324 
NALTORLE 
[FEBRUARY 4, 1904 
ACCOMMODATION OF SCOTTISH SCIENTIFIC 
SOCIETIES. 
“T-HE movement for the accommodation of the 
Scottish scientific societies in the Royal Institu- 
tion Building, Princes Street, Edinburgh, to which we 
referred in the issue of December 3, 1903, has advanced 
a stage. On Tuesday, January 19, Mr. Graham 
Murray, M.P., the Secretary for Scotland, received a 
representative deputation consisting of the council of 
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and delegates specially 
appointed by the other societies interested. The deputa- 
tion was introduced by Sir John Batty Tuke, M.P. 
Lord Kelvin, Sir John Murray, Sir William Turner, 
Sir E. Rowand Anderson, Lord Playfair, Mr. Bernard, 
Lord McLaren, and the Lord Justice Clerk made brief 
statements on behalf of the more important societies 
represented, each speaker devoting attention to some 
particular aspect of the scheme. The concentration of 
scientific effort, the practical unification of important 
libraries, which under present conditions could not be 
utilised to anything lilke their full extent, the enlarged 
scope the scheme would give for the encouragement 
of scientific research, the educative value of such a 
scientific centre upon the community at large, were 
all touched upon. It was also pointed out that the 
movement had its origin in the recent report of the 
departmental committee on the constitution and func- 
tions of the Board of Manufactures, and could not, 
of course, be realised until the schools of art at pre- 
sent accommodated in the Royal Institution were other- 
wise provided for. The Secretary for Scotland in his 
reply expressed his sympathy with the object aimed at, 
although it was impossible for him to commit himself 
at present to the furtherance of any scheme which 
might naturally follow the acceptance of the depart- 
mental committee’s report. It must be remembered 
that there were other interests to be considered, and 
that it was impossible adequately to provide for all 
claims without removing from the Royal Institution 
some of the parties already in possession. It might be 
possible at a less cost and more efficiency to find 
accommodation for societies like the Royal Society in 
another building with a less expensive site. At the 
same time he felt that this was the fitting time for 
bringing forward a scheme of the kind advocated, when 
the whole question must be faced and the present 
chaotic condition of affairs done away with. Referring 
to some of the practical details which would have to 
be taken up in carrying out the scheme, the Secretary 
for Scotland asked if the societies interested had con- 
sidered the question of the up-keep of the building, 
and Sir William Turner replied that that question had 
been gone into very fully, and that they were prepared 
to accept much the same conditions as held in regard 
to Burlington House and the various societies housed 
there, that is, that they were prepared to act the part 
of tenants if the Government would do the outside or 
landlord’s repairs. Mr. Graham Murray concluded by 
saying that he would do his best to impress upon the 
Government the necessity of dealing adequately and 
generously with what had long been a clamant want. 
C1 Gaak: 
DR. GEORGE SALMON, F.R.S. 
EORGE SALMON was born in Dublin on 
September 25, 1819, and having received his 
school education in Cork, he entered Trinity College, 
Dublin, and graduated in the year 1838 alter a dis- 
tinguished university career. He was elected to a 
scholarship in classics in 1837, and obtained first 
senior moderatorship at the honour degree ex- 
amination in mathematics 1838. In 1840 he 
in 
was awarded the Madden’s premium, having, in | 
NO. 1788, VOL. 69] 
the opinion of the examiners at the fellowship 
examination, ‘‘ best deserved to succeed if another 
fellowship had been vacant.’’ In the year follow- 
ing he was elected to a fellowship. In due course 
he became tutor, his duties being to lecture to classes of 
ordinary students twice a day during term, to assist 
in examining and to advise and direct his pupils. 
With a large chamber of pupils, such as Salmon’s, this 
work, though not severe, is liable by its frequent in- 
terruption to render it extremely difficult for a tutor to 
carry out any systematic original work; but Salmon 
knew the value of time, and with his wonderful power 
of abstraction he produced most of his forty-one mathe- 
matical papers and his four great mathematical 
treatises during his twenty-five years’ service as tutor. 
In 1858 he was appointed Donegal lecturer, and taught 
engineering students the calculus in addition to his 
tutorial work. In 1859 he proceeded to the degrees of 
B.D. and D.D., and he published in 1861 his first 
series of sermons preached in the Chapel of Trinity 
College. 
It was natural that a man of Salmon’s originality 
and versatility should have desired freedom from the 
irksome duties of a tutorship, and in 1862 he was re- 
garded as the fitting successor to Graves in the chair 
of mathematics. Preferring, however, the Archbishop 
King’s lectureship in divinity, which fell vacant about 
the same time, and believing he was certain to be 
elected to this lectureship, he did not present himself 
as a candidate for the professorship. An unfortunate 
mistake and the claims of seniority disappointed him, 
and it was not until 1866 that election to the regius 
professorship of! divinity relieved him from his long 
tutorial labours. He was obliged to resign his fellow- 
ship, and with it his right to cooption by the board, 
which would have occurred in 1876. 
This is not the place to speak of his work as pro- 
fessor of divinity, of his treatises on theological sub- 
jects, of the splendid services he rendered the Church 
of Ireland during the years following the disestablish- 
ment in the revision of the Prayer-boolx and in matters 
of finance. Suffice it to say that Salmon’s powers 
seemed to increase with his years, that his capacity 
for hard work remained intact almost to the end of 
his life, until, in his latest written words, ‘* my chariot 
wheels are now running so heavily that you need not 
be surprised to hear at any time that they have ceased 
to move at all.’’? 
In 1888, on the death of Jellett, Salmon was admitted 
provost of Trinity College by Letters Patent. He was 
then in his sixty-ninth year, and he held the office 
longer than any provost since the Right Hon. Hely 
Hutchinson, who died in 1794. It was no light task 
to which he was called. The governing body of the 
University of Dublin consists of the provost and the 
seven senior fellows. The provost is appointed by the 
Crown. The senior fellows attain their position by 
virtue of seniority, the sole condition having been their 
election to a junior fellowship on the results of an 
examination. This board transacts practically all the 
business of the university. Its members hold the 
offices of vice-provost, registrar, bursar, senior 
lecturer, senior dean, catechist, auditor and senior 
proctor. In addition it not unfrequently happens that 
a member of the board is librarian, or that he takes 
part in the examination for fellowship or in some other 
important examination. There is nothing to corre- 
spond to the Cambridge syndicates unless it be the 
medical school committee or the academic council, 
and of the former a member of the board is the chair- 
man, while at least three senior fellows and the pro- 
vost have belonged to the latfer since its inception in 
1874, the provost being the ex officio chairman-~ 
From letter to the Bishop of Chester dated January 12. 
