellis in 1875, 

 increased its reaction in this country both on the 

 physical theory of sound and on the aesthetic prin- 

 ciples of music, which it for the first time brought 

 into detailed, reasoned connection. Its influence 

 was much forwarded by Sedley Taylor's book, 

 "Sound and Music," which appeared in 1873, ^"^ 

 was the earliest general exposition in short com- 

 pass by a writer competent on both sides of the 

 subject. An event which his characteristic energy 

 rendered prominent was his invention of an 

 apparatus which he named the phoneidoscope. It 

 consisted essentially of a resonant cavity, with 

 an aperture over which a soap-film was stretched : 

 when the operator sang to it a note nearly in 

 unison with the cavity, the aerial vibrations re- 

 vealed themselves visibly in whirling movement 

 of the coloured striations of the liquid film. 



In these days perhaps such phenomena, now 

 more fully understood, would be regarded as bear- 

 ing more closely on the properties of the very 

 remarkable structure exhibited by bubbles, being 

 too complex to reveal direct knowledge of the 

 constitution of sound waves. ^ But Sedley Taylor's 

 enthusiasm was infectious. As a testimony to 

 his zeal in connecting up music with acoustics, 

 and also to the relevant state of things in Cam- 

 bridge at this period, an extract from Clerk Max- 

 well's Rede Lecture of 1878 on the telephone (then 

 newly discovered) is worth quoting : — 



Helmholtz, by a series of daring strides, has effected 

 a passage for himself over that untrodden wild 

 between acoustics and music — that Serbonian bog 

 where whole armies of scientific musicians and 

 musical men of science have sunk without filling it up. 



We may not be able even yet to plant our feet in 

 his tracks and follow him right across — that would 

 require the seven-league boots of the German 

 Colossus; but to help us in Cambridge we have the 

 Board of Musical Studies vindicating for music its 

 ancient place in a liberal education. On the physical 

 side we have Lord Rayleigh laying our foundation 

 deep and strong in "Theory of Sound." On the 

 aesthetic side we have the University Musical Societv 



1 The writer is indebted to Sir Joseph Larmor for assistance on thi< 

 subject. 



NO. 2631, VOL. 105] 



j doing the practical work, and, in the space between, 

 those conferences of Mr. Sedley Taylor, where the 

 j wail of the Siren draws musician and mathematician 

 ! together down into the depths of their sensational 

 I being, and where the gorgeous hues of the Phoneido- 

 I scope are seen to seethe and twine and coil like the 

 i "Dragon boughts and elvish emblemings" 



j on the gates of that city where 

 I "An ye heard a music, like enow 



They are building still, seeing the city is built 

 I To music, therefore never built at all 



And therefore built for ever." 

 j The special educational value of this combined 

 study of music and acoustics is that, more than 

 1 almost any other study, it involves a continual appeal 

 to what we must observe for ourselves. 



The facts are things which must be felt; they can- 

 not be learned from any description of them. 



I The economic side of Sedley Taylor's work 



I can be illustrated by a conversation with a 



'[ younger friend of his who was accustomed to 

 see him in his rooms in Trinity College during his 

 last years of feeble health. The talk turned upon 

 profit-sharing, which was introduced by a question 

 about a French statuette on the mantelpiece. To 



i his surprise the younger man, who had to probe 

 for his information, found that Sedley Taylor had 

 been a pioneer, had even been the inventor of 

 that term, and had written a book on the subject, 



I for which he had been decorated for his services 

 towards industrial co-partnership by the French 

 Government, which was at the time closely in- 

 terested in such matters. 



Sedley Taylor was a pioneer in at least two 

 other directions. One of them was the higher 

 education of women. He promoted the founda- 

 tion of Girton College, and was afterwards its 

 constant benefactor. Towards the end of his life, 

 in 191 1, he received the honour of the freedom 

 of the borough of Cambridge for establishing and 

 endowing the first dental clinic that was founded 

 in England. His musical activities pervaded 

 Cambridge, and are too widespread to be dis- 

 cussed here. His generosity, kindliness, and 



' humour endeared him to a wide circle, and in 

 particular to many generations of musical under- 



I graduates. Cyril Rootham. 



We regret to note that the death of Mr. 

 Anthony George Lyster is announced in Engin- 

 eering for • March 19 as having taken place on 

 March 17 at sixty-eight years of age. Mr. 

 Anthony Lyster was the second son of Mr. G. F. 

 Lyster, of Liverpool, and father and son between 

 them were responsible for the greater part of the 

 port developments on the Mersey over a period 

 ! exceeding fifty years. Mr. Lyster was educated 

 ' at Harrow, and served his pupilage under his 

 father. After holding the position of assistant 

 engineer to the Mersey Dock Board for some 

 { time, during which he was responsible for the 



