Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/444

 minerals at the museum in 1863 (new edit. 1881) and a 'Guide to the Collection' in 1868.

Story-Maskelyne was always much interested in meteorites, which he was one of the first to study by means of thin sections for the microscope. He published the results of his numerous researches, of which the most important are those on the nature and constitution of the Pamallee, Nellore, Breitenbach, Manegaum, Busti, Shalka, and Rowton meteorites. Chief among his mineral researches were those upon Langite, Melaconite, Tenorite, Andrewsite, Connellite, Chalkosiderite, and Ludlamite. New minerals described by him were Andrewsite, Langite, Liskeardite, and Waringtonite. Asmanite, Oldhamite, and Osbornite, constituents of meteoric stones, were first isolated and determined by him, though the first named, described by him in 1871, is now generally regarded as identical with the mineral tridymite. He was also the first to recognise the presence of enstatite in meteorites.

Deeply interested in the history of the diamond, he wrote on the Koh-i-noor stone (Chemical News, 1860, i. 229 ; Nature, 1891, xliv. 655 ; xlv. 5). In 1880 he proved that the supposed diamonds manufactured by Mactear were in reality a crystallised silicate. The mode of occurrence of the diamond in South Africa also occupied his attention, and he described the enstatite rock which is associated with it in that part of the world (Philosophical Magazine, 1879, vii. 135).

Story-Maskelyne gave some notable courses of lectures on crystallography both in London and Oxford. In a course delivered in 1869 he announced an important proof of the number and mutual inclinations of the symmetry planes possible in a crystalloid system. His general views were stated in a series of lectures before the Chemical Society in 1874. On his lectures he largely based his well-known text book, ’The Morphology of Crystals,' which was published in 1895. In his mathematical as well as in his purely scientific treatment of his theme his writing was characterised by distinction and charm of style.

Story-Maskelyne's scientific attainments were widely recognised. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1870, he was vice-president from 1897 to 1899. He received in 1893 the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society, of which he became a fellow in 1854, was chosen an honorary fellow of Wadham College in 1873, and was made hon. D.Sc. in 1903. He was corresponding or honorary member of the Imperial Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburg, of the Society of Natural History of Boston, of the Royal Academy of Bavaria, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

On the death of his father in 1879 Story-Maskelyne succeeded to the Basset Down estates, and thenceforward became an active country gentleman. He resigned his post at the British Museum next year, but he continued to hold the professorship of mineralogy at Oxford till 1895. By that time funds were obtained for securing the whole time of a resident professor, and he was succeeded by (Sir) Henry A. Miers.

Story-Maskelyne entered the House of Commons in 1880, when he was elected in the liberal interest as member for the borough of Cricklade. He was re-elected for the Cricklade division of North Wiltshire in 1885 and 1886, but he refused to follow Gladstone in his home rule policy in 1886, and thenceforth sat in parliament as a liberal-unionist until his defeat in July 1892. He took no prominent part in the debates, but introduced in 1885 the Thames preservation bill, and was chairman of the committee to which the bill's consideration was referred. The bill was passed on 14 Aug. 1885. He was a member of the Wiltshire county council from its foundation in 1889 till 1904, when he was over eighty years of age, and was for many years chairman of the agricultural committee. He was an active member of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, and it was at his suggestion that the first itinerant dairy school was established. He was a good scholar and was one of the few scientific men who read Homer till late in life. He formed a valuable private collection of antique engraved gems, and he privately printed a catalogue of the intaglios and cameos known as the Marlborough Gems.

Story-Maskelyne died at Basset Down on 20 May 1911, after a prolonged illness, and was buried at Purton, Wiltshire. He married on 29 June 1858, after settling in London, Thereza Mary, eldest daughter of John Dillwyn Llewellyn, F.R.S., and granddaughter of Lewis Weston Dillwyn [q. v.], the botanist. He was survived by his wife and three daughters, of whom the second, Mary Lucy, married Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster [q. v. Suppl. II], some time secretary of state for war, and the third, Thereza Charlotte, became wife of Sir Arthur Rücker, F.R.S., in 1892.

His portrait by the Hon. John Collier,