NATURE 



1 21 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1899. 



LYON PLAYFAIR'S LIFE. 

 Memoirs and Correspondence of Lyon Play/air, First 

 Lord Playfair of St. Andrews, P.C, G.C.B., LL.D., 

 F.R.S. By Wemyss Reid. Pp. xii + 487. (London : 

 Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1899.) 



IN writing the life of Lyon Playfair, and editing his 

 autobiography and correspondence, Sir Wemyss Reid 

 has had a congenial task, and this he has accomplished 

 with his usual tact and success. The result is a volume 

 full of interest both for the scientific and for the layman, 

 for Playfair himself truly defines his position as half man 

 of science and half politician, and his biographer has 

 rightly appreciated the remarkable dual part which he 

 played, and the work which in each direction he 

 accomplished : 



" The man the story of whose life is to be told in these 

 pages, never rose to that dazzling eminence which 

 justifies the world in describing a human being as 

 supremely 'great.' He did not pretend to the genius 

 which lifts a few men high above their fellows. It cannot 

 be affirmed that he was one of the great figures of his 

 generation. Yet his life, though it was lived without 

 ostentation and without parade, was undoubtedly one of 

 the fullest and most useful lives of his time. It was 

 emphatically a life of work, and of work not for the 

 accumulation of wealth, or for the achievement of fame, 

 but for the acquiring of truth, and for the service of his 

 fellow men." 



The most interesting portions of the volume are doubt- 

 less those containing Playfair's own description of his life 

 and labours. These, although fragmentary, give a truer 

 picture of the man and his doings than can be attained 

 even by so skilled a biographer as Wemyss Reid. Play- 

 fair did not write them with a view to publication, and 

 begins by remarking that if they are ever made public, 



" My only apology is that they may form some en- 

 couragement to others, who, like myself, have had in 

 early life few friends and no influence, to believe that 

 their future position depends upon themselves and not 

 upon their surroundings." 



This is indeed the keynote of the life. The story, told 

 by Playfair in his own way, is one not of adventure but 

 of work. Many a poor Scots lad has done as great 

 things, and risen in the social scale as high as, or higher 

 than, Lyon Playfair, but no one carried out his life's work 

 more devotedly than he. 



'' To Lyon Playfair the good of his country," truly says 

 his biographer, "was a thing to be pursued not merely 

 in the Senate or on contested fields, but in the laboratory 

 and the council room, in social intercourse and in the 

 humdrum round of daily life. It was something calling 

 not so much for isolated deeds of heroism as for a 

 prudent and unremitting care extending even to the 

 most trivial tasks and incidents." 



And he was fortunate in the period over which his 

 life's work extended. In early days he showed his par- 

 tiality for scientific studies, and especially for chemistry. 

 In 1835 he left the Glasgow University, where Thomas 

 Thomson was the professor, for the Andersonian College, 

 where a younger and more active man — Thomas Graham 

 — occupied the chair. This was a fortunate step, for 

 Graham, himself actively engaged in research, fired 

 NO. I 57 I. VOL. 61] 



Playfair with a desire to <^o likawise, and sent him to 

 Giessen. 



" On presenting myself to Liebig," he says, " I was 

 much struck by his handsome appearance and classically 

 cut face. I mentioned my name and told him that I 

 was a pupil of Graham's, and he laughingly said, ' You 

 might have said that you are the discoverer of iodo- 

 sulphuric acid,' which I had recently described in short 

 papers," 



the titles of which are not, however, to be found in the 

 Royal Society's Catalogue. This introduction and the 

 friendship which followed were the most important 

 events in Playfair's early life. He translated the " Agri- 

 cultur Chemie," though " my knowledge of German was 

 not good." This candid admission is amusingly borne 

 out in a letter written many years later to his wife, in 

 which he says of a German girl that she speaks English 

 '■'■schlecht^'^huX. French '■^ vorlduflg" instead of "gelaufig " 1 



Notwithstanding the above opinion, there is no doubt 

 that Playfair's English translations of Liebig were well 

 done, and that they were the means of introducing him 

 to many men of position and influence in this country, 

 by whom his talents were soon appreciated and whose 

 friendship formed a starting-point in his career. 



The story of his introduction to the great Sir Robert 

 Peel is well told, and the results were as unexpected as 

 they were gratifying. The question of sanitary reform 

 then arose, and Playfair was fortunate in being one of 

 the first to be employed in carrying out the battle 

 against dirt and disease, and to his last days he remained 

 what he was in his youth, the most energetic of sanitary 

 reformers. 



Then, again, he was fortunate in being a forerunner 

 of the great educational movement which has been 

 one of the chief glories of the nineteenth century. That 

 he was well fitted to be the pioneer of technical instruction 

 was due to his true appreciation not only of the value of 

 pure science as a means of culture, but of the importance 

 of the application of scientific principles to the arts and 

 manufactures. 



" Not to teach trades or manufacturing, but the 

 principles, scientific and artistic, which underlie those 

 trades and manufactures," 



was his definition ; and that he lived to see these 

 principles carried into effect must have been to him a 

 source of keen satisfaction. 



" In the chapter which history devotes to the social 

 progress of our century, Playfair's name must always 

 hold a place of honour." 



Early in the year 185 1 he was brought into personal 

 and intimate contact with Prince Albert, and soon the 

 confidence of the Prince was gained, so that Playfair 

 from that time forward became his trusted adviser and 

 friend. Although Playfair acted as Gentleman Usher to 

 the Prince Consort, and was afterwards a Lord-in-Wait- 

 ing upon the Queen, he, as he tells us, was not a courtier 

 in the sense often ascribed to the word.. He spoke his 

 mind fully and frankly both when his views were in agree- 

 ment with, and also when they were opposed to those 

 held by "exalted persons." Of the Prince Consort's 

 character and abilities he had the highest opinion. 



" The attachment to his service," he says, "gave me 

 the privilege of being associated with the illustrious 



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