236 

tory permitted, passed the examination in both 
languages, and was then able to take the Natural 
Sciences Tripos for his B.A. degree. In this he 
obtained a first class in honours for chemistry in 
1876. This success brought him private pupils, 
and therewith an increased income, very neces- 
sary for him because University posts were all 
meagrely paid; at the same time he took a 
demonstratorship instead of remaining assistant 
to the professor. A short time afterwards he 
succeeded to the place of principal demonstrator. 
Although Sell’s position in the University, 
thenceforward to the.end of his life, was that of 
a demonstrator, it must not be supposed that his 
public teaching was confined to what is usually 
known as demonstrating, which is mainly done 
by the junior members of the staff. On the con- 
trary, inasmuch as chemical science was con- 
stantly expanding and learners increasing in 
number, the lectures had to be more specialised 
and the classes subdivided. The University had 
not the means to multiply the professors, and so 
the staff of the laboratory had to meet the demand 
for more instruction as best they could amongst 
themselves. In this Sell was most serviceable. 
He shirked nothing so that the teaching might, 
so far as lay in his power, keep pace with the 
growth of knowledge, and for many years was 
in reality an effective professor, though in name 
only demonstrator. He was never what is called 
a brilliant lecturer, but was a sound teacher, who 
gained the confidence of his hearers, and attracted 
them by his painstaking sincerity and willingness 
to help anyone in difficulty. 
Sell had been elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society of London in rg00, and took the degree 
of Sc.D. at Cambridge in 1906. An attempt was 
made to get him promoted to the rank of reader 
in chemistry. The University has full power to 
do that, and there were similar applications in 
connection with other branches of learning, and 
Sell’s friends thought that his distinction as a 
chemist, and his long and faithful devotion to 
the service of the University, gave him a claim 
to promotion at that time before any other aspirant 
to the same rank. The appointment of readers, 
however, does not rest with the University at 
large, but with a board composed of representa- 
tives of the various departments of knowledge, 
literary as well as scientific—in fact, with a body 
of specialists chosen as such. As always happens 
in such cases, every member of the board thinks 
that his foremost duty is to see that his own 
particular subject of study gets its share of money 
and places, and magnifies it accordingly, so that 
the board scarcely ever pulls together for the 
general advantage, still less to do justice to an 
individual. No readership was created at that 
time, and all the recognition Sell got was his 
appointment to a University lectureship with a 
stipend of 5ol. a year. 
In his younger days, when it was as much as he 
could do to maintain his family, he could scarcely 
spare time for original investigations; but later, 
when the eee was grown up and needed 
NO. 2374, VOL. 95| 
NATURE 

[APRIL 29, 1915 
less nursing, he was able to show that he had 
the capacity for successful research and the will 
to advance knowledge himself, quite as much as 
to put others in the way of doing it. He will be 
best known by his work on pyridine derivatives, 
to which he was led by previous studies of citr- 
azinic acid. These were the subjects of a large 
number of communications to the Chemical 
Society from 1892 onwards. In some of these 
researches he was assisted by one or other of the 
advanced students in the while 
laboratory, in 
other cases he worked alone. Without going into 
details, it may be mentioned that from pyridine 
he obtained eight distinct chloro-derivatives, and 
from pyridine hydrochloride, in addition, some 
remarkable dipyridyl compounds. Moreover, he 
did not fail to demonstrate the chemical constitu- 
tion of most of the new compounds he discovered. 
Other subjects of interest investigated by him 
were the salts of a base containing chromium and 
urea, and colloid solutions of phosphates. All he 
did bore the stamp of careful accuracy, and he 
impressed on his pupils the necessity for sparing 
no pains to ensure this, if any real advance of 
knowledge were to be made. 
He was so unassuming that only those who 
had known him long found how much was hidder 
under that modest behaviour. It really meant 
that he wished always to do what was right, 
whether convenient or inconvenient, and to believe 
other people to be as good as himself. 

NOTES. 
Dr. H. KamMertinGH Onnes, professor of experi- 
mental physics in the University of Leyden, has beer 
awarded the Franklin medal of the Franklin Institute 
of Philadelphia. 
In spite of the war, the usual Dutch biennial con- 
gress of Science and Medicine was held this year, at 
Amsterdam, the first day being April 8. In 1917 the 
congress will meet at the Hague. 
Dr. J. ALexanDER Murray has been appointed 
general superintendent of the Imperial Cancer Re- 
search Fund, and director of the laboratories, in 
succession to Dr. E. F. Bashford. 
Tue Meteorological Office announces that Mr. J. E. 
Cullum retires from the post of superintendent of the 
Valencia Observatory, Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, Ire- 
land, and that Mr. L. H. G. Dines has been appointed 
to succeed him, as from May 1. Mr. A. H. R. 
Goldie has been promoted senior professional assistant 
in succession to Mr. Dines at the observatory at Esk- 
dalemuir. 
Ar the beginning of the war the Meteorological 
Office ceased the issue of weather charts to the news- 
papers. Announcement is now made that from May 1 
the weather forecasts from the Meteorological Office 
for the several districts of the British Isles will not be 
available for publication. The only forecasts issued 
will be in what is known as the harvest weather fore- 
cast service. These are entirely local in character, 
and. are telegraphed to agriculturists upon Pa 
of the cost of the telegrams. 
