July 30, 1908] 



NA TURE 



;oi 



the Cambridge botany school on researches connected wiih 

 photosynthesis in green plants; an account will be given 

 by Miss Harriette Chick, of the Lister Institute, of the 

 important laws governing the rate of killing of bacteria, 

 brought out by the scientific study of disinfection ; and 

 some consideration will be given to the application of 

 these laws to higher types of plants; Mr. Balls, of Cairo, 

 will contribute a novel theory of the mechanism of mitosis ; 

 Mr. A. G. Tansley will read a paper on the woodlands of 

 southern England, giving an account of the work done 

 under the auspices of the central committee for the survey 

 of British vegetation, by which a natural classification 

 of these woods has been arrived at. There will be a dis- 

 cussion on the origin of dicotyledons, and the section will 

 also join in a discussion organised by Section D on the 

 determination of sex in animals and plants. It is expected 

 that various distinguished foreign biologists. Prof. Bateson, 

 and other zoologists will take part. Prof. Keeble, of Read- 

 ing, will deliver the semi-popular lecture, giving an account 

 of his interesting researches on the symbiosis between 

 unicellular algas and the marine worm Convoluta. 



Section L (Educational Science). — Meetings for dis- 

 cussions and the reading of papers will be held in the 

 mornings only. Visits have been arranged to selected 

 schools on four afternoons. September 3 : Presidential ad- 

 dress. Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S. ; the outlook : a grand 

 experiment in education. Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S. ; 

 education under local authorities, Mr. R. Blair ; schools 

 for defective children, Mrs. Burgwin. September 4 : Dis- 

 cussion on education in relation to rural life ; openers, 

 Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S., Prof. D. Houston, Miss Lilian]. 

 Clarke, the Most Rev. Dr. Foley. Dr. W. J. M. Starkie, 

 Mr. George Fletcher, and Mr. C. H. Bothamley. Practical 

 studies in elementary schools : report of subcommittee on 

 experimental science studies, Mr. \V. M. Heller. Sep- 

 tember 7 : Discussion on tests of educational efficiency (ex- 

 amination and inspection), openers, Mr. T. P. Gill and 

 Dr. C. W. Kimmins ; discussion on training in teaching, 

 openers, Miss C. P. Tremain and Mr. C. Macgregor ; open 

 discussion on (i) note-taking and reports on work, (2) clear 

 speaking and reading aloud, (3) motive and purpose in 

 experimental work. September 8 : Discussion on types of 

 education and their relative values, openers. Dr. G. ."Xrch- 

 dall Reid and Prof. E. P. Culverwell ; discussion on experi- 

 mental inquiry in education, openers. Prof. J. J. Findlay 

 (with Mr. P. Sandiford) and Prof. J. A. Green ; curricula 

 of secondary schools : report of subcommittee on the 

 sequence of science subjects, Mr. G. F. Daniel!. 



LORD BLYTHSWOOD, F.R.S. 



THE number of g^reat territorial magnates who 

 take a practical interest in science is no doubt 

 laiger than appears at first sight, but it is neverthe- 

 less regrettably small. Many of our landed gentry 

 ars unfitted by inclination and teinperament to play 

 any part in the game of politics, and their education, 

 though it has not been without a certain valuable 

 influence on character, has not, as a rule, 

 been such as to encourage and develop that 

 healthy and keen interest in natural things which 

 is shown by almost all boys at an early age. 

 Thus too many men, who have been placed by fortune 

 above the necessity of earning their living in business 

 or in the professions, are driven to spend their days 

 in sport of one kind or another from year's end to 

 year's end. At the best they lead a life, healthy it 

 mav be in a physical sense, but productive of no par- 

 ticular good to the community or the world at large, 

 and detrimental to the strong plea which can be put 

 forward for the e.xistence of a leisured and broadly 

 cultured class. 



Happily there are and have been notable excep- 

 tions, and among these the late Sir .Archibald Camp- 

 bell, Lord Blvthswood, must be accorded a high place. 

 Born in 1S35, the son of .Archibald Campbell of 

 Blvthswood, he was of direct descent from the old 



Douglases who played such a prominent part in the 

 English and Scottish wars of the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, and was a member of the semi- 

 regal family of the Campbells, who, whatever faults 

 and foibles may have been rightly or wrongly attri- 

 buted to them, have been conspicuous in the Scottish 

 stiuggle for civil and religious freedom. In early life 

 he was, as befitted such an ancestry, both soldier and 

 politician. He saw active service with the Scots 

 Guards in the Crimea, where he was severely 

 wounded, and continued in the army until the death 

 of his father in 1S6S. He then retired with the rank 

 of lieutenant-colonel, to devote himself during the 

 remainder of his life to work for the auxiliary forces, 

 to politics (he was a keen Conservative), and to 

 science. 



He was married in 1S64 to the elder sister of the 

 present Lord Carrington, and held the offices of Lord 

 Lieutenant of the County of Renfrew and of aide-de- 

 camp to the late Queen Victoria. He sat in Parlia- 

 ment for West Renfrewshire from 1883 until 1S92, 

 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Blvths- 

 wood. He w-as elected to the Fellowship of the Koyal 

 Society in 1907. For some time Lord Blvthswood had 

 been in failing health, and the early part of the 

 picsent summer was spent by him and Lady Blyths- 

 wood in the south of France. On July 8 he died of 

 heart failure at his seat of Blvthswood, near Renfrew. 



For a long time Lord and Lady Blythswood acted 

 as hosts to members of the Royal family when they 

 visited the west of Scotland for public functions; he 

 entertained the King and Queen when — as Prince and 

 Piincess of Wales— they visited Glasgow to lay the 

 foundation stone of the new university buildings at 

 Gilmorehill in 1S70, Queen Victoria when she opened 

 the Glasgow Exhibition in 1888, and the Prince and 

 Princess of Wales when they opened the new Natural 

 Philosophy Institute and the new medical buildings of 

 th^ university in April of last year. 



But though Lord Blythswood had many interests, 

 and devoted much time and attention to them all, his 

 ruling passion was for physical science. He estab- 

 lished at Blythsw-ood a laboratory and workshop, 

 which he equipped with the best instruments which 

 could be procured for investigation, and with tools of 

 the most refined description for the construction of 

 apparatus and for the realisation of his own ideas 

 regarding astronomical and physical machinery. 



He employed skilled experimenters and tnechanics 

 to aid him in the work of construction and observa- 

 tion, and he obtained some notable results. He was 

 a strenuous worker with his own hands at the bench; 

 indeed, one of the most striking exhibits of the Glas- 

 gow Exhibition of 188S was some fine wheelwork (for 

 a magnificent astronomical driving clock), which had 

 been cut by him in an almost incredible number of 

 hours of continuous work. 



Lord Blvthswood's earlier work was mainly con- 

 structional, and valuable .service was rendered to 

 science by the improvement of tools and processes 

 which resulted. .\ very important instrument, his 

 great dividing engine, is perhaps the most striking 

 outcome of this part of his scientific activity. As it 

 now stands, this instrument is capable of ruling dif- 

 fraction gratings with very great accuracy to as many 

 as 14,400 lines to the inch, and many gratings of 

 excellent optical quality have been made with it; but 

 it has taken twenty-five years of modification and 

 improvement to bring it to its present state. By a 

 carefully designed and ingenious motion the diamond 

 point is" brought very gradually into contact with the 

 surface to be ruled, so that disaster from its breaking 

 is entirely avoided. Surely the skill and patience 

 required for such work is as well deserving of recog- 



NO. 2022, VOL. 78] 



