XX 



on respiration, was the friend after whom Miller was named. Miller's natural 

 simplicity of character probably received its outward expression from this 

 early contact with influential members of the Society of Friends. It was 

 at Ackworth that he first distinctly remembered having acquired a taste for 

 science, and a desire to devote his life to its cultivation ; and this was not 

 so much from the chemical lectures, or rather the chemical experiments, 

 which were shown to some of the boys, as from the fact that Miller was 

 occasionally invited to look at the stars through a telescope belonging to 

 one of the masters. These early impressions bore fruit in the chemistry 

 of the stars, with which his name is now associated. At the age of 15 he 

 was apprenticed to his uncle, Mr. Bowyer Vaux, one of the honorary 

 surgeons in the General Hospital at Birmingham, of which, during nearly 

 twenty years, his father, Mr. William Miller, was secretary. After five 

 years he entered the medical department of King's College, London, 

 where his superior knowledge of chemistry over that of the other students 

 attracted the attention of Professor Daniel), who more than once expressed 

 his surprise in the inquiry, " Where did you get your knowledge from ? " 

 One of those opportunities that occur in the lives of most people, but are 

 taken advantage of only by superior men, occurred in connexion with the 

 chemistry lectures. Miller had no taste for surgical practice, and preferred, 

 if possible, to get some employment in the laboratory of a manufacturing 

 chemist, rather than become a medical practitioner. Indeed he did per- 

 form some analyses for the Messrs. Chance, while in treaty with them for 

 more permanent employment. But the laboratory assistant at King's 

 College having been disabled by illness, Daniell engaged the services of 

 Miller ; and when the ofiice of Demonstrator in the laboratory became va- 

 cant in 1840, he was appointed to the post. It should be mentioned that 

 in 1839 Miller obtained the W^arneford Prize for the encouragement of 

 theological studies among medical students, and in 1840 he passed a few 

 months in Liebig's laboratory at Giessen. In 1841 he became Assistant 

 Lecturer for Professor Daniell, and also took his degree of M.B. in the 

 University of London, proceeding to M.D. the following year. He also 

 assisted Professor Daniell in various scientific inquiries, and conducted the 

 experiments on the electrolysis of saline compounds, his name being as- 

 sociated with that of Daniell in the paper that appeared in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions for 1844. In the following year he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, and on the death of Professor Daniell suc- 

 ceeded to the vacant chair of Chemistry in King's College. The writer 

 of this notice was engaged in assisting Professor Daniell to bring out the 

 third edition of his well-known work entitled " Meteorological Essays," and 

 on the sudden death of the author he requested Dr. Miller to cooperate 

 with him in completing the work, to which he readily assented. Dr. 

 Miller was engaged about this time in some experiments on Spectrum 

 Analysis. They were conducted in a sort of lumber-room below the seats 

 of the Chemical Theatre, and formed the subject of a paper which was 



