Dramatic Moments. AN ACT OF FAITH

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 120, 14 February 1935, Page 7

Dramatic Moments. AN ACT OF FAITH

One of the oddest incidents in the life of King Edward the Seventh took place at Edinburgh University. Prince Albert was anxious that his son's education should be thorough and comprehensive, and when Edward — afterward Edward the Seventh —was about 17 he was sent to Edinburgh to receive an academic education. He stayed at Holyrood Palace, and though he had more than one tutor, his chief instruction was in science. • No one was more able to teach him than the tutor carefully selected for the purpose, Lyon Playfair, the amazing scientist who has been called a scientific jack, of all trades. A great friendship sprang up between the tutor and the student, but one day the Prince must have been startled when Playfair asked him to do themoddest thing any Itoyal person coul dhave been asked to do. They had been experimenting with various iron ores, and in the laboratory was a cauldron of molten metal—white hot, and running like water. “Has your • Highness any faith in science?” asked Dr. Playfair. “Certainly,” replied the Prince. Playfair thereupon washed the Prince’s hand thoroughly with ammonia, and then invited him to place it “in this boiling metal and ladle out a portion of it.” ' The Prince asked: “Do you tell me to do this?” On Playfair replying “I do,” the Prince instantly put his hand into tlie cauldron and ladled out some of the boiling metal. He suffered no injury in the process, but the experiment required a stout nerve.