xxxiv Annual Report of the Council. 



the fundamental character of his investigations and methods 

 make his fame secure. 



Fuller details of his work can be found in the Comptes 

 Rendus, February 27, 1899. 



Lyon Playfair, son of Dr. George Playfair, Chief Inspector- 

 General of Hospitals for the Presidency of Bombay, was born in 

 Meerut on 21st May, 18 19. His early education was obtained 

 at St. Andrews, where his grandfather had been Principal of the 

 United College. When fifteen Lyon Playfair went to Glasgow 

 to study medicine, but was attracted to chemistry by the 

 teaching of Thomas Graham. After a short visit to India he 

 returned to England, and studied chemistry under Graham, 

 who had meantime been appointed Professor at University 

 College, London. 



At the age of nineteen Playfair began work under Liebig, 

 at Giessen, and after two years published his first paper. When 

 Liebig came to England on the invitation of the Prince Consort 

 to lecture on "Agricultural Chemistry," Playfair accompanied 

 him as assistant and interpreter, and thus obtained an intro- 

 duction to the Prince. 



For some two years Playfair managed the chemical depart- 

 ment of Messrs. Thomson's print works, at Clitheroe. In 1843 

 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institu- 

 tion, Manchester. The writer has heard Playfair describe the 

 emotion he felt when the venerable Dr. Dalton came to hear 

 him lecture. At Manchester, Playfair joined hands with Joule 

 in a series of researches on " Atomic Volume and Specific 

 Gravity," printed in the early memoirs of the Chemical Society, 

 of which Playfair was an original member. 



In 1846 Playfair was appointed Professor of Chemistry in 

 the School of Mines; in 1858 he was appointed Professor of 

 Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, where he not only 

 greatly improved the laboratory and practical teaching, but was 

 largely instrumental in securing the introduction of degrees in 



