March 15, 1900] 



NATURE 



475 



tion to Nature in November of the same year. (Nature, 

 vol. Ivii. p. 173). 



" The second memoir on the subject appeared in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Dublin Society for June 1899 (vol. iii. 

 Ser. ii. pp. 7 et seq.), havii^been read by Prof. Preston in June 

 of that year. 



" He heie offers an explanation of the quartet form analogous 

 to Prof. FitzGerald's suggestion that the ionic orbits will vibrate 

 with definite period about their position of rest in the magnetic 

 field, and records the observation that, for corresponding lines 

 of the natural groups or series of Kayser and Runge, the theo- 

 retic condition obtains. 



" He further, in this communication, suggests a law which 

 apparently involves the far-reaching conclusion that structural 

 features in common are possessed by chemically related atoms. 

 Although such a conclusion commends itself for other well-known 

 reasons, so direct a proof as is involved in ' Preston's Law ' had 

 hardly been hitherto adduced. This law he illustrates by the 

 case of three substances : — magnesium, cadmium and zinc. The 

 law expresses the fact that not only are similar lines in the series 

 of chemically related elements similarly modified by the mag- 

 netic field, but that the value 



is, in these cases, the same. The importance of this law, 

 whether the theory of ions is accepted or not, is accentuated in 

 M. Cotton's able review of the present state of the investigation. 

 (Le Phenomene de Zeeman, Scientia, October 1899.) 



" In the course of these researches Prof. Preston was gradu- 

 ally increasing the strength of his magnetic field, and lately was 

 using a magnet built to his own design attaining a field of 

 40,000 C.G.S. units. The design of this magnet is original, but 

 a published account of it has not yet appeared. 



" With the aid of this powerful instrument he was able to 

 announce, in the addendum to his paper in the Trans. R.D.S. 

 last referred to, that the quartet form hitherto noticed is really a 

 sextet, the outer lines being feebly bipartate, that the normal 

 triplets are not further resolved, and that the diffuse triplets are, 

 in fact, nonets, consisting of unequally luminous lines. 



*• Contemporaneously with these papers, others, mainly re- 

 capitulatory, appeared in the Philosophical Magazine and in 

 Nature. 



" A clear and lucid account of the whole matter is also to be 

 found in the report of Prof. Preston's lecture before the Royal 

 Institution, appearing in Nature (vol. Ix. June 22, 1899). 



" It is satisfactory to find how clearly in his later papers 

 Prof. Preston recognises the pioneer work of Dr. G. J. Stoney 

 (upon whom this Society conferred the Boyle Medal last year). 



" We have in the foregoing referred to Prof. Preston's leading 

 work and to that specially qualifying him to receive the Boyle 

 Medal, but before this work appeared, he was already known as 

 a writer on science of high standing. His text-books on Light 

 and Heat are at once characterised by a clear and pleasant style 

 and a thorough grasp of the subjects treated. These works may 

 each fairly claim to be advances on any previous English text- 

 books of the same scope. 



" Prof. Preston is also the author, in part, of a well-known 

 text-book on 'Spherical Trigonometry,' as well as of several 

 scientific papers, which are all marked by his ingenuity and 

 thoroughness." 



AH who have known Thomas Preston will share in a 

 feeling more deeply founded in human nature than the 

 regret for his " unfulfilled renown "—regretful as this 

 assuredly is. The loss of his friendship will be felt even 

 more keenly than the strong sense of the great loss science 

 lias experienced by his early death. 



GEORGE JAMES SYMONS, F.R.S. 

 CCIENCE in general, and Meteorology in particular, 

 •-^ has lost an ardent worker by the death of Mr. G. J. 

 Symons, F.R.S., the indefatigable founder of the British 

 Rainfall Organisation. He had been enjoying good health 

 until the evening of February 14, when he was stricken 

 with paralysis, from which he never rallied, but passed peace- 

 fully away on the afternoon of Saturday last, .March 10. 



George James Symons was born at Pimlico on August 

 6, 1838. While quite a lad he became interested in 

 NO. 1585, VOL 61] 



natural phenomena, and very early commenced regular 

 weather observations. His love ^f this became so strong 

 that his parents were ultimately obliged to permit him to 

 follow this branch of science, although he was warned by 

 such a high authority as Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., that 

 " science would not pay." He served under Admiral 

 FitzRoy in the Meteorological Department of the Board 

 of Trade for a few years, and then began his life-work of 

 collecting rainfall statistics. His first annual volume of 

 "British Rainfall " was for the year i860, and this con- 

 tained records from 168 stations. How this work grew 

 under his guidance and ceaseless energy is seen from the 

 fact that in the volume for 1871 he published records 

 from 1504 stations ; for 1 881, from 2145 stations ; for 1891, 

 from 2799 stations ; while for 1898 he was able to publish 

 records from 3404 stations. * The information and data 

 thus collected soon became of great assistance to 

 civil engineeis and others engaged in questions 

 of water supply. In the course of time Mr. Symons 

 became the greatest authority on the distribution of rain- 

 fall over the country, and was an indispensable witness 

 at Parliamentary Committees on questions of water 

 supply. The Albert Medal of the Society of Arts was, 

 in 1897, awarded to Mr. Symons "for the services he 

 had rendered to the United Kingdom by affording to 

 engineers engaged in the water supply and the sewage 

 of towns a trustworthy basis for their work, by establish- 

 ing and carrying on during nearly forty years systematic 

 observations (now at over 3000 stations) of the rainfall 

 of the British Isles, and by recording, tabulating, and 

 graphically indicating the results of these observations 

 in the annual volumes published by himself." It is a 

 satisfaction to know that the rainfall organisation will 

 not cease with his death, but will be carried on by his 

 co-adjutor, Mr. H. Sowerby Wallis. 



In 1866 he commenced the publication of Symons's 

 Monthly Meteorological Magazine, which has been con- 

 tinued up to the present time. 



Mr. Symons was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society in 1856, and served on the 

 Council from 1863. He was President in 1880-81, and 

 Secretary in 1873-79, and also in 1882-99. He was elected 

 President a second time in January last, in view of the 

 Jubilee of the Society taking place during the present 

 year ; but, owing to his being seized with paralysis, he had 

 to resign this ofifice at the following Council meeting. 

 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1878, 

 and at the last anniversary meeting was made a member 

 of the Council. 



Mr. Symons was a regular attendant at the meetings 

 of the British Association, and served on several of the 

 committees. He was also for some time on the Council 

 of the Royal Botanic Society and of the Sanitary Institute. 

 He was also Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. 



Mr. Symons was a keen bibliophile, and had a very 

 valuable meteorological library. Among his publications 

 may be mentioned : Merle's MSS. " Consideraciones 

 Temperiei pro 7jannis 1337-1344" ; "Rain — how, when, 

 where, why it is measured" ; " Pocket Altitude Tables" 

 (3 editions); "The Floating Island of Derwentvvater" ; 

 and " The East .Anglia Earthquake." He was a most 

 genial and amiable man, and had the power of drawing 

 around him a vast number of friends and voluntary 

 observers, who will deeply mourn his loss. 



NOTES. 



Prok. E. Fischer, of the University of Berlin, has been 

 elected a correspondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 

 the Section of Chemistry. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Dr. 

 William Marcet, F.R.S., at Luxor, Egypt, in his seventy-second 

 year. The death is also announced of Mr. William Thorpe, a 

 vice-president of the Society of Chemical Industry. 



