of Edinburgh, Session 1879-80. 343 
success, both morning and evening, a class of between seventy and 
eighty youths. 
Equally skilful was he at home in modelling exquisite ideal forms 
in clay or wax ; or in carving in wood, some of Nature’s choicest leaves 
and flowers, with a delicacy of imitation which made a charming 
approach to the beauty of the originals. 
At other times he would take up his palette and either paint 
landscapes from notes of former continental travel; or produce 
figures, usually of the genre kind, which testified to his possession of 
considerable powers of imagination, and of a lively memory well 
stored with reminiscences of extensive mediaeval reading. Here, 
then, wo have at once powers of multifarious work, extending 
over a very considerable range of the fine arts ; enough of itself to 
have fitted out most successfully for the battle of life, many an 
aspirant for fame. But to all these artistic faculties, Elmslie W. 
Dallas added mastery of not a few branches of hard science ; as 
thus — 
1. He wrote a book on applied Geometry for the use of the School 
of Design, showing complete knowledge of the latest continental 
developments of the subject.* 
2. He prepared papers on the optical mathematics of lenses. 
3. He entered at one time with zeal and fervour into the casting, 
grinding, and polishing of the specula of reflecting telescopes. 
4. He made experiments in improving and adapting compound 
microscopes to special subjects of minute anatomy. 
5. He possessed a considerable range of chemical knowledge, and 
made many experiments, both on large and small scale, in crystallo- 
genesis. 
* In a report upon this treatise submitted to the Board of Manufactures on 
17th June 1860, the late Professor Kelland writes : — “ Regarded as a book of 
reference, which shall contain all the more important solutions of the ordinary 
problems of Practical Geometry, this treatise deserves very high commendation. 
The constructions adopted by the author seem in all cases to have been well 
selected ; and the arrangement, founded on a classification of results, is 
eminently adapted to afford facility of reference.” 
The Professor, however, reported that, considered as an educational treatise, 
he did not think its arrangement suitable for the instruction of youth ; and 
the result has confirmed this judgment. As a class-book, Mr Dallas’s treatise 
has been superseded in the School of Art by a much less elaborate and 
more elementary little book compiled by Mr J. S. Rawle, Headmaster of 
the Nottingham Government School of Art. 
