William Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society, was born in
London, Jan. 11, 1825. He belongs to an ancient Scottish family, many
members of which have risen to distinction in Scotland and also in the
New World.
In 1845 he took a first class in mathematics, and he afterward won the
junior (1846) and the senior (1847) university mathematical
scholarships. He returned to Oxford for a term or two, and gave a
course of lectures in Balliol College on Geometry of Three
Dimensions--a favorite subject of his. He was examiner in the
mathematical schools in 1857-58. On leaving Oxford, he immediately, we
believe, took an active part in the working management of the business
of the Queen's printers, about this time resigned to him by his
father, Andrew Spottiswoode, brother of the Laird of Spottiswoode. The
business has largely developed under his hands.
Other subjects than mathematics have occupied his attention: at an
early age he studied languages, as well Oriental as European.
[Illustration: WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE.]
As treasurer and president, he has been continuously on the Council
of the Royal Society for a great many years, and through his
exceptional gifts as an administrator he has rendered it invaluable
services. He has rendered similar services to the British Association,
to the London Mathematical Society, and to the Royal Institution. We
have permission to make the following extract from a letter written by
a friend of many years' standing: "In the councils (of the various
societies) he has always been distinguished by his sound judgment and
his deep sympathy with their purest and highest aims. There never was
a trace of partisanship in his action, or of narrowness in his
sympathies. On the contrary, every one engaged in thoroughly
scientific work has felt that he had a warm supporter in Spottiswoode,
on whose opportune aid he might surely count. The same breadth of
sympathy and generosity of sentiment has marked also his relations to
those more entirely dependent upon him. The workmen in his large
establishment all feel that they have in him a true and trustworthy
friend. He has always identified himself with their educational and
social well-being." We give here a list of some of the offices Mr.
Spottiswoode has held, and of the honors that have been bestowed upon
him: Treasurer of the British Association from 1861 to 1874, of the
Royal Institution from 1865 to 1873, and of the Royal Society from
1871 to 1878. In 1871 he succeeded Dr. Bence Jones as Honorary
Secretary to the Royal Institution. President of Section A, 1865; of
the British Association, 1878; of the London Mathematical Society,
1870 to 1872; of the Royal Society, 1879, which office he still holds.
Correspondent of the Institut (Académie des Sciences), March 27, 1876.
He is also LL.D. of the Universities of Cambridge, Dublin, and
Edinburgh, D.C.L. of Oxford, and F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., F.R.S.E. In
addition to these honors he has many other literary and scientific
distinctions.--_Nature_.
* * * * *