xl Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



The " Challenger " had revealed for the first time the true or planetary 

 contour of the earth crust, discovering a new world larger than that fraction 

 of the globe hitherto known, the land part of it. It had depicted the plateaux 

 on which the visible continents stand, separated by steep (septal) slopes from 

 the deep ocean floors. Lapworth showed that the calculations based on these 

 discoveries were consistent with and were explainable on his " fold theory." 

 The area of ocean bed below the mean line of the septal slope is equal to the 

 area of the earth -crust above it, while the bulk of ocean water below that 

 level is equal to the crust material projecting above it. 



Stretching from pole to pole, he states, we have three great crests, America, 

 Eur-Africa, and Asia- Australia, with their three troughs the Pacific, Atlantic, 

 and Indian Oceans. At right angles to them are the Arctic Ocean, the 

 Mediterraneans, and the Southern Ocean, with their continental crests in the 

 latitudes of North America, South America, and what, if the theory is sound, 

 must be an Antarctic Continent. The interference of these two sets of 

 master-folds accounts for the position of the great land-masses, their oblique 

 coasts and their triangular terminations, and for the ocean deeps. Analogies 

 to these may be detected in the moon and planets, and in the sun, while, in 

 theory, they may possibly be found passing outwards and upwards, in the 

 spirals of the nebulae and in " that most glorious septum of all the visible 

 creation the radiant ring of the Milky Way." 



There has been no space to dwell on other sides of Lapworth's character or 

 activities. His gift for teaching in the class-room and the field ; his inspiring 

 influence on his co-workers ; bis services to the State in relation to Geological 

 Surveys and Coal Supplies; his bid for the freedom of research from the 

 shackles of convention and authority ; his genius for the grouping of facts, 

 and the scientific use of his vivid imagination as a tool in his own research 

 and a generous stimulant to investigation and discovery in others; his 

 elaborate care that the results of clear thinking should be as clearly and 

 logically expressed in his own writings; and his profound belief in the 

 importance in education and in life of science generally, and his own science 

 in particular, " not only the interpreter of Nature, but also the servant of 

 Humanity." 



Though his friends well know that his work, founded on the truest 

 devotion to scientific principles and a passionate love of truth, can never die, 

 they must henceforth miss the kindly and genial presence, the rich stores of 

 many-sided wisdom and experience, the boundless energy and enthusiasm, the 

 flashes of genius and inspiration, the transparently beautiful character of him 

 who is no more. 



" His life was gentle ; and the elements 

 So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, 

 And say to all the -world, ' This was a man ! ' ". 



The portrait is from a painting by Mr. Bernard Munns and is reproduced 

 with the kind permission of the Council of the University of Birmingham. 



w. w. w. 



