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118 recommendation of Sir Robert Peel, on the commission to examine into the sanitary condition of large towns and populous districts, on which subject he made reports which are described as characterized by great ability. This work done, he was appointed chemical professor in the Museum of Practical Geology in London. He was given an important part in the preparations for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in visiting the manufacturing districts, in the performance of which duty he drew up a classification of the objects of industry, and entered into personal communication with the manufacturers, whereby he exercised an important and beneficial influence, and contributed much to the completeness of the Exhibition. He was appointed, in connection with this undertaking, Special Commissioner in charge of the Department of the Juries, and at its close was made a Companion of the Bath and appointed to a position in the household of the Prince Consort. He was again given the Department of Juries in connection with the Exhibition of 1862, and had the appointment of the six hundred jurors; and in 1878 he was appointed chairman of the Finance Committee of the English Commission in the French Exhibition, under the presidency of the commission of the Prince of Wales. When the Department of Science and Art was established in 1853, he was appointed joint secretary with Mr. Henry Cole. Mr. Cole became secretary in 1856, and Dr. Playfair was made Inspector-General of Government Museums and Schools of Science. In 1857 he was elected President of the Chemical Society of London, and in 1858 was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, where the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred (now Duke of Edinburgh) enjoyed the privilege of his instructions.

He has served his country under official commissions, both in matters of scientific inquiry and in matters directly connected with political administration and legislation. Of the former classes of service may be mentioned his work in examining, in conjunction with Sir Henry de la Beche, into the suitableness of the coals of the United Kingdom for the purposes of the navy, his investigations into the causes of accidents in mines, and his services in the Royal Commissions on the Cattle Plague and on the Fisheries of the Scottish Coasts. The final outcome of the work of the last-named commission was the withdrawal of legislative restrictions on sea-fisheries. More intimately connected with politics, but still positions in which science has a part to perform, are or have been his positions as a member of Parliament, to which he was elected as a Liberal, in 1868, to represent the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews; as Postmaster-General, to which he was appointed by Mr. Gladstone in 1873, and into which department "Nature" at the time expressed the hope that he would "endeavor to introduce something like scientific method"; as Privy Councilor; and as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. Of a character partly