METHOD OF RESEARCH 279 



and was therefore able to do himself justice by illustration. 

 He was rigorous in demanding exhaustive proof. This almost 

 deteriorated into a defect. He would pursue every side issue 

 which presented itself in a research, and was quite content if 

 it led to nothing. He would say in such a case : " I will not 

 leave a stone unturned." He was apt, too, I think, to attack a 

 problem in too generalised a form. In his nitrogen work it 

 always seemed to me that he wasted energy on remote possi- 

 bilities, when a clean-cut line of attack would have served him 

 better^ But his mind worked in that way, and he could not 

 help himself. It was, I think, one of the most fertile in sugges- 

 tion that I ever came across. In later years, in conversation 

 especially, thought seemed to come quicker than words to express 

 it. In this respect he reminded one of Lord Kelvin, In such a 

 predicament he would simply remain silent, and slowly move his 

 head. This habit, I think, explains the reputation of being " mys- 

 terious " which he seems to have acquired latterly at Cambridge. 



He was not without the honour at home which he deserved, 

 apart from the affection of his friends, and had he lived would 

 doubtless have received it from abroad. He was elected F.R.S. 

 in 1888, and received the Royal Medal in 1893. He was elected 

 an Honorary Fellow of Christ's College in 1897, and received 

 an Honorary D.Sc. from the Victoria University in 1902. 



Botanical science could ill spare his loss at the early age of 

 52. But it may be grateful for 25 years of illuminating achieve- 

 ment. It might have been hoped that another quarter of a 

 century would be allotted to one so gifted. But if the " in- 

 exorabile fatum" decreed otherwise, he is at least to be numbered 

 amongst those of whom it may be said 



" Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas." 



' Nov. 191 1. I must guard myself against the implication that Marshall Ward's 

 method was wrong in principle. For as pointed out by Prof. Turner in his " Address 

 to the Mathematical and Physical Section" of the British Association at Portsmouth 

 the maxim of " leaving no stone unturned" is identical with Prof. Cham berlin's " Method 

 of Multiple Working Hypotheses." And what is at first sight an unlikely hypothesis 

 may turn out to be the true one. Yet the rigorous application of the method is time- 

 consuming and life is short. Some liberty of selection in testing the hypothesis that 

 seems most probable must be allowed the investigator, and the instinct of genius may 

 sometimes hit on the right one. 



