880 : William Hallowes Miller. 
tend the construction of the new Parliamentary standards of 
length and weight to replace those which had been lost in the 
fire which consumed the Houses of Parliament in 1834, and 
to Professor Miller was confided the construction of the new 
standard of weight. His work on this important committee, 
described in an extended paper published in the Philosophical 
Transactions for 1856, was a model of conscientious investiga- 
tion and scientific accuracy. Professor Miller was subse- 
quently a member of a new Royal Commission for “examining 
into and reporting on the state of the secondary standards, and 
for considering every question which could affect the primary, 
secondary and local standards”; and in 1870 he was appointed 
a member of the “Commission Internationale du Métre.” His 
services on this commission were of great value and it has 
been said that “there was no member whose opinions had 
greater weight in influencing a decision upon any intricate and 
delicate questions.” 
Valuable, however, as were Professor Miller's public services 
on these various commissions his chief work was at the Uni- 
versity. His teacher, Dr. William Whewell, afterwards the 
