IX 



in which Professor Kelland took much interest was the Life Asso- 

 ciation of Scotland, of which he was one of the original founders. 

 In connexion with the business of that institution he was induced 

 in 1858 to take a trip to America, and while there he improved 

 the occasion by making himself better acquainted with Transatlantic 

 science and the state of education in the primary and secondary schools 

 of the United States. A few of the results of his observations he gave 

 to his friends in the shape of a small volume entitled " Transatlantic 

 Sketches," which is written in a light conversational style. As stated 

 above, Professor Kelland was a clergymau of the Church of England, and 

 he occasionally officiated in St. James' and other Episcopal Churches. 

 Preaching, however, was, in the opinion of his friends, one of the few 

 accomplishments in which he did not excel. Professor Kelland was 

 twice married — first to Miss Pilkington, of Dublin, and subsequently 

 to Miss Bos well, the only daughter of the late Captain Boswell, R.N., 

 of Wardie. His widow, three sons, and two daughters survive him. 

 In politics he took little interest ; and it is said that the only occasion 

 on which he was known to vote was at the first School Board election, 

 when he voted for the lady candidates. 



The class-room was undoubtedly Professor Kelland's proper sphere. 

 As a teacher he has been equalled by few and surpassed by none of 

 the many colleagues alongside of whom he has laboured. In the 

 Royal Society he was always regarded as an authority on mathematical 

 and physical subjects. His notes, though not numerous, were much 

 valued, and his criticisms were listened to with respect. But he had 

 little ambition to shine as an explorer, whatever his capacity might be. 

 Fate had made him a teacher, and to that work he bent all his energies. 

 His function was less to make discoveries than to methodise, adapt, 

 and disseminate the discoveries of others. This implied that he 

 should be a student as well as a teacher, and one chief cause of his 

 success in the latter capacity was his preseverance in the former. 

 None who witnessed it can have forgotten the enthusiasm and delight 

 with which he first assimilated and then reproduced in his class the 

 doctrine of Quaternions developed by Sir William Rowan Hamilton 

 upwards of twenty years ago. Then he was both student and teacher 

 at the same moment. The members of his class were his fellow- 

 students. His morning demonstrations were instinct with the fresh- 

 ness of the evening's discoveries, and his face beamed with delight 

 and his eye twinkled with triumph as his rapid fingers worked out the 

 beautiful results on the board. As a teacher his one fault was that he 

 rushed forward somewhat too rapidly for the majority of his hearers. 

 One reason of this was, that he assumed rather too high a standard of 

 attainment on the part of entrants to the University. Another reason 

 of it was that he had a large amount of work to do and little time in 

 which to do it. He therefore carried on the few rather than the 



