PERSONAL. 
apparently inevitably, falls so heavily upon the professorial staffs in 
our Australian Universities. He*paid the penalty of successful admin- 
istration, and his sound judgment, his conspicuous ability in organizing, 
his unusual tact and. invariable courtesy in dealing with others, soon 
made his presence seem indispensable when matters of moment to the 
University were under consideration; and the same qualities brought 
him more and more into big public movements outside the University. 
Yet he did not at any time cease to devote the major portion of his 
energies to his own science, and his research work has been of a brilliant 
standard. Only a very robust constitution enabled him to carry through 
some of ‘his finest investigations, while at the same time discharging 
his teaching duties and bearing a heavy share of general University 
management. One of his lecturers once said good-bye to him in the 
laboratory on a Friday afternoon, and on returning on the following 
Monday morning, found him, as before, hard at work. “One might 
almost imagine you had been here ever since Friday,’ was jokingly 
remarked. “ Well, as a matter of fact, I have,” was the reply. 
During the earlier years, Professor Masson continued, in collabora- 
tion with his assistant, Dr. Kirkland, the investigations he had begun 
in Edinburgh; and later he returned to the comparative study of liquids 
from the points of view of boiling temperatures, molecular volumes, and 
chemical characteristics. Always more attracted by the purely philo- 
sophical side of his subject than by mere laboratory technique, the 
nature of aqueous solutions particularly interested him, and perhaps 
his work of most importance is that published in 1899 upon the velocity 
of migration of ions. It was a very fine contribution to the new theory 
of solutions initiated by Arrhenius in ‘Sweden, and van ’t Hoff and 
Ostwald in Germany, and marked Dr. Masson as one of the leading 
exponents of the new school of thought. There followed a series of 
papers upon allied problems of solutions, chemical dynamics, methods 
of analysis, and other subjects;:and the series, we may hope, is still 
far from completed. In 1903, his work received the chief recognition 
of sterling merit that a scientist can gain from his colleagues, election 
to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Many of his students have 
attained high honours. ‘Two of them—Dr. B. D. Steele, F.R.S., and 
Dr. N. T. M. Wilsmore—are Professors of Chemistry in other Australian 
Universities, and many more are scattered amongst Colonial and Home 
Universities. Quite a large number were engaged in administrative 
and operative positions during the war under the Ministry of Munitions. 
Though the administrative work falling upon every professor in 
an Australian University is: considerable, the chief weight of it is borne 
by the President of the Professorial Board. At Melbourne, the duties 
are such that the President takes the leading part in all legislative work, 
and in a great deal of the executive work of the governing bodies,” 
Council and Senate. Practically, he is the temporary Principal of the 
University. For four years, beginning in 1912; Dr. Masson held this 
office. They were years during which considerable changes were effected, 
not only within the University, but also, through the Schools Board, in - 
its relation to secondary education throughout the State. Dr. Masson 
took the lion’s share in it all, and these years not only fully confirmed 
but increased his reputation for devising bold, constructive policies, 
and for powerful and lucid advocacy of any course he deemed the best. 
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