15« 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[July 1. 1898. 



BOOKS EECEIVED. 



The Making of fi Dais(/, " Wheat out of Lilies," ami other Studies 

 in Platd Life. By E. Huglies-Gibb. (ariffin.) Illustrated. 28. 6d. 



Bintx , in London. By W. H. Hudson, r.z.s. (Longmans.) 

 Illustrated. 128. 



Essai Siinthetique sur la 'Formation ilu Si/sikme Holaire. G-al. 

 Lafouge. (Martin Freres, Chalons-sur-Mame.) Illustrated. 



FreoH Self-Taughf. By C. A. Tliimm. (Marlborough & Co.) Is. 



The IVonilerfnl Cenlnrti : its Successes and its Failures. By 

 Alfred Russel Wallace. (Sonnensehein.) Portrait. 73. 6d. 



Creation Records. By G-eorge St. Clair. (David Nutt ) lOs. 6d. 



Elemenlari/ Practical Zoologt/. By Frank E. Beddard, F.B.S. 

 (Longmans.) Illustrated. 2s. 6d. 



Krom.fkoj) : Colour Photography. By Frederic Ives. (Pboto- 

 chromoscope Syndicate, Limited.) Illustrated. 



English National Education. By H. Holman. (Blackie). 2s. 6d. 



Elements of Descriptive Astronomy. By Herbert A. Howe. 

 (Philip & Son.) Illustrated. 



Smithsonian Report: U.S. National Museum, ISDi). 



A Catalogue of Earthquakes on the Pacific Coast, 1760 to 1897. 

 By Ed. S. Holden. (Smithsonian Collections.) 



Ackworth Birds. By Major W. B. Arundel. (Gurney & Jackson.) 



Eemarkahle Eclipses. By W. T. Lynn. (Stanford.) 6d. 



Weather Lore. By Richard Inwards, p.b.a.s. (Elliot Stock.) 

 Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 



A Text-Book of Entomology. By Dr. Alpheus S. Packard. 

 (Macmillan.) Illustrated. IBs. net. 



Introduction to Algebra. By G. Chrystal. (A. & C. Black.) .5s. 



Types of Scenery and their Influence on Literature. By Sir 

 Archibald Geikie. Romanes Lecture, 1898. (Macmillan & Co.) 2s. 



By the death of Lord Playfair, which occurred on Sunday, 

 29th May, science — more particularly applied science — 

 has lost one of her chief ornaments. Lyon Playfair was 

 born in Bengal, in May, 1819, his father at that time being 

 Inspector-Oeneral of Hospitals out there. He studied 

 chemistry under Graham at Glasgow, and subsequently 

 in London, in the capacity of assistant, after that distin- 

 guished chemist migrated southwards. Playfair next 

 became a pupil of Liebig's at Geissen, in Germany, several 

 of whose works he translated into English ; and on his 

 return to England he undertook the management of a large 

 calico print works. About this time (1842) he travelled 

 through England on a lecturing tour with Liebig, and was 

 thus instrumental in arousing public attention to the 

 advantages of combining practical science — especially 

 chemistry — with operations in agriculture. The immediate 

 effect of this tour was to make chemistry a popular science, 

 and to induce colleges to open laboratories ; hence it was 

 that the Royal College of Chemistry was founded in 1815, 

 since known as the Royal School of Mines and Normal 

 School of Science, and, finally, as the Royal College of 

 Science. In the early days of the history of this college, 

 Dr. Playfair, as Professor of Chemistry, had to content 

 himself with a laboratory fitted up in the cellar-kitchen 

 of a house in Duke Street, Westminster. In 1851, after 

 the Great Exhibition, he became Gentleman Usher to the 

 Prince Consort — an appointment due to the Prince's desire 

 to have about him a sort of scientific adviser. Probably 

 no other man of the time was so influential in formulating 

 the scheme which was announced from the throne at the 

 opening of Parliament in November, 1852, when Her 

 Majesty stated ; " The advancement of the Fine Arts and 

 of Practical Science will be readily recognized by you as 

 worthy the attention of a great and enhghtened nation. 

 I have directed that a comprehensive scheme shall be laid 

 before you, having in view the promotion of these objects, 

 towards which I invite your aid and co-operation." Thus, 

 in the following year the Department of Science and Art 

 was born, and Playfair became one of the joint secretaries. 

 In 1S58 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and Prince 



Alfred being among his pupils. He published two lectures 

 in 1870 — ^" On Primary and Technical Education" — and 

 had the suggestions then made been carried into effect we 

 should not have had to wait twenty years for the adoption 

 of the technical education scheme. His lordship was 

 always prolific of advanced ideas relative to the practical 

 utility of scientific education ; indeed, but few men, if any, 

 have had a more direct and practical effect on at least the 

 physical well-being of their times. His writings have an 

 eminently practical trend ; thus — " On the Nature and 

 Causes of Decay in Potatoes," " On the Gases evolved from 

 Iron Furnaces," " On the Food of ]\Ian in Relation to his 

 Useful Work," "The Disposal of the Dead," " Petroleum 

 as the Light for the Poor"; and among the subjects he 

 was appointed to inquire into in the interests of the public 

 may be mentioned the herring fisheries and the cattle 

 plague. He was one of the early Presidents of the Chemical 

 Society ; became associated with the Civil Service by what 

 is known as the " Playfair Scheme '' ; he was a Privy 

 Councillor ; and served in the capacity of Postmaster- 

 General, Chairman of Ways and ]\Ieans in the House of 

 Commons, and Vice-President of the Council. Among the 

 numerous honours showered upon him from nearly all the 

 learned societies of Europe, in addition to those of our 

 own country, may be mentioned. Commander of the Legion 

 of Honour, Commander of the Austrian Order of St. 

 Joseph, Knight of the Portuguese Order of Conception, 

 Knight of Wurtemberg, and Knight of the Swedish Order 

 of the Northern Star. 



Mr. Osbert Salvin, f.r.s., who died on the 1st June, 

 will be greatly missed among ornithologists, for there were 

 but few naturalists whose opinions were more frequently 

 sought on controversial points in his line of study. He 

 was born in 1835, and educated at Trinity Hall, Cam- 

 bridge, where he graduated as Senior Optime in the 

 Natural Science Tripos of 1857, after which he undertook 

 several exploration expeditions in Algeria, Guatemala, 

 Central America — localities which will always be asso- 

 ciated with his name. In 1874 he accepted the Strickland 

 Curatorship in the University of Cambridge, and filled that 

 office till his father's death in 1888, to whose estate at 

 Hawksfold, near Haslemere, he succeeded. Mr. Salvin 

 will be perpetuated in literature in connection with 

 " Biologio Centrali Americani," " Catalogue of the Strick- 

 land Collection, ' and his numerous papers on birds, par- 

 ticularly humming birds and petrels. 



We regret to record the death of ;\Ir. Herbert Sadler, 

 F.R.A.S., who was for many years a very useful contributor to 

 this magazine. Born on the 14th of May, 1856, he was the 

 eldest son of the Rev. Prebendary Sadler, and he died on 

 the 1st of June at the comparatively early age of forty-two. 

 His education was commenced at Sherborne School and 

 completed at Cambridge, where he distinguished himself 

 as a linguist — particularly in Hebrew. His astronomical 

 work was mainly connected with double stars, on which he 

 was an authority ; and, in collaboration with Mr. Latimer 

 Clarke, he compiled a book on this subject. Mr. Sadler 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 

 November, 1876. The deceased gentleman fully appre- 

 ciated the beauties of nature, and was devotedly attached 

 to animals and flowers. As an instance of his enthusiasm 

 for astronomy, it may be mentioned that Mr. Sadler 

 learnt the Russian language for the sole purpose of availing 

 himself of astronomical literature in that language. 



[Mr. A. Fowler, k.k..\.s., Demonstrator of Astronomy in 

 the Royal College of Science, has kindly undertaken to 

 supply matter for the column, "Face of the Sky, ' which 

 Mr. Sadler sustained so long and so well.! 



