Clifford

Clifford, WILLIAM KINGDON, F.R.S., one of the foremost mathematicians of his time, was born at Exeter, May 4, 1845. He was educated at a school in his native town, at King's College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Trinity he did not confine himself to examination subjects, but read largely in the great mathematical writers, and came out second wrangler in 1867, next year being elected a fellow of his college. At this time, while excelling in gymnastics, he would also solve and propound problems in the pages of the Educational Times, and could discuss with ease complicated theorems of solid geometry without the aid of paper or diagram. A High-Churchman at first (though on unconventional speculative grounds), Clifford soon after taking his degree threw off all dogmatic restraints, and discussed the fundamental questions of the philosophy of religion with complete independence. In August 1871 he was elected to the chair of Mathematics and Mechanics at University College, London, which post he retained until his untimely death at Madeira, March 3, 1879. Clifford first established his reputation as an original thinker with the faculty of expressing scientific thought in plain and simple language by a Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution, On Some of the Conditions of Mental Development. He was a valued member of the London Mathematical Society, contributing to the Proceedings; for a time he acted as secretary, and afterwards vice-president of the Mathematical and Physical section of the British Association; he also lectured to the Sunday Lecture Society on various physical and philosophical subjects. The versatility of his mind for philosophical and scientific discussion was further shown by his varied contributions to periodical literature. Clifford issued in his lifetime the first part of Elements of Dynamics (1878). A further portion, edited by Mr R. Tucker, was published in 1887. A work on the Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, which Clifford left unfinished, was completed and edited by Professor Karl Pearson in 1885. A selection from his Mathematical Papers appeared in 1881, and a series of lectures on Seeing and Thinking in 1879. Clifford's general scientific and philosophical writings are collected, with a prefatory memoir, in Lectures and Essays, edited by L. Stephen and F. Pollock, 1879 (2 vols.; 2d ed. in 1 vol. 1886).—Mrs Clifford (née Lucy Lane) has published a really striking novel, or rather tragedy, Mrs Keith's Crime (1885), Aunt Anne (1892), and two books for young children of quite unusual interest, Anytow Stories (1884) and Very Short Stories and Verses for Children (1886).