Slits WILLIAM’ DAW SOM. Fou 
further education in the province, and no educational board was 
complete without him. He was the honorary president of the 
Natural History Society and never missed a meeting or a field 
day, and also identified himself closely with many other socie- 
ties in Montreal, and spared neither time nor labor on their 
behalf. 
Over and above all this he found time to carry out original 
work along several lines, achieving most valuable results, as well 
as to write many popular works on science, more especially in its 
relation to religion. Original investigation he always considered 
to be one of the chief duties and pleasures of a man of science. 
Most of his work along these lines was done during his summer 
vacations; in fact he was led to accept the position of principal 
in McGill chiefly by the fact that the vacations gave him leisure 
and opportunity for work of this kind. 
He was always very progressive in his ideas relative to the 
scope and development of university teaching, and was continu- 
ally urging the endowment of new chairs and the broadening of 
university work, so that all young men wishing to train them- 
selves for the higher walks of life might in the university find 
their needs supplied. As an instance of this it may be men- 
tioned that so far back as 1858 he succeeded in establishing a 
school of civil engineering, which, after a severe struggle for five 
years, succumbed to some unfriendly legislation, only, however, 
to be revived by him in 1871 and developed into the present 
faculty of applied science of McGill University, with its numer- 
ous departments, its full staff of instructors and excellent equip- 
ment. Sir William, furthermore, never ‘hesitated, if funds were 
not forthcoming in sufficient amount for these purposes, to sub- 
scribe large sums out of his own limited private means, and he 
was also the continual helper of needy students desiring to avail 
themselves of the University’s teaching. 
Sir William received the degree of M.A. from the University 
of Edinburgh in 1856, and the degree of LL.D. from the same 
University in 1884. His attainments and the value of his con- 
tributions to science were widely recognized, and he was elected 
