SIR LAZARUS FLETCHER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 184, 30 April 1919, Page 7

SIR LAZARUS FLETCHER

11 YEARS' WORK FOE SCIENCE. Sir. Lazarus 'Fletcher, F.R.S., Director of tho British Natural History Museum, has vacated his office, having reached tho usual age-limit of the Civil Service. It .is 41 years since, oil February 16. 1878, Sir Lazarus Fletcher first entered the sorvice of the Trustees of the Britisli Museum as a first-class assistant in 'the Department of Minerals, in succession to Mr. W. J. Lewis, tho present Professor of Miueralogy at Cambridge University, who had been compelled to resign the post on the ground of ill-health. Two years later, on Jun? 23, 18S0, he succeeded '< Professor; . Story-Maskelyne as Kefijier pf Minerals, on s tno latter becoming a candidate for a iseat in Parliament and having, therefore] under the regulations ef the Civil Service, to vacate his 1 post. Sir I, (Fletcher continued in charge of the Department of Minerals for the exceptionally long, period of 29 years. Among those, associated with him ns assistants during that time were Sir Henry A. JfioTS, F.R.S., Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University, and Dr. G, F. Prior, F.E.S.; tho present Keeper of Minerals. On. May 22, 1909, he'was appointed Director of the Natural Iv'istory Museum !in succession to Sir B. Ray Lankester,' 1C.C.8., F.R.S., who had retired from the office 17 .months before, and he'was created a knight in January, 1916.

Within a few'weeks of his becoming Keeper of. Minerals, Mr. Fletcher, as he thon .was, was called on .to -.supervise the removal of the collections of minerals, rocks, and meteorites from their quarters in the old building at Bloomsiiui-y to their new home in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, which had then just been. completed. It was no easy task. Apart from the inevitable difficulty of transporting in safety objects many of great fragility, and making sure that the labels were hot separated from the corresponding specimens, complications were introduced by the changes in cabinets, and exhibition-eases necessitated .by the great difference between tho old and the .'new galleries as regards structural arrangements. . As soon as this task was completed •and the systematic collections were properly arranged, Mr.' ITetcher devoted much time'and thought to tho question of making the Mineral Gallery useful and instructive -to visitors .not necessarily well versed in mineralogical science, since the general collections, were far too vast to bo understood ,or appreciated by the ordinary visitor. For _ this purpose lie prepared a set of guide-books which really informed elementary text-books on tho three main, sections of science to which the gallery is devoted—namely, minerals,' rocks,, and meteorites, and. at the same time he selected i'rona the general collections and arronged in separate cases .series of specimens to illustrate tho corresponding- guide-books. ' Tho. :firsl-. of. these,. books-thai; on metebrites—was issued in 1881, and those on minerals and rocks'followed in ISS-1 and 1895. "Written in a commendably simple and lucid style, they have been in ever-constant demand am'ong' not only visitors to tho Museum, but iilso students at a distance irony London, who found them an admirable introduction to the study of these subjects. Last year the guide-book to minerals reached its fifteenth edition, and' that to rocks its fifth, while in 191-1 the meteorites guidebook reached its eleventh edition.

The work connected with the preparation of these books and the distractions unavoidable .from the charge of an important department in the Museum by no .means exhausted Sir ■ Lazarus Fletcher's energies, and he found time to engage in research on the properties of various minerals and meteorites, all of which was carried out with characteristically meticulous care.