Walter Frcmk Raphael Weldon. 1860—1906. 
3 
Huxley meant to Wcldon; the feeling of affectionate reverence did not spring 
from intellectual appreciation. It had far more its source in the influence of a 
strong character on a sympathetic character. And when we turn to Weldon him- 
self, his relation to his friends and pupils was not purely that of a keen strong 
intellect; his best and greatest influence arose from the strength of character, that 
subtle combination of force and tenderness, which led from respect for the master, 
to keenest affection for the man. 
If then we are to realise his life, it cannot be by a strict adherence to an 
appreciation of his published work. Some account of his stock, his early environ- 
ment, and his temperament becomes needful, and the value of such an account lies 
in the help with which any life spent in single-eyed devotion to the pursuit of truth 
provides us, when we have ourselves to form our creed of life, and to grasp that 
science is something more than one of the many avenues to a competency. It 
must be in this spirit, therefore, that Weldon's dislike to the biographical is in a 
certain sense, not forgotten, but frankly disregarded in these pages. 
II. Stock and Boyhood. 
It would be impossible in a journal like Biometrika, devoted to the considera- 
tion of the effects of inheritance and environment, to pass by the striking 
resemblance of Raphael Weldon to his father Walter Weldon. The facts of Walter 
Weldon's life are given in the Dictionary of National Biograpliy. It appears to 
have been a resemblance not only in intellectual bent, but also in many respects 
in emotional character. Raphael Weldon's paternal grandparents Reuben Weldon 
and his wife Esther Fowke, belonged to the manufacturing middle class. Their 
son Walter Weldon was born at Loughborough, October 31, 1832. Of his child- 
hood we know little, he was as reticent as his son about both his childhood and 
his home surroundings ; there is reason to suppose they were not wholly happy, 
and that shadows from these early years may have cast themselves not only over 
the father, but in a lesser extent have moulded the thought and life of the son. 
Walter Weldon married Anne Cotton at Belper, March 14, 18-54, and shortly after- 
wards, leaving his father's business, came to London, starting as a journalist, writing 
for the Dial and Morning Star. Here he first made the acquaintance of William 
and Mary Howitt, who proved long and intimate friends of the family. From 1860 
to 1864 he edited Weldon's Register of Facts and Occurrences relating to Literature, 
the Sciences and the Arts, and had as contributors a number of men afterwards well 
known in the world of letters. Thus while Walter Weldon's real name was to be 
made in science, his first interests were in literature and art. The steps by which 
Weldon regenerated the manganese peroxide used in the manufacture of chlorine, 
and the extensions he made of his chlorine process up to his death have been well 
described by Dr Ludwig Mond in his address in 1896 to the Chemical Section of 
the British Association. They brought Weldon comparative wealth, though 
nothing compared with the three-quarters of a million pounds his process saved 
this country annually. They also brought him scientific reputation ; a vice- 
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