Ill 



method of solving an important differential equation. This is the 

 equation, a particular case o£ which occurs in the theory of the 

 figure of the earth. 



The problems and examples set in the Senate House are generally 

 absorbed into the ordinary text-books, and become the standard 

 examples by which successive generations of students acquire their 

 analytical skill. On looking through Mr. Gaskin's papers, one cannot 

 help noticing how many of his problems have been taken, and may 

 be recognised as old friends. We thus learn one reason at least why 

 his papers were so popular amongst the older writers. They are 

 on all kinds of subjects, and generally are put in a way which shows 

 that he was always on the look-out for a telling question. It seems 

 to have been his custom to put auy new theorem that he discovered 

 in the form of a problem, rather than in that of a paper in a mathe- 

 matical journal. 



E. J. R. 



Dr. Arthur Farre, the fifth son of the late Dr. John Richard 

 Farre, was born in 1811, in the house in Charter, ^use Square in 

 which his father lived and practised for many years. He received 

 bis early education at the Charterhouse. In 1827 he became a pupil 

 at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the following year he entered at 

 Caius College, Cambridge. In the intervals of the University terms 

 he prosecuted his medical studies at St. Bartholomew's. He was a 

 diligent dissector, and as prosector under Abernethy, he prepared 

 subjects for the last course of lectures on physiology delivered by 

 that eminent surgeon. He graduated M.B. at Cambridge at the 

 head of the medical list in 1833, and M.D. in 1841. 



During 1836-7 Dr. Farre lectured on Comparative Anatomy at 

 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in succession to Mr. (now) Sir Richard 

 Owen. From 1838 to 1840 he lectured on Forensic Medicine. 



Dr. Farre contributed to the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1837 

 an elaborate paper with numerous lithographic illustrations, entitled 

 " Observations on the Minute Structure of the Higher Forms of 

 Polypi, with views of a more natural Arrangement of the Class." 

 The publication of this paper was followed by his election as a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society in 1839. To the 'Philosophical 

 Transactions' for 1843 Dr. Farre contributed a paper " On the Organ 

 of Hearing in the Crustacea." 



Dr. Farre's professional career was determined for him when, in the 

 year 1842, he succeeded Dr. Robert Ferguson in the chair of Obstetric 

 Medicine at King's College, and at the same time he was appointed 

 Physician Accoucheur to King's College Hospital. These appoint- 

 ments he retained until 1862, when, on his retirement, he was made 

 Consulting Physician. 



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