Obituary — H. J. Slack. 575 



Finally, in 1894, at the International Geological Congress of Zurich 

 he initiated the formation of the " Commission Internationale des 

 Glaciers," being himself elected representative for Great Britain and 

 the Colonies. 



A wide field had in this way been found for the exercise of his 

 energies, and there seemed every prospect that he might continue 

 to do much good work, when, to the great sorrow of his family and 

 numerous friends, he was carried off, after a short illness, at the 

 age of 65, just as his plans for the universal study of glacier action 

 were beginning to bear fruit. 



Marshall Hall is not to be estimated merely by his writings, 

 which, like his speeches, were for the most part exceedingly brief. 

 His strength rather lay in his faculty of bringing men together, and 

 for this purpose his genial disposition and agreeable manners 

 eminently qualified him. In the heyday of life he discharged these 

 functions in a generous and hospitable spirit. Unfortunately, as 

 time went on, his physical infirmity of deafness, in conjunction with 

 other causes, tended to withdraw him from society at large, though 

 never from social intercourse. To the last he struggled bravely 

 against all these difficulties, frequently busy, but, as he says in 

 a letter written a few months before his death, grown older and less 

 inclined to work. " Not that I am often idle," he remarks ; " things 

 come in all of a heap, then comparative repose, then more work. 

 There will not be much to show for sundry years, even if I got folks 

 to do anything systematic. So far, the New Zealauders are my 

 best men." 



Those sundry years he was not destined to realize, and now that 

 the originator is gone will the work be continued ? 



HENRY JAMES SLACK, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. 

 Born October 23, 1818. Died June 16, 1896. 



Among the pioneers of science, more especially interested in the 

 promotion of microscopical investigations in Biology, the name of 

 Henry James Slack must be engraved upon the annals of tho 

 present century, of which his life had covered nearlj' 78 years. 



H. J. Slack was educated at Dr. Evans' school, North End, 

 Hampstead, and at the age of seventeen he entered a wool-broker's 

 office in the City, in which he speedily became a partner, but he 

 retired in 1846, finding the business uncongenial to his literary and 

 scientific inclinations: he then devoted himself to legal and forensic 

 studies, and was in due course " called," but although a keen 

 debater, and intensely fond of either a scientific or political 

 discussion, he never practised at the Bar. 



Whilst residing at Ilfracombe, in 1849, he wrote several articles 

 which appeared in the Norfh Devon Journal, and in 1852 he 

 became proprietor and editor of the Atlas newspaper, to which 

 Walter Savage Landor contributed some poems on Garibaldi. He 

 also acted as temporary editor of the Westminster Quarterly ; and 

 contributed numerous articles both to newspapers and other 



