574 Obituanj— William Topley, RR.8., F.G.S. 



Croydon, Birmingham, as well as of London, and many other 

 centres, large and small, were investigated and reported on by 

 him ; and during the sittings of the late Eoyal Commission on 

 Metropolitan Water Supply he gave most important evidence, 

 besides officially doing much work for the Commission in the 

 preparation of maps and sections for the Report. 



Sanitary Science was another branch of the subject to which 

 he had applied his knowledge. He assisted Sir George Buchanan, 

 in 1867, in a Report on the Distribution of Phthisis as affected 

 by dampness of Soil ; and in 1890 he was appointed chairman 

 of Section III. of the Sanitary Institute, at the Congress held at 

 Brighton. He then delivered an address on Geology in its relation 

 to Hygiene, as illustrated by the Geology of Sussex. 



To the study of Petroleum in its geological aspects he had 

 latterly devoted much time, and he had in view the preparation 

 of a treatise on that subject. 



Mr. Topley's published Papers and Memoirs amount to eighty- 

 two in number ; his Survey Maps to twenty-one sheets, with three 

 vertical and five horizontal sections, illustrating the Northumberland 

 Coal-field and the Wealden area. 



His knowledge, however, was by no means restricted to matters 

 of professional concern. In his early days in the Weald, as 

 Professor Le Neve Foster informs the writer, Mr, Topley was 

 fond of Botanj'', and the two friends collected many specimens 

 for determination at their field-quarters. At that time, too, he 

 was a great reader of the works of Carlyle. Poetry, again, and 

 the Fine Arts were subjects in which at all times he was greatly 

 interested, and with which he possessed more than an average 

 acquaintance. 



Since 1875 Mr. Topley had been Examiner in Geology to the 

 Durham University at the Newcastle College of Science ; he also 

 succeeded the late Mr. Bristow as Examiner in Geology to the 

 Science and Art Department. 



He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1862 ; 

 an Associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1874 ; and 

 a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1888. 



Full of energy until within about three weeks of his death, 

 he had attended the Zurich meeting of the International Geological 

 Congress. There, as an acknowledgment of his services, and a 

 testimony to his wide acquaintance with the subject, the chairman- 

 ship of the Committee on Bibliography was offered to him ; but 

 this he declined on the ground of insufficient acquaintance with 

 spoken French. Leaving Switzerland he subsequently paid a 

 short visit to Algiers, when serious illness overtook him. He 

 had barely time to reach his home at Croydon, ere he M^as 

 prostrated, and he finally succumbed to an attack of gastritis 

 on September 30th, 1894. 



The record of his life is one of constant and unremitting labour. 

 Yet he was ever cheery, and what was perhaps most noteworthy, 

 however much he was occupied, he was always willing, and 

 without any trace of impatience, to be interrupted. 



