N'ov. 4, 1 836] 



NA TURE 



serious that he was unable to take solid food. When at 

 last he was prevailed upon to consult a physician, it was 

 discovered that he was sulTering from cancer of the throat. 

 He Scink rapidly during the last two or three months, and 

 the inevitable end of his disease came on October 21. 

 He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery on the 25th. 



Such were some of the chief outward and visible stages 

 in Frederick Guthrie's career. Perhaps the first thing to 

 strike anyone on making his acquaintance was his strongly- 

 marked individuality. His opinions were, much more 

 than most men's, of his own forming, not simply picked 

 up as they floated about in talk or in print. And his 

 conduct followed his opinions : he did what he thought 

 right, with very little regard to the consequences to him- 

 self, or to what might be thought of him by others. His 

 scientific knowledge, too, was, much more than most men's, 

 of his own getting, the result of his own observation and 

 experiment. In others, also, he valued even a small scrap 

 of self-gotten knowledge more than a large store of 

 secondhand erudition. In this respect he sometimes 

 went to excess, and, though not without mathematical 

 knowledge, he was somewhat apt to underrate the scien- 

 tific importance of the work of mathematical physicists 

 in comparison with that of pure experimentalists. But 

 even this mistake had root in the thoroughly sound con- 

 viction that it is the duty of a man of science to be a 

 strictly faithful interpreter of the observed facts of Nature, 

 and that, the further he ventures in the field of theoretical 

 deduction the more room is there for self-deception. He 

 seemed, however, sometimes to forget that phenomena 

 do not present themselves to the natural philosopher 

 ready clothed in words, and that all that can be expressed 

 in human language is the conception formed in the mind 

 of the observer. The true function of the mathematical 

 physicist is in reality, as Kirchhoff has pointed out, 

 nothing more than to find out the simplest statements 

 that are consistent with observation. 



Guthrie's devotion to science was complete and single- 

 minded. He had a deep conviction of the value and 

 dignity of any kind of genuine, self-forgetful, scientific 

 work, and he knew how, if necessity arose, to claim the 

 dignity due to a sharer in such work. But from aflecta- 

 tion or vanity he seemed entirely free. His wonderful 

 gift of humour and power of terse and telling speech 

 made it easier for him, than for most men, to put down 

 any approach to impertinence or presumption ; but, 

 except where he felt that a lesson was needed, he was 

 most considerate of others, both in speech and action. 

 He delighted in playful mystifications (see, for e.xample. 

 Prof, von Xudeln's letter in N.^TURE, vol. xxi. p. 185, on 

 the "Potential Dimensions of Ditlerentiated Energy"), but 

 his drollery was never ill-natured. He was generous and 

 kind-hearted in the extreme ; as a friend he was steady 

 and faithful. Although essentially a man of science, he 

 had considerable literary attainments, and had an excel- 

 lent knowledge of both German and French, while his 

 powers of literary expression were remarkable. It will 

 not astonish those who knew his ability in this direction 

 to learn that as a young man he published (under the 

 Jioin-dc-pltiine of Frederick Cerny) a poem called " The 

 Jew," and a metrical drama called '' Logrono." 



With regard to Guthrie's scientific position and achieve- 

 ments it may be remarked, in the first place, that he 

 belonged to a class that was probably commoner in his 

 generation, and in that which preceded it, than it is likely 

 to be in the future — that, namely, of physicists who 

 served their time as chemists. Until within the last 

 twenty years or so the only accessible school of experi- 

 mental science was a chemical laboratory, and conse- 

 quently, for the last two generations, a large proportion of 

 the most prominent physicists have been men who began 

 their scientific career as chemists. Among many others, 

 it may suffice to mention Faraday and Regnault. Guth- 

 rie's first published investigation seems to have been his 



dissertation on taking his Ph.D. degree ; it was entitled 

 " Ueber die chemische Constitution der iitherschwefel- 

 sauren SalzeundiiberAmyloxydphosphorsaure." Inthesix 

 years between taking his degree and going to Mauritius, 

 he published eight or tea papers, mostly on points of or- 

 ganic chemistr) — one of them, on the amyl group, contains 

 the discovery of the therapeutic action of nitrite of amyl, 

 and suggestions for its introduction into the pharma- 

 copoiia. His first physical investigations were published 

 while he was in Mauritius, and included two researches 

 into the formation of drops and one into the properties of 

 bubbles. It is striking evidence of the reality of Guthrie's 

 love of science and of his force of character that, under 

 circumstances in almost all respects adverse to scientific 

 work beyond what was required by his official position, 

 he should have persevered steadily with his experiments 

 and produced papers of great value. While in Mau- 

 ritius he also published a paper on the iodide of iodam- 

 monium, and a pamphlet on " The Sugar-Cane and Cane- 

 Sugar," and made complete analyses of the waters of the 

 principal rivers of the island. After his return to Eng- 

 land his scientific work was almost wholly confined to 

 physics, but it is perhaps significant of the side from 

 which he approached the study that the subjects that 

 occupied him principally had relation to what is usually 

 called in the text-books " molecular physics." Among 

 many other researches the following may be specially 

 mentioned : on the thermal conductivity of liquids ; 011 

 approach caused by vibration ; on stationary vibrations of 

 liquids in rectangular and circular troughs ; on salt-solu- 

 tions and attached water (the results of this investigation 

 were contained in a series of eight papers, and included 

 the discovery of the substances named by Guthrie " cryo- 

 hjdrates," a class of solid hydrated salts which melt with- 

 out change of composition, in most cases below 0° C.) ; 

 on " Eutexia," an investigation into the properties, 

 especially the melting-points, of metallic alloys and mix- 

 tures of salts. 



As a teacher, it has been well said of Guthrie by one 

 who knew him well, that " he did not desire merely to fill 

 his pupils' heads, but to make them use them " — a far 

 more valuable but more difficult result to attain. A large 

 proportion of his pupils consisted of " certificated science 

 teachers," and for these he introduced a system of in- 

 struction, consisting largely in making them construct 

 with their own hands the apparatus required for their 

 experiments, which was probably more fruitful (especially 

 in the case of this particular class of pupils) than any 

 other that he could have adopted. 



In 1873 Guthrie issued to his scientific friends a charac- 

 teristically worded little circular, which resulted in the for- 

 mation, early in the following year, of the Physical Society 

 of London, a Society which now includes, with very few 

 exceptions, all the leading physicists of the United 

 Kingdom. Through his intervention, permission was 

 obtained from the Lords of the Committee of Council on 

 Education for the meetings of the Society to be held in 

 the Physical Laboratory of the Science Schools at South 

 Kensington. He chose for himself the somewhat onerous 

 post of "Demonstrator" to the Society, and in this 

 capacity placed his time and the resources of his labora- 

 tory freely at the disposal of those who wished to exhibit 

 experiments or apparatus at the Society's meetings. It 

 was not till 1884 that he consented to become 

 President. 



In the early part of the present year he gave a course 

 of three lectures before the Society of Arts on " Science 

 Teaching," in which he advocated with equal vigour and 

 humour the advantages of a training in experimental 

 science. 



Besides the poetical works already mentioned, and his 

 numerous papers on scientific subjects, Guthrie was the 

 author of the following books : — " Elements of Heat and 

 Non- Metallic Chemistry," "Electricity and Magnetism," 



