March 9, 1916] 



NATURE 



Z7 



tccumulated, and it is open to a political pioneer, 

 not necessarily a lawyer, to take in hand a matter 

 which affects immediately an imjxirtant section of 

 our industrial community — labour and capital. 



Should a definite organisation result it would 

 probably be extended to embrace the whole range 

 of vegetable textile materials which we estimate 

 to affect directly the interests of one-third of the 

 working- community. C. F. Cross. 



PROF. ]. W. JUDD, C.B., F.R.S. 



MANY will regret to hear of the death of 

 Prof. John Wesley Judd on March 3 at 

 his home in Kew, after some months of illness. 

 He was born at Portsmouth on February 18, 1840, 

 but in his eighth year went to London with his 

 father. There he attended a school in Camber- 

 well, and at an early age showed a love for 

 astronomy and geology. When grown up he 

 accepted a mastership in a school at Horncastle, 

 Lincolnshire, where his spare time was devoted 

 to chemistry and geology'. In 1863 he became a 

 student at the Royal School of Mines, after which 

 he took the post of analytical chemist in some 

 important iron and steel works in Sheffield. There 

 began, in 1864, his friendship with H. C. Sorby, 

 who imparted to him his newly-devised methods 

 of petrological study, but his work in that city 

 was brought to an end by a railway accident, 

 which for a long time compelled him to abstain 

 from continuous labour, so he resumed his geo- 

 logical studies in Lincolnshire. 



In 1867 Judd joined the Geological Survey, and 

 for the next four years was engaged in mapping 

 Rutlandshire, with parts of the adjoining counties. 

 But in 1 87 1 a desire for greater freedom led him 

 to accept an offer of temporary employment in 

 the Education Department, and during this time 

 began his studies of the W^ealden deposits. When 

 this work had come to an end, he devoted himself 

 to investigating the Triassic and Jurassic deposits 

 in Scotland and of the igneous rocks so grandly dis- 

 played in its western islands. This was a difficult 

 task, owing to the want of good maps and to 

 travel in that part of Scotland being less easy than 

 at the present time. The result was a group of 

 important papers, the first of which appeared in 



^873- 



These attracted much attention and led to 

 friendships with Charles Lyell, Poulett Scrope, and 

 Charles Darwin, the second of whom commis- 

 sioned him to carry on an investigation of the 

 volcanic districts of Europe, which he had been 

 obliged to abandon. In April, 1874, Judd visited 

 the Lipari Islands, going on to Vesuvius, 

 the Phlegraean fields, and the adjacent volcanic 

 district. He also studied the Ponza Islands, on 

 which Scrope had published an important paper 

 in 1827, with the great crater lakes of Central 

 Italy, the Euganean Hills, and the volcanic dis- 

 tricts of Hungary. After his return to England 

 he was appointed, in 1876, professor at the Royal 

 School of Mines in succession to Sir Andrew 

 Ramsay. He at once began to organise the teach- 



NO. 2419, VOL. 97] 



ing, but there was not room at Jermyn Street to 

 do this effectively, so his department was soon 

 transferred to South Kensington, and ultimately 

 lodged in galleries which had been constructed for 

 the 1862 Exhibition. There he established a com- 

 plete system of instruction, which was then 

 unequalled and has never been surpassed in this 

 country, and, in addition to this, his lucidity, 

 patience, and kindness as a teiacher secured him 

 a full and attentive classroom. In 1896 he became 

 Dean of the Royal College of Science, and in 1905 

 retired under the rule of age. It is painful to 

 add that, after accomplishing so great a work, 

 the officials of the Government awarded him a 

 lower pension than he had expected, on a pretext 

 which, if in accordance with the letter of a law, 

 was certainly inequitable. 



Judd was elected a fellow of the Geological 



Society in 1865, was secretary from 1878 to 1886, 



and president from the latter year until 1888. In 



1891 he received the WoHaston medal. He was 



elected F.R.S. in 1877, and twice served on the 



council. In 1885 he was president of Section C, 



when the British Association met at Aberdeen, 



and subsequently received the degree of LL.D. 



from that university. In 1895 he was created a 



C.B. , and in 1913 was made an emeritus professor 



of the Royal College of Science. He married in 



! 1878 Jeannie Frances Jeyes, niece of a well-known 



I Northamptonshire geologist, who with a son and 



j a daughter survive him. 



I A list of Judd's geological papers up to 1905 

 I (after which they become rather infrequent) is 

 added to a biography in the Geological Magazine 

 for 1905. The majority fall into groups, deter- 

 mined by his successive fields of work, almost all 

 appearing in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 

 logical Society or the Geological Magazine. The 

 first group contains papers on the Neocomian, the 

 most noteworthy clearing away many difficulties 

 from the Speeton Clay, and showing its relation 

 to the Neocomian beds of the Lincolnshire wolds 

 and of North Central Europe. Another and most 

 important group of papers deals with the Italian 

 islands, mentioned above, the crater lakes of 

 Central Italy, and Lake Balaton, with the old 

 volcano of Schemnitz in Hungary, after which the 

 older volcanic districts, especially those connected 

 with the Alpine system, are discussed. A third 

 not less important group refers to Scotland, in 

 which he investigated sundry igneous rocks on 

 the mainland and those of Tertiary age in Skye 

 and other islands of the western coast. These 

 papers put an end to many misunderstandings and 

 added much to our knowledge, although his view 

 that the gabbro is later than the granite has not 

 been accepted by the Survey. That also, ex- 

 pressed in two papers, on the relation of thefluvio- 

 marine beds of Headon Hill and Colwell Bay in 

 the Isle of Wight has not found favour, but the 

 two on deep borings in the London district added 

 much to our knowledge of the underground geo- 

 logy of south-eastern England. 



For minor papers we must refer to the above- 

 named list, but must not forget his presidential 



