CANADA'S SCIENTIST

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 133, 2 December 1935, Page 3

CANADA'S SCIENTIST

SIR JOHN M CLENNAN

A RUTHERFORD TRIBUTE

A striking tribute was paid by Lord Rutherford, the eminent physicist at Cambridge, who was once a professor at McGill University, to Sir John McLennan, whose death on October 9 deprived Canadian science of its outstanding physicist, says the Winnipeg "Free Press." McLennan from Canada and Rutherford from New Zealand first met nearly forty years ago. They !were then research students in the Cavendish Laboratory, at Cambridge, and worked under the direction of Sir J. J. Thomson. The friendship then begun was never dropped, and was accentuated when they both were on the faculties, of Canadian universities.

Lord Rutherford said in "The Times": "McLennan was a man of remarkable energy, coupled with outstanding ability, both as a scientific experimenter.and as an administrator. If the details only could be obtained, an epic story could be written of the rise of McLennan'from a demonstrator in a small and badly-equipped laboratory in the University of Toronto to the directorship of a great research laboratory in physics in that university and the acknowledged leader of science in Canada. The Toronto Physics Laboratory, which was mainly due to his exertions and largely designed by^ him, was at the time of its construction one: of the finest in the British Empire, if not in the world. NEW BURST, v . "After the war, at an age when many men are inclined to slow down their activities, he had a new outburst of energy and began investigations in the field of in -which he had previously little research experience. One of the first fruits of this study was the discovery of the origin, of the famous green line in the spectrum of the aurora, which had long been an enigma to science. The great value of these researches was recognised by the Royal Society by the award to him of the Royal Medal and the invitation to deliver the Bakerian Lecture. This was followed by another outbreak of activity, and he began the study of the properties of matter at very low temperatures, installing plant for the production of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium in quantity. He was the first to follow the example set by the famous cryogenic laboratory developed by Kammerlingh Ohnes and his successors at Leiden. With the help of a band of young investigators, there was a steady output of valuable original work from his laboratory in Toronto. "A few years ago he resigned his post at the University of Toronto and came to live in this country, but his plans were shattered by the sudden death of his wife. f FRESH ACTIVITY. "Lonely and depressed at times, •he found solace in an important new sphere of activity. Largely through his influence the Union Miniere of Brussels generously lent -five grammes of radium to make a thorough investigation of the effects of mass radiation on cancerous growths. A committee was formed to control this great experiment, presided over by the President of the Royal Society and supported by the Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons, and representatives of the Medical Research Council and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. This work, which is still in progress, is being carried out at the Radium Institute. McLennan threw himself wholeheartedly into this new line of work, and personally supervised every detail of the scheme. He spent much of his time at the institute and characteristically established the friendliest relations not only with the staff but with the patients under examination. His services to this investigation in radium beam therapy are indeed great, and his sudden removal is an irrenarable loss. Warmhearted and impulsive, his vitality, his boyish enthusiasm, and transparent simplicity of nature endeared him to all those who came closely into contact with him. His sudden end in the full tide of his activities is a great loss to science and humanity."