Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, 1912–15.

Life

Born in

Islington, London Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, he was descended from Raphael Meldola (1754–1828), a theologian who was acting minister of the

Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the ...

in London, 1804. Meldola was the only son of Samuel Meldola; married (1886) Ella Frederica, daughter of Maurice Davis of London. He was educated in chemistry at the

Royal College of Chemistry The Royal College of Chemistry: the laboratories. Lithograph The Royal College of Chemistry (RCC) was a college originally based on Oxford Street in central London, England. It operated between 1845 and 1872. The original building was designed ...

, London. There is a portrait of Meldola (oil on canvas) by Solomon J. Solomon in the Royal Society collection; also a photograph by Maull & Fox, visiting card size.

Career

Meldola worked in the private laboratory of John Stenhouse (FRS 1848). He was appointed Lecturer,

Royal College of Science The Royal College of Science was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Still to this day, graduates from th ...

(1872) and assisted

Norman Lockyer Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (17 May 1836 – 16 August 1920) was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen, he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the ...

with spectroscopy. Meldola was in charge of the British Eclipse Expedition to the

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian ...

(1875) and was Professor of Chemistry, Technical College, Finsbury (1885). He was also an entomologist and natural historian. Meldola was a member of many scientific societies: Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry; Fellow of the Chemical Society (London and Berlin); Member of the Pharmaceutical Society; The Geologists Association; The

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biol ...

;

Entomological Society of London The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the study of insects. Its aims are to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of Londo ...

. He was elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

in 1886 (

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

was one of his proposers), awarded the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

in 1913, and was Vice-President of the Council from 1914–1915. Entomological_Society_1904

Meldola was President of the Entomological Society, 1895–1897; the

Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...

, 1905–1907; Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1907–1910;

Society of Chemical Industry The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a learned society set up in 1881 "to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit". Offices The society's headquarters is in Belgrave Square, London. There are semi-i ...

1908-1909; Institute of Chemistry, 1912–1915. He was the first president of the

Maccabaeans Order of Ancient Maccabeans (also Maccabaeans) is an Anglo-Jewish society. The order is a controversial society established in 1894, and registered on 8 May 1901, under the Friendly Societies' Act, as amended 1896.Nahum Sokolow, ''History of Z ...

, 1891–1915. In his honour the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Inst ...

award the

Meldola medal The Meldola Medal and Prize was awarded annually from 1921 to 1979 by the Chemical Society and from 1980 to 2008 by the Royal Society of Chemistry to a British chemist who was under 32 years of age for promising original investigations in chemistr ...

each year.

Mimicry

Meldola was a keen naturalist, spending five years eagerly collecting evidence on

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

, inspired by

's ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

''. His work provided evidence for natural selection, acknowledged by the evolutionary zoologist

Edward Bagnall Poulton Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, FRS HFRSE FLS (27 January 1856 – 20 November 1943) was a British evolutionary biologist, a lifelong advocate of natural selection through a period in which many scientists such as Reginald Punnett doubted its i ...

in his book ''

The Colours of Animals ''The Colours of Animals'' is a zoology book written in 1890 by Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton (1856–1943). It was the first substantial textbook to argue the case for Darwinian selection applying to all aspects of animal coloration. The book al ...

'' and thanked by Darwin for information on hexadactyly (a rare case of a person having six digits on each limb).

Inventions

He discovered the synthetic dye Meldola's Blue.

Notes

References

External links

* * 1849 births 1915 deaths People from Islington (district) Fellows of the Royal Society British people of Italian-Jewish descent British entomologists British chemists Jewish chemists Spanish and Portuguese Jews {{UK-chemist-stub