TWO SCIENTISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 172, 23 July 1898, Page 4 (Supplement)

TWO SCIENTISTS.

i Death has r.emoved two men whose labours must have prolonged the lives of thousands of their fellows, Lord Playfair and Sir Robert Rawlinson. Lord Playfair after studying chemistry at St. Andrew's, Glasgow and Giessen, became manager of a large calico print works which he left in 1843 to become Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution at Manchester. His lectures there and his papers on the composition of milk led Faraday to procure him a professorship in Toronto, and the young scientist had taken his berth and packed his trunk when Sir Robert Peel induced him to stay by promising to find a post for him. Young Playfair was soon appointed a member of the Commission to inquire into the sanitary conditions of the crowded factory districts of the North, and the young chemist was thus associated with the commencement of this century's great health movement. From this point onwards his services to his country were 'as versatile as they were valuable. As Chemist to the 'Museum of Practical Geology, as Special Commissioner of the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, as Inspector-General of Government Museums and Schools of Science, as Professor at the University of Edinburgh, where he numbered the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh amongst his pupils, and as President of the Chemical Society of London, he lost no opportunity—even when he was a voice crying in the wilderness — of advocating the necessity of scientific and technical education, while his labours in the re-organisation of the Civil Service, the inquiries into the rinderpest, the herring fisheries, and the suitability of British coals for naval purposes abundantly displayed his all round a.bility. In IS6B he took to politics in which he proved equally at home, holding office as PostmasterGeneral, being made a Privy Councillor, and acting as Chairman of Ways and Means until the unruly Parneliit'e's caused his retirement in 1883. A knighthood, a peerage, and ma,ny honours somewhat consoled him for the loss of his chance to a reversion to the Speakcrship. As Chairman of 'Pipvii' he was associated with a big commercial success. Some good stories are told of him, one of the most amusing, being that concerning the Chinaman who figures very largely in' Selous' picture of the opening of the ISSI Exhibition, as lie actually did in the ceremony. Playfair had the ordering of the procession to the dais. He told the Prince Consort that a beautifully-robed Chinese had appeared, quite at ease, among the diplomatists, who had no place in the programme. 'Never mind, give him a good one" said the Prince. He walked between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Wellington, and bore himself well. On subsequent inquiry he proved to be the man who took the shillings at the Chinese junk then moored for exhibition in the Thames!

As far back as IS7O Dr. Playfaiispoke in favour of the Female Suffrage Bill which he said 'completes our sense of national justice.' At one time he Wrote his speeches before he delivered them to the House of Commons, sending1 his manuscript to the 'Times,' and delivered them so exactly as they were written that the editor had only to add the 'hear, hears' and 'cheers' to make, the thing complete. Lord Playfair was iond of relating his ex-

perience in Canada with, an intelli-1 gent Scotch quarryman, who not J knowing his identity, while discussing ; some scientific subject, mentioned that Dr. Lyon Playfair said so and so. The Doctor revealed hims.elf and expressed surprise that his repute should have' readied such out of the way parts. 'Man,' was the reply, 7 er name's travelled further than ever yer wee legs'll carry ye.' Sir ltobert Rawlinson, who was a year younger than Mr Gladstone, was moreVof a- specialist than Sir Lyon Playfair, but in his way was responsible for the saving of numerous lives. Under his father, a mason and builder at Chorley, young Kawltnson became proficient" as a practical bricklayer, mason and engineer. He then worked as an engineer under Jesse Hartley and Robert Stephenson, and rising rapidly became assistant surveyor, to the Liverpool Corporation and engineer of the Bridgwater Canal. In 1817 he devised a gigantic scheme to supply Liverpool with water from Bala Lake, North Wales, but the project was considered too daring. He designed the hollow brick ceiling of St. George's Hall, the lightest work of that class existing. He was a pioneer of sanitary reform and made the first inspection at Dover under the Public Health Act, and wrote the first report, an outspoken document which did not mince matters. He devised a new system of main sewering which lias been adopted all over the civilised world. The British troops in the Crimea suffering from disorganisation and vile sanitary conditions were dying oil' from disease faster than from the bullets of the Russians, when he was sent out as engineering Sanitary Commissioner with a, free hand. He set to work with untiring energy that made itself obeyed and reduced the mortality amongst the soldiers from 70 to about 13 per thousand. It was in fact stated that at the end of Ihe summer of 1855 the entire British army in the Crimea was in a better state of health and had a lower rate of mortality than soldiers in barracks at home. His effortsin the improvement of military sanitation elicited the thanks of the United States, Moltke and the German Emperor. During the Cotton Famine of 18G3, in- Lancashire, it was Kawlinson who organised the relief works for the thousands of factory hands thrown out of employment and initiated the issue of Stale loans to municipal and sanitary authorities for town improvements and sanitary works generally. He was for twenty-eight years a member of the Army Sanitary Committee, had been Chief Engineering inspector under the Local Government Board, and Inspector under the llivcrs Pollution Act, and was Chairman of the "Royal Commission on the Pollution of Rivers and on the sanitary state of Dublin, and when he retired from his services to the State in 1889 the Queen, on Lord Salisbury's advice, decorated him with the K.C.B.