249 
FREDERIC NEWTON WILLIAMS 
(1362-1923). 
Frederic Newton Williams was born in Brentford on March 
19, 1862, where his father was in practice as a doctor. Frederic was 
educated at Edward Bancroft’s Hospital in London, where he distin¬ 
guished himself in general studies, becoming head boy of the school 
and passing Oxford and Cambridge examinations. Having decided 
to follow the medical profession, he became a pupil of Huxley and 
proceeded to St. Thomas’s Hospital; he then came to Brentford, where 
he succeeded to his father’s practice, having previously taken the 
degrees of L.R.C.P. and L.S.A. While at St. Thomas’s Williams 
took up Botany, which became one of the chief interests of his life. 
The practical aspect of medicine never greatly appealed to him, 
though at first he somewhat specialised in diseases of the throat; and 
although he practised in Brentford and sometimes held local appoint¬ 
ments—at the date of his death he was a Home Office Inspector of 
Factories—he took little pains to develop his practice. He was, 
however, keenly interested in the progress of medicine and surgery, 
frequently attending congresses abroad, and in new remedies and 
appliances; and the writer can speak gratefully of his skill and 
attention on more than one occasion. 
In 1884 Williams became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, among 
whose publications some of his most valuable papers were produced. 
He was a constant attendant and a frequent speaker at the Society’s 
meetings, and was on terms of friendship with many of the Fellows, 
usually spending the evening after the meetings in the company of 
one or more of them. He was very good company and an excellent 
conversationalist, owing to the number of subjects in which he was 
interested; though his statements could not always be taken aw pied 
de la lettre. 
Although as a neighbour for many years I had more opportunities 
than most of studying his character, I find it very difficult to convey 
any definite estimate of his personality. His interests, though, as 
has been said, various, were in certain directions curiously limited. 
The aesthetic side of his character was largely undeveloped; although 
interested in the music of the early composers and of Wagner and his 
school, neither dramatic nor pictorial art appealed to him. He had 
no knowledge either of poetry or fiction, neither of which was repre¬ 
sented in liis library ; he was wont to say that he had never read a 
novel, and the boast, as it appeared to be, seemed to be warranted. 
Although a scoptic in religious matters—he was a member of the 
Rationalist Press Association—Williams was interested in ritual and 
ecclesiastical observances, and in their origin and development; from 
time to time he attended services at Westminster Cathedral and at 
the Orthodox Church in Bays water. It was perhaps on this account 
that in one of his obituary notices Williams was set down as a 
Catholic ; as a matter of fact, he was a Freemason, a member of the 
Grand Orient of France. In politics he was not seriously interested, 
and indeed held neither definite nor settled opinions. 
Jou&nal of 1 Botany. — Vol. 61. [Octodek, 1923.] t 
