458 



NA TURE 



[September 30, 1922 



chemistry in the University of Chicago, and rose 

 through intermediate grades to that of professor and 

 director of general and physical chemistry in 1903. 

 Here his extraordinary gifts as organiser and teacher 

 found ample cope. His "Laboratory Outline of 

 General Chemistry " was published in 1899. since 

 when at short intervals new text-books or new editions 

 flowed from his pen. Each book had in view the 

 requirements of students of a definite stage of develop- 

 ment, and all were characterised by an orderliness 

 of method, combined with an originality of thought, 

 which have made them popular not only throughout 

 the English-speaking world but also as translations 

 in almost every country where science is studied. 

 An even wider field was offered to him in the principal 

 chair of chemistry in Columbia University in the City 

 of New York, where he became director of the depart- 

 ment of chemistry. Here he may be said to have 

 revolutionised the methods of teaching and the organisa- 

 tion for chemical researi h. 



Smith at the outset of his career was an organic 

 chemist, and until 1902 his published papers are all 

 concerned with organic topics, chiefly the chemistry 

 of diketones, the benzoin reaction, and. generally, the 

 action of potassium cyanide as a condensing agent. 

 After igo2 his work is inorganic and physico-chemical, 

 the physical character of his investigations becoming 

 more and more marked with the lapse of years. An 

 admirable series of papers on the liquid and amorphous 

 modifications of sulphur formed the first-fruits of his 

 cultivation of this new field. Chiefly in conjunction 

 with A. W. C. Menzies, now professor of chemistry 

 at Princeton, Smith published a long series of papers 

 on vapour pressures, many new devices for their exact 

 measurement and for the measurement of boiling- 

 points under standard conditions being described. 

 Among the valuable data obtained may be noted the 

 exact determinations of the vapour pressure of mercury 

 from 250 to 435 C. The vapour pressures of dis- 

 sociating substances such as ammonium chloride, 

 calomel, and phosphorus pentachloride were also 

 measured and discussed, particularly in connexion 

 with the unexpected values obtained when the sub- 

 stances were perfectly dry. His scientific merit was 

 recognised by his election to membership of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, and to the Presidency 

 of the American Chemical Society. In 1919 the 

 honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by 

 the University of Edinburgh. 



Smith was a most genial personality, a pleasant 

 companion, and a delightfully amusing talker. He was 

 filled to overflowing with energy, which in the end 

 proved his undoing. A breakdown owing to over- 

 work, complicated by a serious operation, forced him 

 after a year's leave to relinquish his chair, and his 

 death at a comparatively early age deprives his science 

 of a great teacher whose name will not soon be for- 

 gotten. J. W. 



Dr. Sophie Bryant. 

 By the death of Dr. Sophie Bryant in the Alps last 

 month the educational world has lost a great person- 

 ality. As mathematician, philosopher, Irish patriot, 

 suffragist, and, above all, as a teacher and pioneer in 



NO. 2761, VOL. I io] 



education, she had gained distinction in so many fields 

 that it is difficult to give any adequate account of her 

 in a i> " paragraphs. 



Mrs. Bryant in her own person gave the he to the 

 old conception of the unwomanly " bluestocking." 

 Her greatness of intellect was shot through with a 

 warmth of genial humanity and an endearing charm 

 that those who knew her can never forget. Sin came 

 of a scholarly stock : her father, Dr. Willock, a clergy- 

 man of the Church of Ireland in Co. Fermanagh, 

 worked in the cause of education there. After his 

 death the family moved to London, and his brilliant 

 daughter distinguished herself by obtaining, at the age 

 of sixteen, first-class honours in the Senior Cambridge 

 Local Examination, with distinction in mathematics, 

 and an Arnott scholarship at Bedford College. It was 

 only after her marriage and early widowhood that she 

 bee, mie acquainted with Miss Buss, and, having joined 

 the staff of the North London Collegiate School 111 1875, 

 was one of the first to take advantage of the opening 

 of London University degrees to women. After 

 matriculating in honours in 1.879 (with the distinction 

 of being placed second on the list), in two years she had 

 obtained the B.Sc. with honours in mathematics and 

 moral science, and three years later was the first woman 

 to gain the doctor's degree of London University, her 

 subject being mental and moral science. She used 

 to relate an amusing story about this : — one of the two 

 examiners wrote to his colleague. " There's a very 

 good man in ; " the other, who knew Mrs. Bryant, 

 replied, " Your man's a woman ! " 



Ten vears later, in 1894, Mrs. Bryant was appointed 

 to sit on the Royal Commission for Secondary Educa- 

 tion, of which Lord Bryce was chairman. In 1900 she 

 became a member of the Consultative Committee of 

 the Board of Education, and in the same year took 

 her seat on the Senate of London University. From 

 1908 to 1914 she was a member of the London Education 

 Committee. 



During all this time she was, in a very real sense, a 

 "guide, philosopher, and friend" to her pupils at the 

 North London Collegiate School; the writer of this 

 article is one of many whose debt to her in this respect 

 is beyond all reckoning. When in 1895 Mrs. Bryant 

 succeeded Mis.-, Buss as head-mistress, her mathematical 

 teaching perforce devolved to a large extent on her 

 colleagues, but she remained the guiding moral force 

 in the school, explicitly through her Scripture lessons 

 and weekly addresses, but implicitly in all that she did. 

 She was a pioneer in the revitalising of Scripture teach- 

 ing, bringing to bear on religious instruction the same 

 psychological insight and width of outlook by which 

 she and her fellow-reformers brought life into the dry 

 bones of the educational curriculum. Of this work 

 she has left a permanent memorial in her books : 

 " The Teaching of Morality in the Family and the 

 School," " The Teaching of Christ in Life and Con- 

 duct," " How to read the Bible in the Twentieth 

 Century," " Moral and Religious Education." 



Mrs. Bryant was a devoted Irishwoman, and perhaps 

 no honour pleased her more than the degree of doctor 

 of literature, honoris causa, bestowed upon her by 

 Trinity College, Dublin, when first it opened its degrees 

 to women. Her love of Ireland also found expression 

 in her writings : " Celtic Ireland," " The Genius of the 



