June 26, 1890] 



NATURE 



205 



matter of fact, this constant when derived from the 

 observed zenith distances of known stars is 40", but this 

 amount, of course, refers only to the difference of flexure 

 at the eye and object-glass ends. Direct measurements 

 have, however, been made of the deflection of either end. 

 For this purpose a small telescope was attached to the 

 cradle of the instrument, with which a scale placed at 

 either end could be read, the instrument being in both a 

 vertical and horizontal position. The result was that the 

 object-glass dropped 5*48 mm., and the eye end 3*22 mm. ; 

 when all necessary corrections have been made, this gives 

 a flexure of 34", a satisfactory agreement with that ob- 

 tained from observations of stars. This deflection from 

 the straight line was observed at eight different angles 

 with reference to the horizon, and the results are fairly 

 represented by supposing the flexure to vary simply as 

 the sine of the zenith distance. 



As regards the light-collecting capacity, it may be 

 mentioned that the satellite of Neptune can be observed 

 in an illuminated field without difficulty, and that the 

 satellites of Mars were observed on fifteen evenings in 

 1886, a year in which the opposition fell very unfavour- 

 ably for their observation. Hyperion is visible on a 

 feebly illuminated red field, while Enceladus and Mimas 

 are visible till quite close to the planet's disk. That there 

 are difficulties in the employment of such large telescopes 

 goes without saying : it is, however, satisfactory to notice 

 that the number of evenings on which the telescope can- 

 not be used from bad definition or adverse meteorological 

 conditions is not larger than in the case of the 15-inch 

 equatorial. W. E. P. 



SIR WARINGTON VV. SMYTH, F.R.S. 



T\/r INING has suffered an irreparable loss by the death 

 •'•*-^ of Sir Warington Smyth, which occurred suddenly 

 at his house in Inverness Terrace on the 19th inst. He 

 was the eldest son of Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., and 

 was born at Naples 73 years ago. He was educated at 

 Westminster and Bedford Schools and at Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, where he exhibited great skill as an oarsman, 

 being one of the winning University crew on the Thames 

 in 1839. In that year he graduated, and obtained a 

 travelling fellowship which enabled him to devote more 

 than four years to a journey through the chief mining 

 districts of Europe, and thus to lay the foundation of that 

 practical knowledge which subsequently made him the 

 greatest British authority on mining matters. Continental 

 travelling in 1839 was by no means the easy matter it is 

 now, and his journey through the Harz, Saxony, Austria, 

 Hungary, Turkey, and Asia Minor, was not devoid of 

 risk and adventure. As a result of his travels through 

 the European and Asiatic dominions of the Sultan, he 

 published in 1854 a work entitled "A Year with the 

 Turks." In subsequent years, he visited during his vaca- 

 tions the more important mines of France, Belgium, 

 Spain, Italy, and Norway. His official career began in 

 1844, when he was appointed by Sir Henry De la Beche 

 to a post on the Geological Survey, and while holding 

 this position he explored and geologically mapped the 

 metalliferous districts of Devon and Cornwall, North 

 Wales, and Ireland, and the coal-fields of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire, North Staffordshire and Derbyshire. In 1845 

 he joined the Geological Society, and in 1866 was elected 

 President of that body. For the last 17 years he has 

 acted as foreign secretary, in which post his rare linguis- 

 tic powers proved of great service to the Society. On the 

 foundation of the Royal School of Mines in 1851, he was 

 appointed the first lecturer on mining and mineralogy. 

 On the reorganization of the School in 1 881, he gave up 

 the Chair of Mineralogy, but acted as Professor of Mining 

 until his death. He held the office of inspector of the 

 mines in the Duchy of Cornwall, and in 1857 he was also 



NO. 1078, VOL. 42] 



appointed comptroller of all the mineral properties be- 

 longing to the Crown. It would be tedious to enumerate 

 the long list of Royal Commissions and International 

 Exhibitions with which Sir Warington was prominently 

 associated. His report as Secretary of the Jury on the 

 mining industry at the Exhibition of 1862 is a model of 

 what such a work should be, and to his energy on the 

 Council of the Inventions Exhibition of 1885 the success 

 of the mining section was largely due. 



In 1879 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire 

 into accidents in mines and the possible means of pre- 

 venting their occurrence and of limiting their disastrous 

 consequences. Mr. Smyth was appointed Chairman, 

 and, in order to secure time to attend to the duties of 

 this arduous and honorary office, he resigned the post of 

 Examiner to the Science and Art Department- an office 

 he had held for several years. The Commission ended 

 its work in 1886, and during the seven years it was in 

 existence some thousands of experiments were made, and 

 the Report, covering 858 pages, definitely settled many 

 important questions bearing upon the diminution of 

 accidents in mines. 



To his scientific attainments, Sir Warington added 

 singular literary skill. His early classical training en- 

 abled him to write with an elegance and vigour unfor- 

 tunately rare in technical works. He spared no pains, 

 and neglected no details. As a teacher he was very 

 popular with his pupils, his success as a lecturer being 

 due not only to his finished delivery, but also to his skill 

 as a draughtsman, which enabled him to dispense with 

 the aid of elaborate diagrams, and to rely merely on 

 accurate blackboard sketches, which he drew with great 

 rapidity in the presence of his class. His reputation as 

 Professor attracted to the School of Mines students from 

 all parts of the world, and no better evidence of the excel- 

 lence of his teaching could be adduced than that afforded 

 by the important positions so many of his pupils occupy 

 in the mining world. Of his literary works, the most 

 important is his "Rudimentary Treatise on Coal- Min- 

 ing" — a standard work, bearing internal evidence of not 

 being mere extracts of books, written in 1867, and now 

 in its seventh edition. Besides this, he wrote the articles 

 on mining for " Ure's Dictionary" and for Stanford's 

 series of "British Manufacturing Industries," 1876. 



For his labours on the Accidents in Mines Commis- 

 sion, and for his other public services, he received the 

 somewhat tardy acknowledgment of knighthood on the 

 occasion of Her Majesty's Jubilee. Throughout his life he 

 refused the great pecuniary rewards offered by the com- 

 mercial branches of mining, and preferred to devote the 

 half-century during which he was engaged in business 

 connected with mines to the service of science and of the 

 State, Although he had been in ill-health for some time, 

 he never neglected his official duties. He died in har- 

 ness, with a partially corrected examination paper on the 

 table before him. He was buried yesterday at St. Erth, 

 in Cornwall, not far from his home at Marazion, in the 

 centre of the mining district with which he was so long 

 associated. B. H. B. 



NOTES. 

 With the consent of the Prince of Wales, the President, the 

 Council of the Society of Arts has awarded the Albert Medal to 

 Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., "for his discovery of the method 

 of obtaining colouring matter from coal tar, a discovery which 

 led to the establishment of a new and important industry, and 

 to the utilization of lai^e quantities of a previously worthless 

 material." 



The Essex Field Club and the subscribers to the Gilbert 

 Club will hold a meeting at Colchester on Saturday, July 5, 

 in memory of William Gilbert, the founder of the science of 



