The death of Professor Stanley Jevons, who was drowned while
bathing at Bexhill, near Hastings, on Sunday, is a serious calamity to the world of science. He was only in his forty- seventh year, and though he had recently resigned the Chair of Political Economy in University College, London, he was in full vigoar as a thinker, and would probably have added much to the important body of thought on logic and the philosophy of science which he had already contributed. He began his career with an appointment in the Mint at Sydney, New South Wales, to which, we believe, he had been recommended, by the late Professor Graham, as one of the most brilliant of his chemical pupils. Returning to this country in 1859, he took his Master's degree, with the highest honours, in the University of London in 1862, received the Professorship of Logic and Mental Philosophy in Owens College, in 1866; published his "Substitution of Similars " in 1869, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1872, and brought out, in 1874, his great work on " The Principles of Science." He published more recently some criticisms on the philosophy of Mr. John Stuart Mill, which attracted much attention for their ability, though we fear that they were never completed. As a political economist also, be was a very sagacious and effective writer. We have attempted a brief estimate of his chief characteristics as a thinker and a man, in another column.
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