August 31, 19 16] 



NATURE 



47 



PROF. W. ESSON, F.R.S. 



IN William Esson, Savilian professor of geo- 

 metry since 1897, Oxford loses one who has 

 done much for it. A Scot whose family came 

 South in his boyhood, there was the air of a viking 

 about him, and few who looked upon his magnifi- 

 cent beard during most of the sixty-one years of 

 his university life were not conscious of a radia- 

 tion of vigour as from the North. Born at Dundee 

 in 1838, he was educated first at Inverness, and 

 then at Cheltenham Grammar School. In 1855 

 he became Bible clerk of St. John's College, 

 Oxford. Here he obtained two second classes 

 (1856, 1858) in classics, and in mathematics 

 carried all before him, gaining first classes in 1856 

 and 1859, and the junior and serior mathematical 

 scholarships in 1857 and i860. In i860 he 

 became Fellow of Merton and mathematical tutor. 

 He was also tutor or lecturer for various f>eriods 

 at Magdalen, Corpus, Worcester, and Hertford. 

 Enormous as have been his services to Merton 

 and to the university as financier and man of busi- 

 ness, and real as have been his achievements in 

 geometrical and mathematico-chemical investiga- 

 tion, the writer and others put first his leadership 

 in college mathematical teaching. In the 'sixties 

 and 'seventies there were two classes of mathe- 

 matical students in Oxford — those who blessed 

 the Providence which had put them under him, 

 and those who envied the others. 



When Prof. Sylvester's health began to fail in 

 1894 Esson became deputy Savilian professor of 

 geometry, and after three years he succeeded 

 Sylvester in the chair. He lectured most on 

 the comparison of synthetic and analytic methods 

 in geometry. With such subjects his not very 

 numerous publications in pure mathematics have 

 been concerned. They are above all things inci- 

 sive. Probably he was prouder of his only semi- 

 mathematical work on chemical — or, as he was 

 always very careful to say, chymical — change. 

 This was done largely in concert with Mr. A. G. 

 \'ernon Harcourt, and expounded in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions for 1864, 1866, and 1895. 

 The work secured him the Fellowship of the Royal 

 Society as early as 1869. Among the little jokes 

 in which he delighted was one that in 1897 the 

 Savilian professorship of geometry passed from a 

 poet to a chymist. 



Though as professor he became Fellow of New 

 College, he was bursar of Merton till he died. 

 For very many years he served the university 

 as a curator of the university chest; and here his 

 loss will be keenly felt. His great administrative 

 powers were used for the good of the university 

 in matters directly associated with university 

 studies, and not in finance only. For about fifteen 

 3'ears, ending in 191 3, he was chairman of the 

 Board of the Faculty of Natural Science. He was 

 a visitor (and secretary) of the university 

 obser^'atory. * 



Until a few months ago his natural force seemed 

 in no wise abated. But his last surviving son 

 went down with H.M.S. Russell, and his strength 

 then began to fail. 



NO. 2444, VOL. 97] 



PROF. S. B. MCLAREN. 



LIEUT. S. B. McL.VREN, professor of mathe- 

 matics in University College, Reading, met 

 his death on August 14 on the VV'estern front, 

 where he was serving with a signalling company 

 of the Royal Engineers. 



McLaren was of Scottish parentage. A son of the 

 late Rev. W. D. McLaren, of Melbourne, he was 

 born in Japan, but most of his early life was spent 

 in Australia, .\fter a distinguished career at the 

 University of Melbourne, he proceeded to Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, of which he became a major 

 scholar. He was third wrangler in 1899, gained 

 a first class in Part II. of the Mathematical Tripos 

 in 1900 and the Isaac Newton studentship in 1901. 

 He continued in residence at Cambridge until 

 1903, when he accepted a position at Bristol Uni- 

 versity College, whence in 1906 he proceeded to 

 Birmingham University as assistant-lecturer in 

 mathematics. Shortly before his appointment to 

 the professorship of mathematics in University 

 College, Reading, he had shared with Prof. 

 Nicholson the Adams prize at Cambridge. 



The outbreak of war found McLaren in Aus- 

 tralia with the British Association, acting as a 

 secretary of Section A, and back with his parents 

 and among his earlier friends. During the return 

 voyage he was fired with an enthusiasm to offer 

 his ser\'ices to his country, and he employed his 

 time on board in learning signalling, and on arri- 

 val joined the signalling company organised by a 

 colleague. Major Pearson, of University College, 

 Reading. He saw several months of active ser- 

 vice before receiving the wound which only a few 

 days later proved fatal. He was fearless and 

 intrepid on the field, and carried out his 

 duties tirelessly and with a disregard for his 

 personal safety which was at once an inspiration 

 to his men and the concern of his brother officers. 



McLaren's published work, which was charac- 

 terised by originality and a fine boldness of con- 

 ception, related particularly to the mathematical 

 treatment of the phenomena of radiation and of 

 gravity. Shortly before he gave up his academic 

 work he was engaged in writing upon the mag- 

 neton, and he considered that he had obtained 

 results of value. But his interest in mathematical 

 physics is not adequately gauged by his published 

 work. He was a diligent worker and thinker, 

 contrary, perhaps, to the impression of the casual 

 acquaintance, and he sought strenuously for a 

 basis upon which to build. His interest in philo- 

 sophy was part and parcel of his regard for the 

 fundamental things. All who have been asso- 

 ciated with him will regret the cutting short of a 

 promising career and the loss of a simple, sincere, 

 and grenial friend. W. G. D. 



NOTES. 



The terms of reference, and the constitution, of the 

 two committees appointed by the Prime Minister to- 

 inquire into the position of science and modern 

 languages respectively in the system of education in 

 Great Britain have now been announced. The mem- 

 bership of the committees suggests that the Govern- 



