OF ROBERT ANGUS SMITH. 93 



natural science and mathematics might have detracted 

 from the catholicity of mind and wide culture which were 

 prominent characteristics of his. He afforded, indeed, a 

 conspicuous example in favour of the principle held by the 

 conservatives in education, viz. that a thorough classical 

 training affords a basis on which a superstructure,, what- 

 ever it may consist of, may be confidently erected, though, 

 on the other hand, it would be hazardous to found general 

 rules on such exceptional cases as his. Soon after leaving 

 Griessen, Dr. Smith published a translation of Liebig^s 

 work ' On the Azotised Nutritive Principles of Plants.^ 

 After his return to England, at the end of 1 841, he was 

 engaged in various capacities with families of distinction, 

 and at this time the early inclination towards a theological 

 career seems to have revived, and was probably only given 

 up when it was found that circumstances, such as the 

 necessity for a preliminary education at an English Uni- 

 versity, placed an insuperable barrier in the way. In the 

 year 1843 we find him working as assistant to Dr. Lyon 

 Playf air, with whom he had become acquainted at Giessen, 

 and who was then engaged as Professor of Chemistry to the 

 Manchester Royal Institution. At Manchester Dr. Smith 

 finally settled down ; here, with the exception of intervals 

 of travel, he spent the rest of his life, and here all his 

 most important work was done. With characters com- 

 bining many-sidedness with great intensity of purpose it 

 is often a mere accident that determines the direction the 

 energies shall take. Such an accident occurred in the 

 career of Dr. Smith. The Health of Towns Commission, 

 of which Mr. Edwin Chadwick was the moving spirit, 

 instituted inquiries in Manchester as in other towns. 

 Dr. Playfair was much interested in these inquiries, and 

 Dr. Smith was engaged in conducting some portion of 

 them, their object being more practical than scientific. 



