JUNE 3, 1915] 
NATURE 377 


Stenhouse. His most noteworthy early discovery 
perhaps is that involved in the use of iodine as a 
catalyst in chlorinating. He was an 
friend of Kekulé when the latter was in London. 
sympathetic nature and very versatile, he inspired 
confidence not only by the breadth and accuracy 
of his knowledge but also by his calm and clear 
judgment. His worth was soon recognised, so 
that he was consulted constantly by the firm of 
De la Rue and Co. long before he was induced to 
give up science and enter upon an industrial career 
in its service ; ultimately he became a partner in the 
firm and remained in it until 1902 The Stamp 
department was his chief charge; in this he found 
full opportunity for the exercise of his scientific 
ability and great technical skill as well as of his 
artistic gifts. He was elected a fellow of the 
Royal Society in 1866. He joined the Chemical 
Society in 1859; he was its foreign secretary 
from 1869 to 1885 and president in 1885-87. He 
was a Ph.D. of Géttingen, an LL.D. of St. 
Andrews and a D.Sc. of Manchester. He became 
naturalised thirty-seven years ago, on his mar- 
riage to an English lady. He had two daughters, 
one of whom and his wife survive him. 
When the Lawes Agricultural Trust was con- 
stituted by his old friend Sir John Lawes twenty- 
six years ago, he was appointed a representative 
of the Royal Society on the Committee and be- 
came the treasurer; he held the office until the 
present year, when he retired, in spite of the 
urgent requests of his colleagues that he would not 
sever the connection; but he thought that German 
residents in this country, whether naturalised or 
not, were so seriously affected by the outbreak of 
the war that it was not desirable that a person 
in his position should be a member of or take part 
in the affairs of any public concern or enterprise. 
He consistently remained aloof from everything. 
Although his time was fully occupied by_ his 
business avocations while in the firm of De la Rue 
and Co., he never lost his interest in his science; 
since his retirement he worked regularly «in 
the Davy-Faraday laboratory of: the Royal Insti- 
tution. The work he did, which has been pub- 
lished by the Chemical Society, is remarkable as 
proof of his exceptional skill as a manipulator 
and of special value to science. Only recently he 
completed the investigation of the peculiar bloom 
which appears on the leaf and flower-stalk of a 
number of species of primula; he made the strik- 
ing discovery that this consists of flavone, the 
parent substance of the great group of yellow 
colouring matters present in plants, a substance | 
only prepared in the laboratory previously. 
Dr. Miller was also a noted horticulturist and 
botanist; he was long an active member of the 
scientific committee of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. Beginning thirty years ago with a sandy 
waste at Camberley, Surrey, he developed one of 
the most remarkable and beautiful gardens in the 
country. His knowledge of plants was quite 
exceptional, as it had long been his habit to grow 
them in order that he might know them; his 
garden, therefore, was always of special interest. 
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intimate | 


A man of large and noble mind, he was torn 
with distress by the outbreak of the war, which 
he looked upon as a downfall of civilisation; he 
| deplored his having lived to see it and there is 
A man of great personal charm of manner, of | 
little doubt that his end was greatly hastened by 
recent events. 

DR. aa W. CROFTON, F.R.S. 
De M. CROFTON, whose death was 
Healy announced in Nature, was born in 
Dublin in the year 1826, the son of Rev. William 
Crofton, of Sligo, a clergyman of the Estab- 
lished Church. Together with his brother Henry, 
who was two years his junior, he entered Trinity 
College, Dublin, in the year 1843 under the tutor- 
ship of Dr. Graves, who afterwards became pro- 
fessor of mathematics in the college, and later 
Bishop of Limerick. Diligent students both 
brothers must have been, for at the moderatorship 
examination in 1847 Morgan, who had captured 
on the way all the undergraduate prizes open 
to him, came out first of his class in mathematics, 
while Henry headed the list in classics, a double 
event rare, if not unique, in the history of the 
College. 
When the Queen’s University of Ireland was 
established, Dr. Crofton was appointed professor 
of natural philosophy at Queen’s College, Galway, 
a position which he resigned in 1853 after three 
years’ occupation. He was afterwards professor 
of mathematics and mechanics in the Royal Mili- 
tary Academy, Woolwich, from 1870 until 1884, 
and on his resignation was appointed to a fellow- 
ship of the Royal University of Ireland, retaining 
that position until 1895. Dr. Crofton published a 
treatise on the “Elements of Applied Mechanics ” 
(London, 1881), and contributed several papers 
on geometry and mechanics to various journals, 
but his chief interest was in the mathematical 
theory of probability. There is a paper of his in 
the Phil. Trans..of the year 1868 “on the theory 
of local probability applied to random straight 
lines,” and another in the Phil. Trans. of 1869 “on 
the proof of the laws of errors of observations.” 
He wrote also the chapter on mean value and 
probability in Williamson’s “Integral Calculus,” 
and the article, ‘ Probability,” in the ninth edition 
of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
Dr. Crofton was elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1868. S. B. KELLEHER. 

NOTES. 
WE notice with much regret the announcement of 
the death, on May 31, in his eighty-first year, of Sir 
A. H. Church, K.C.V.O., F.R.S., formerly professor 
of chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts. 
MEN of science view with especial satisfaction the 
appointment of Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, K.C.B., 
F.R.S., as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty. So far 
as we are aware no precedent exists for the nomina- 
tion of a fellow of the Royal Society as First Sea Lord 
of the Admiralty. Born on January 21, 1855, Sir 
Henry entered the Navy at thirteen, became Lieu- 
