Yet what comforts and cleanses the sorrowing breast, And after Love's vanished sweetness gives rest,

I, the heavenly one, will not deny thee."

But thecomfort most sweet to the sorrowing breast, After Love's vanished pleasures to lull back to rest, Is Love's bitter smarting and sorrow."

OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.

SECOND SERIES.-No. 38.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LYON PLAYFAIR, C.B., F.R.S.,

LL.D., M.P., &c., &c., &c.

DR. LYON PLAYFAIR is one of our most distinguished chemists, and he is not less distinguished as a constant and earnest advocate of social and educational reform. He was born in Bengal in May, 1819, his father being Mr. George Playfair, Chief Inspector-General of Hospitals in Bengal. His mother was Jessie, daughter of the late Mr. George Ross.

The Playfair family numbers among its ancestors, many men of eminence, whose fame reaches far beyond the limits of their own country. Dr. James Playfair, a native of the parish of Bendochy in Forfarshire, was born in December, 1738, was educated for the Church at the University of St. Andrews, and was successively Minister of the parishes of Newtyle and Meigle. In 1799, he was appointed Principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, at St. Andrews, and Minister of St. Leonard's Church in that city. He published Systems of Chronology and Geography,' and other historical works, and was Historiographer to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. He died in 1819, leaving by his wife, Margaret Lyon, who belonged to the family of the Earls of Strathmore, a large family of sons and daughters. The eldest son was the father of Dr. Lyon Playfair.

Dr. Playfair's uncle, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, was long in the Indian army, and was known to be one of the best officers in the service. Latterly he resided in St. Andrews, and the vigour with which, as Provost of the ancient city, he carried out the improvements which have made it what it is, will not soon be forgotten by the inhabitants. The celebrated Mathematician, Professor John Playfair of Edinburgh, belonged to the same family.

Lyon Playfair received his University education at the ancient College

Jour Bus Lyon Aurfuis

PHOTOGRAPHED BY LOCK & WHITFIELD LONDON.

of St. Andrews, the first seat of learning established in Scotland. Not satisfied with the ordinary curriculum of study, he afterwards spent some time at the University of Edinburgh. His taste for chemical studies developed itself in his early youth, and he prosecuted his inquiries in this branch of science with unwearied ardour. In 1834, he became a pupil of Thomas Graham, then Professor of Chemistry at the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow, but his health gave way, and in 1836, he found it necessary to return to India for a time. He did not remain long in that country, for in 1837, we find him again with Professor Graham, who had by this time been removed from the Andersonian Institution to the University of London. Next year he went to the University of Giessen, and studied organic chemistry under the cebebrated Liebig. there, he devoted much attention, among other subjects, to the investigation of the chemistry of fatty bodies. He also translated into English and edited several of Liebig's works. Of these we may mention "Organic Chemistry in its applications to Agriculture and Physiology," edited from the manuscript of the author, 1840, &c.

While

Before leaving Giessen, Mr. Playfair received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University there.

Returning to England in 1841, Dr. Playfair was occupied for two years in the management of the chemical department of the extensive calicoprinting works of the Messrs. Thomson, at Clitheroe. In 1843, he was. appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution at Manchester, a position more suited to his professional tastes, but he had only held the chair for a short time, when, through the intervention of his friend. Faraday, the Professorship of Chemistry in the University of Torontowas offered to him. Fortunately for England, Dr. Playlair's services were at this juncture secured for his own country. In 1844, he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Examination of the Sanitary condition of large towns and populous districts. His comprehensive and valuable reports on this subject, gave a strong impulse to the movement for sanitary reform, and up to the present day he has been a prominent and powerful supporter, both in the House of Commons and out of it, of all measures calculated to improve the public health. Much has been accomplished in this direction since 1844, and Dr. Playfair and others can look back with pride on the result of their labours; but no one knows better than he does that much remains to be done, and done in the face of great popular apathy, the consequence of wide-spread ignorance of the merest elements of hygiène.

Dr. Playfair was next appointed Chemist to the Museum of Practical Geology and Lecturer in the Government School of Mines, and was thus brought into close connection with the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom then in progress. In his introductory lecture to the School of Mines in 1851, we find him stating with great force the plea