614 
NATURE 
[AprIL 28, 1904 
The philosophical faculty of the University of | 
Heidelberg marked its sense of the importance of the 
occasion by renewing the diploma of doctor of philo- 
sophy granted half a century ago, and addresses were 
also presented from the Victoria University of Man- 
chester, the old students, the universities of London, 
Cambridge, Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, 
Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, and Montreal, 
University College, London, Yorkshire College, King’s 
College, London, University College, Sheffield, 
Durham College of Science, University College, 
Dundee, Royal Society, British Association, Literary 
and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Chemical 
Society, Society of Chemical Industry, German 
Chemical Society, Bunsen Gesellschaft, Physikal. 
Verein, Frankfort, Kon. Gesellschaft, Gottingen, 
Pasteur Institute, Lister Institute, Owens College 
Chemical Society, Chemical Society of Rome, the 
Dutch Chemists, American Academy, American Philo- 
sophical Society, and American Chemical Society. 
A large number of personal congratulations were 
also received from scientific men all over the world. 
To each of the addresses a separate reply was made, 
and in these concise and pointed speeches, each | 
embodying some fresh line of thought, the audience 
was delighted to recognise the best possible proof of 
the continued mental and physical vigour of the 
speaker. 
SIR CLEMENT LE NEVE FOSTER, F.R.S. 
“THE tidings of the death of Sir Clement Le Neve 
Foster on April 19 brought to a wide circle of 
friends a great shock as well as sincere sorrow, for all 
hoved that he might enjoy for many years the final 
stage of an active and honoured career. His death is 
a serious blow to the public service to which his life 
was devoted. 
Born at Camberwell on March 23, 1841, he was the 
second son of the late Peter Le Neve Foster, who for 
a quarter of a century was secretary of the Society of 
Arts. He received his preliminary education at 
Boulogne-sur-Mer, and obtained his degree of Bachelor 
of Science of the University of France at the age of 
sixteen. In 1857 he entered the Royal School of 
Mines, and in two years achieved the remarkable dis- 
tinction of securing the associateship in the mining, 
metallurgical and geological divisions, as well as the 
Duke of Cornwall’s scholarship and the Edward 
Forbes medal. He then proceeded to the mining 
college of Freiberg, in Saxony, which at that time was 
supreme in its special field. In 1860 he received from 
Sir Roderick Murchison an appointment on the Geo- 
logical Survey, and for five years was engaged in 
manning the Wealden beds of Kent and Sussex, and 
the Carboniferous rocks of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. 
In 1872 Le Neve Foster was appointed H.M. 
Inspector of Mines. The new Metalliferous Mines 
Regulation Act, which had just been passed, was 
received with a certain amount of  disfavour 
by the Cornish miners, and the work of the 
first inspector was particularly difficult. The severity 
of which Le Neve Foster was sometimes accused bore, 
however, remarkable fruit. The average death rate 
from mine accidents in his district was reduced from 
2 per rooo during the first three years of his inspector- 
ship to 1-3 per 1ooo during the last five. In 1880 
he was transferred at his own request to the North 
Wales district, where he remained until his retirement 
in 1901. His twenty-nine annual official reports afford 
clear evidence of the mass of work that he got through, 
and indicate the many ways in which the laws for 
the regulation of mines have been improved in con- 
No. 1800, VOL. 69] 
sequence of his efforts. In 1890 he was, on the death 
of Sir Warington Smyth, appointed professor of 
mining at the Royal College of Science and Royal 
School of Mines, and continued to hold that appoint- 
ment until his death. He largely improved the system 
of instruction, and insisted upon adequate attention 
being given to practical training. 
He was a frequent contributor to the Proceedings of 
the many scientific societies of which he was a member, 
and in spite of the exigencies of his official appoint- 
ments he found time for literary work. He published 
in 1867 a translation from the Dutch of P. van Diest’s 
book on the tin deposits of Banca, and in 1876, with 
Mr. W. Galloway, he translated from the French 
Callon’s ** Lectures on Mining.’’ He also wrote the 
article on mining in the ‘‘ Encyclopedia Britannica.” 
In 1894 he published his great work on ‘‘ Ore and 
Stone Mining,’ the first systematic English treatise 
on the subject, of which the fifth edition has just been 
issued; and at the beginning of this year he published 
a smaller volume on ‘‘ Mining and Quarrying,’’ 
noticed in this issue of Nature (p. 603). 
In 1895 Le Neve Foster issued his first annual 
report upon the mineral industry. This formed 
an entirely new departure in official literature, 
and embodied the results of a vast amount of 
labour and technical skill in comparing the mineral 
industries of the United Kingdom with those of other 
countries. Its value was so much appreciated that his 
services as editor were retained by the Home Office 
after his retirement from the post of inspector. 
Sir Clement was elected a fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1893. He was a juror at the Paris Exhibi- 
tions of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900, and was created a 
Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1889. He also 
acted as juror at the Inventions Exhibition in 1885, 
and at various other less important exhibitions. He 
served upon various departmental committees on 
mineral statistics, open quarries, slate mines, and 
explosives in mines, as well as upon the Royal Com- 
missions for the Chicago Exhibition and for the St. 
Louis Exhibition. His faithful and long continued 
services to the public weal were officially recognised 
by the knighthood conferred upon him on the King’s 
birthday last year. 
No man in this, or perhaps in any other, country 
has rendered more conspicuous services to metalliferous 
mining than Le Neve Foster did. In his twenty-nine 
years of Government mine inspection he did much to 
ameliorate the lot of the miner, and by his teaching 
and writings he secured for metal mining, that had 
previously been practised mostly as an empirical art, 
a scientific basis. B. SEB: 
A large number of men of science attended the 
funeral of Sir Clement Le Neve Foster on Friday 
last, among them being the following representatives 
of scientific societies and other bodies :—Sir Norman 
Lockyer, president of the British Association; Sir 
George Armytage, Sir W. T. Lewis, and Prof. Hull, 
representing the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies; 
Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., Dean of the Royal College 
of Science, and Mr. J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., Director- 
General of the Geological Survey of the United King- 
dom, representing the Royal Society; Mr. H. B. 
Woodward, representing the Geological Society; Mr. 
H. Jennings and Mr. Charles McDermid, representing 
the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy; Mr. Aubrey 
Strahan, representing His Majesty’s Geological Survey, 
and Mr. Morant’s private secretary, representing the 
permanent secretary of the Board of Education. The 
Royal College of Science and the Royal School of 
Mines were represented by the council and some of the 
students. 
