137 



PROMINENT YORKSHIRE WORKERS. 



I.— HENRY CLIFTON SORBY, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., etc. 



(plate XIII.) 



It is proposed to give occasionally in these pag'es a brief 

 account of the life of some of our leading- Yorkshire workers. 

 The selection of the first of the series has not been in the least 

 diflScult. In Dr. H. C. Sorby it can be safely said we have a 

 scientific man, whose standing- as such is of the highest possible. 

 His reputation is world wide. During the past sixty years he 

 has devoted some attention to almost every branch of natural 

 and applied science, and everything he has touched has been the 

 better for it. Probably no living man has accomplished so 

 much in such a variety of ways as has the subject of ovir sketch, 

 and few can boast of having occupied more official positions in 

 so many scientific societies than has he. Besides all this, 

 Yorkshiremen will for ever respect his name for the keen interest 

 he has always taken in the scientific welfare of Yorkshire, and 

 particularly the city in which his life has been spent — Sheffield. 

 In the affairs of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union he has at all 

 times taken the keenest interest — has helped its work in every 

 way in his power, and the Union conferred upon him the greatest 

 honour in its power by asking him to be the first to occupy the 

 Presidential chair. 



Dr. Sorby has been fortunate in being able to devote his 

 whole life to scientific research — an opportunity which is 

 open to many but rarely taken advantage of. To a prize he 

 obtained at school, entitled ' Readings in Science,' he partly 

 attributes the desire he subsequently had for investigation. 

 Later he had for a tutor one who was well informed in mathe- 

 matics, chemistry, and anatomy, whose influence also left its 

 impression upon the scholar. In addition to the subjects 

 named. Dr. Sorby devoted some attention to optics and water- 

 colour drawing, and all these he found of the greatest possible 

 value to him in his subsequent career. 



In 1897 he delivered an address to the Sheffield Literary 

 and Philosophical Society, entitled ' Forty Years of Scientific 

 Research,'* in which he points out that he worked in his 

 young days ' not to pass an examination ' but to qualify himself 

 for a career of original investigation. That such a course 



* I am indebted to this for much of the information here given. 

 1906 May I. 



