Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/129

Rh edge passes into scientific knowledge." An indication of one of the ways in which he would have this system put into operation is given in a letter he wrote to the officers of a London school suggesting the devotion of a certain property to the formation of chemical and scientific museums in relation to commerce. No boy enjoying the advantages of such a museum "need leave the upper classes of the school without being able to examine the various kinds of merchandise which he will meet with in his occupations, so far, at least, as would enable him to test chemically their relative excellences, or detect their adulterations. No boy need then leave the school without having had his physical and political geography copiously illustrated by objects of natural history, in their relation to the imports and exports, upon which the prosperity of the country so largely depends."

Professor Playfair is a member of numerous scientific and other societies, British and foreign, and of several foreign orders. Of his literary work, Lord Rayleigh remarked in introducing him to the British Association: "The other day, engaged in some work of my own, I happened to look up the catalogue of science papers issued by the Royal Society, and I came across the list of Sir Lyon Playfair's early contributions to science, most of them made before I was born or thought of. One was on the new fatty acid in the butter of nutmeg. Another was 'Lectures on the Application of Physiology to the Rearing and Feeding of Cattle.' A third was on nitro-prussids, a new class of salts; and a fourth on 'The Study of Abstract Science essential to the Progress of Industry.' "He edited, conjointly with W. Gregory, Baron Liebig's "Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology." Besides numerous scientific memoirs, be has published, on general subjects, "Science in its Relations to Labor," a speech delivered on the anniversary of the People's College at Sheffield, in 1853; "The Food of Man in Relation to his Useful Work," a lecture, 1865; "On Primary and Technical Education," two lectures, 1870; "On Teaching Universities and Examining Boards," an address to the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, 1872; "Universities in their Relation to Professional Education," an address to the St. Andrews Graduates' Association, 1873; and "The Progress of Sanitary Reform," an address delivered at the annual meeting of the Social Science Association at Glasgow, 1874.