Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/383



Guthrie's early work was chiefly chemical. His first paper printed in English was 'On Iodide of Acetyle' in the 'Philosophical Magazine' for 1857; and in 1858 he published a paper 'On the Action of Light on Silver Chloride' in the 'Journal of the Chemical Society.'

While in the Mauritius he pursued his first published investigations on physical problems, the results being communicated to the Royal Society in 1864 and 1865 in two papers on 'Drops' and one on 'Bubbles.' At the same time he published a paper on the 'Iodide of Iodammonium,' and a pamphlet on 'The Sugar-Cane and Cane-Sugar,' and made complete analyses of the waters of the chief rivers of the island.

In 1870 Guthrie discovered the remarkable phenomenon of 'Approach caused by Vibration,' as seen, for example, in the apparent attraction exerted by a vibrating tuning-fork on a light object suspended in the air near it. Among numerous other researches may be mentioned: on the thermal conductivity of liquids, on stationary vibrations of liquids in circular and rectangular troughs, on salt solutions and attached water, including the discovery of 'cryohydrates,' and on 'Eutexia,' an investigation into the properties (especially the melting points) of metallic alloys and mixtures of salts.

Guthrie's students at South Kensington included large numbers of the 'certificated science teachers' of this country, and for them he devised a very practical mode of teaching physics, by which the learner constructs his own apparatus. They can testify to his unvarying kindness and to his unflagging energy.

Guthrie was the founder of the Physical Society of London in 1873. Its meetings were held in his rooms at South Kensington, and he assumed the arduous post of 'demonstrator,' not consenting to fill the presidential chair until 1884. Early in 1886 he delivered three lectures on 'Science Teaching' before the Society of Arts. His teaching was always eminently experimental and practical; and he had but slight respect for the work of mathematical as distinguished from experimental physicists. Guthrie was a good French and German scholar, and his literary abilities were considerable. He published two poems, written in early life, and exhibiting genuine poetical power and considerable metrical skill: 'The Jew. A Poem,' by Frederick Cerny, 1863; and in 1877, and under the same pseudonym, 'Logroño, a Metric Drama in two Acts.' His scientific books were, 'Elements of Heat and Non-Metallic Chemistry,' 1868; 'Magnetism and Electricity,' 1873; 'Introduction to Physics;' and the 'First Book of Knowledge.'

Guthrie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1859, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1873. Altogether he published about forty papers on chemistry and physics, only about one-third of these, however, belonging to chemistry.

[Proceedings of the Physical Society for 1887, viii. 9-13 (notice by Professor Carey Foster); Nature, 4 Nov. 1886, pp. 8-10.]  GUTHRIE, GEORGE JAMES (1785–1856), surgeon, descended from an old Forfarshire family, one of whose members settled in Wexford, was born in London on 1 May 1785. Having been early apprenticed to a surgeon, and served as assistant in the York Hospital, Guthrie passed the examination for the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons on 5 Feb. 1801, when not yet sixteen. In March 1801 he was appointed by his friend Rush, then inspector-general and member of the army medical board, assistant surgeon to the 29th regiment. After serving five years with his regiment in Canada he was ordered to the Peninsula, where he remained (except for an interval in 1810) from 1808 till 1814, taking principal charge of the wounded at many important battles, and gaining the Duke of Wellington's especial commendation. A graphic description of his Peninsular experiences, in which Guthrie often displayed the qualities of a soldier as well as of a surgeon, is given in the 'Lancet' for 1850, i. 726-38. After the battle of Salamanca he introduced the practice of making long incisions through the skin to relieve diffused erysipelas. In 1814 he retired on half-pay, and on returning to London diligently attended the surgical lectures of Bell and Brodie at the Windmill Street school, and Abernethy at St. Bartholomew's. He found that his experience had enabled him to make considerable improvements in practical surgery. He had a further opportunity after Waterloo, when he successfully amputated a man's leg at the hip joint, divided the muscles of the calf to tie the main artery, and extracted a ball from a man's bladder. Each of these operations was a novelty, and the cases excited much interest. After the war the patients were sent to the York Hospital, then situated where one end of Eaton Square now stands, and Guthrie gave lectures and took charge for two years of two wards in which illustrative cases were treated and exhibited. Here Guthrie was the first in England who used a lithotrite for crushing a stone in the bladder. At this time the Duke of York offered him knighthood, which he declined owing to want of means. 