alle NATURE 
225 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1016. 
SIR HENRY ROSCOE. 
The Right Honourable Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe. 
A Biographical Sketch. By Sir Edward 
Thorpe. Pp. viii+208. (Longmans, Green 
and Co., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
= pe over ten years ago “The Life and Experi- 
ences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe” was 
“written by himself.” Now we have this “bio- 
graphical sketch,” a substantial volume, about 
half the size of the “ Experiences,” from the very 
competent pen of his distinguished former student 
and lifelong friend, Sir Edward Thorpe. Roscoe 
the chemist and the man is therefore shown as he 
appeared to himself on the one hand, and to his 
friends on the other. As for his enemies or 
detractors he had none, and therefore there is 
nothing further to be said. He has so recently 
been taken from us and his genial, kindly per- 
sonality was so familiar that to the present 
generation this good man’s memory will outlive 
his life so long as any who knew him remain. 
The present volume contains an excellent and 
characteristic photographic portrait of obviously 
recent date. For generations to come there are 
fortunately two good pictures which show him in 
the prime of life, one by Burgess in the Common 
Room at the Owens College, the other by 
Herkomer in the possession of the family. 
Readers of the present volume are reminded that 
Henry Enfield Roscoe was born in London at 10 
Powis Place, Great Ormond Street, on January 7, 
1833. At the time of his death, December 18, 
1915, he was, therefore, within a few days of his 
eighty-third birthday. His father died at the 
early age of thirty-eight, when the son was only 
four years old. The future chemist was brought 
up by his mother, to whose good sense he owed 
much in the encouragement she gave to his inclina- 
tion towards scientific pursuits. 
After working under Williamson at University 
College and taking his B.A. degree, he went to 
Heidelberg, accompanied by his mother and 
sister, and found a place in the laboratory of 
Bunsen, then at the height of his fame. The in- 
fluence of the master served to emphasise Roscoe’s 
natural bent towards what may be called Operative 
chemistry, in preference to the theoretical or 
speculative aspects of the science. Returning to 
England after three years, having in the meantime 
secured his Ph.D., he set up a private laboratory 
in Bedford Place, Russell Square. But this ven- 
ture was of short duration, for in the following 
year he was appointed to succeed Frankland, the 
first professor of chemistry in the newly founded 
Owens College in Manchester, and there he re- 
mained for thirty years. 
From this time forward Roscoe was a diligent 
and successful investigator of chemical problems, 
and something over sixty papers stand in the 
catalogues to the credit of his name, alone or in 
association with some of his students. It is prob- 
_able, however, that,’ interesting as were some of 
his subjects of inquiry, his name will be carried 
NO. 2456, VOL. 98] 
| 
down to posterity less in connection with chemical 
discovery than with what must be regarded as 
the great achievement of his life, namely, the 
creation of the first provincial school of chemistry 
in this country. Previously to 1860 there had 
been great schools of medicine with which 
chemistry was associated in a subordinate position, 
and great individual professors, such as Graham, 
Williamson, and Frankland, but with the excep- 
tion of Hofmann at the Royal College of 
Chemistry, they do not seem to have possessed 
that power of attraction which draws together a 
crowd of enthusiastic students. But this is what 
Roscoe did, for although not specially distin- 
guished as a philosophical chemist, he had that 
remarkable gift of insight which enabled him 
to select for his students subjects of inquiry 
which always led to definite results. He 
had, moreover, some of the personal charac- 
teristics which belonged to Bunsen, his own 
teacher, of whom he speaks in glowing terms of 
respect and affection. As a man of science 
actively engaged in research Roscoe’s career came 
practically to an end when he entered Parliament 
in 1886. Ass everyone knows, the remaining thirty 
years of his life were by no means idle or employed 
unprofitably, for he was busy in all sorts of 
educational movements, in the offices he held as 
treasurer and chairman of the Lister Institute and 
as Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, 
and in other directions in which he exercised his 
great influence to the benefit of science and of 
his country. 
As to his home life, it is, indeed, true, 
as the author of the volume before us remarks, 
that “the hospitality of Woodcote is a treasured 
memory to numbers of Roscoe’s friends.” And 
there is one feature of his which is less noticed 
in the book than it deserves, and that is his quaint 
humour and love of a joke. It was great fun 
to hear him telling an amusing story to a certain 
lady visitor who, he knew quite well, would never 
see the point of it. 
An incident may be mentioned which does not 
appear in the book. At the International Con 
gress of Applied Chemistry in Rome in igo6 
Roscoe was very naturally chosen as honorary 
president for the next meeting, to be held in 
London in 1909, Ramsay being the acting presi- 
dent. And being rightly recognised as the doyen 
of the English members of the Congress then in 
Rome, it was Roscoe who, among the King’s 
guests at the Quirinal, had the honour of attend- 
ing the Oueen to dinrer and sitting on her right 
hand. Moissan, the eminent French chemist, sat 
on her Majesty’s left. W.. AT: 
rae ut 
_GROUP-THEORY. 
Theory and Applications of Finite Groups. By 
Profs. G. A. Miller, H. F. Blichfeldt, L. E. 
Dickson. Pp. xvii+390. (New York: John 
Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London: Chapman and 
Hall, Ltd., 1916.) Price 17s. net. 
‘PRE English student is fortunate in having, in 
his own language, a series of excellent 
treatises on the difficult theory of groups. The 
N 
