Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/257

 appointed specially for this subject. In the same year he contributed a paper on Buddhist metaphysics to Prof. Cowell's edition of Colebrooke's ‘Essays,’ and from time to time he published various papers on Pali and Sinhalese in the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.’ The most important of these papers was his edition in 1874 of the Pali text of the ‘Mahā-parinibbāna Sutta’ (‘Book of the Great Decease’), being that part of the Buddhist scriptures which gives in detail the events of the last few days of the Buddha's life. Sinhalese had been generally considered to be a Dravidian language. In his two papers on the subject (1873 and 1875) he conclusively showed, for the first time, how thoroughly Aryan were both its grammar and its vocabulary. In 1871 he had discussed, in a paper on the well-known ‘Dhammapada,’ some of its verses which bore more especially on the subject of the Buddhist ideal state, Nirvāna or Arahatship. But during all these years Childers was sedulously engaged in completing the second volume of his Pali dictionary, which, much larger and fuller than the first part, was published only in the autumn of 1875. This great and important work did for Pali what Wilson's dictionary had done for Sanskrit. It was not only the most valuable contribution that had yet been made to the study of the language, but was the indispensable means by which further progress could be made. Like Wilson's it was sure to be superseded; for it made possible that rapid advance in the publication of Pali texts which has been the most marked feature in oriental studies since its appearance. It was the foundation of all that subsequent work by the various editors engaged on the Pali Text Society which has rendered it inadequate. Its great value was immediately recognised throughout Europe; and a few months after its appearance it was awarded by the Institute of France the Volney prize of 1876 for the best philological work of the year. After the completion of the dictionary Childers with unwearied zeal looked forward to renewed activity. He had announced his intention of publishing a complete translation of the Buddhist Játaka book, the most ancient and the most extensive collection of folklore extant, and his name appeared as the promised contributor of translations of various parts of the Buddhist scriptures to the Oxford series of translations from the sacred books of the East. But his continual labours had told upon a constitution already enfeebled and consumptive, a cold contracted in the early part of the year developed into a rapid consumption, and he died on 25 July 1876 at Weybridge at the early age of thirty-eight. To an unusually powerful memory and indomitable energy Childers united an enthusiasm in the cause of research, a passionate patience, rare even in new and promising fields.



CHILDREN, GEORGE (1742–1818), electrician, born in 1742, graduated B.A. of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1762, and was a bencher of the Middle Temple, although he never practised at the bar. He owned much property near Tunbridge, and successfully engaged in business there as a banker for many years, devoting his leisure to scientific pursuits. He lived at Ferox Hall, Tunbridge, and married the eldest daughter of Thomas Marshall Jordan, by whom he had an only son [see ]. In 1802 the news of the discovery of the galvanic pile by Professor Volta in Italy reached this country. It was at once seen that by enlarging the dimensions of the apparatus employed more powerful effects could be produced. Children and his son became much interested in the subject. His position enabled him to retire from the active exercise of his business, and he devoted all his energies and much of his money to aiding his son in the construction of new and large galvanic batteries. Their principal battery consisted of twenty-one cells, each containing plates of copper and zinc, having a combined area equal to thirty-two square feet. When these plates were properly connected and immersed in acidulated water, they generated a current of electricity which was capable of producing effects considered at that time very surprising. The refractory metals, iridium and platinum, were easily fused by this current, which was able to ignite six feet of thin platinum wire. Children also wrote much verse, and extracts were published in the memoir of his son. In 1816 the failure of the Tunbridge bank, of which he was still a partner, left Children nearly penniless. His son took a small house at Chelsea for him, and there he died on 21 Aug. 1818.



CHILDREN, JOHN GEORGE (1777–1852), secretary of the Royal Society, only son of [q. v.], was born at Ferox Hall, Tunbridge, on 18 May 1777, his mother dying six days after. He was educated at Eton and Queens’ College, Cambridge, but left college in 1798 to marry a Miss Holwell, granddaughter of [q. v.]; she died in 1800. After her