1916-17.] Obituary Notices. 389 
one of his firm’s early specifications which read as follows : “ Proper accom- 
modation shall be provided for the workmen, and there shall be not more 
than two navvies in one bed.” 
He read several papers to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and 
frequently took part in the discussions upon others. He was elected a 
member of the Institution in 1877, and after serving for some time on the 
Council was chosen as President in 1914, being the first engineer practising 
in Scotland to hold that office. 
While President he had the satisfaction of persuading the Council to 
refrain from practising one war economy which might have had the effect 
of interrupting the Institution’s annual grant to the National Physical 
Laboratory. 
While holding the office of President, Blyth was asked by the War 
Office to preside over a Commission, to be nominated by himself from 
leading members of the Institution, to advise as to the best designs, 
material to be used, and method of construction to be adopted in connec- 
tion with the hutted camps throughout the country. Most of the then 
existing hutted camps were inspected, and a voluminous report was pre- 
pared and handed to the War Office for future guidance. 
He was also the first Chairman, and was largely intrumental in the 
formation, of the Metropolitan Munitions Committee, but failing health 
ultimately compelled him to resign that position. 
It was probably a professional brother who paraphrased the first 
Psalm thus: — 
“ That man hath railway business 
Who walketh all the day 
In converse with rough working men, 
And keeps in Blytli’s way.” 
Arising out of an arbitration in regard to the available rainfall at the 
head waters of the river Tweed, he was joint author of a paper published 
by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In this and another nearly similar 
arbitration, where Parliament had decreed that a series of rain gaugings 
were to be taken for a limited number of years, he readily joined in a 
recommendation ro the authorities concerned that these gaugings should 
be continued as a means of adding to the available data upon this very 
important subject. 
In regard to University matters, Mr Blyth always regretted that science 
degrees in engineering were only created some years after he had finished 
his college course. 
He was a member of a committee in raising a fund for duplicating the 
Natural Philosophy Chair in Edinburgh University, and he was a hearty 
