accompanied, was naturally Anticipated for him by his friends, and perhaps by himself also. The building, too, which he had planned, was rapidly rising from base to summit, while at each step the public eye detected some new beauty, and waited impatiently for the completion. But here the life of the artist was brought to a sudden and most disastrous termination. He had been absent from home, employed in matters connected with the structure; and on the evening of the 6th of March, 1844, was returning to his dwelling at Morningside, through Fountainbridge, when, in consequence of the darkness of the night, he had diverged from the direct road, and fallen into the canal-basin at the opening. His body was found in the water several days afterwards, and the whole city, that had now learned to appreciate his excellence, bewailed the mournful event as a public calamity. It was intended to deposit his remains in the vault under the Scott Monument, as their fitting resting-place; but at the last hour this purpose was altered, and the interment took place in St. Cuthbert's church-yard; while every street through which the funeral passed was crowded with spectators. Such was the end of this promising architect, when his first great work, now nearly completed, surpassed the latest and best of those of his co temporaries, and gave promise that architecture would no longer be classed among the artes perditœ in Scotland. Mr. Kemp was married in September, 1832, to Miss Elizabeth Bonnar, sister to the eminent artist, Mr. William Bonnar. He left four children, two boys and two girls, three of whom survive him. His eldest son, a student of architecture, died in December, 1853, at the age of twenty. He was a youth of rare promise and amiable manners, inheriting all his father's genius and enthusiasm lor art.
KEMP, Kenneth G.—Of this talented scientific experimenter and lecturer,
our notice must necessarily be brief, in consequence of his premature departure
while his high fame was yet in progress. He was born in 1807; and as soon
as he was able to make choice of a particular path in intellectual life, he selected
that of chemistry, into which he threw himself with all the ardour of a devotee, or even of a martyr—this last expression being fully needed to express the
daring investigations into which he directed his studies, and the equally dangerous experiments by which he arrived at new and important results in chemical
science. Not the least of these were his experiments on the theory of combustion, and the liquefaction of the gases, with which he delighted the British Association at their meetings in Edinburgh in 1836. It was not surprising, also,
that in such pursuits his inquisitive energetic mind should have made not only discoveries on several chemical compounds, but have recommended the science itself, as yet too generally neglected in Scotland, to the attention of his countrymen—more especially when he had obtained the situation of lecturer on practical chemistry in the university of Edinburgh. Besides his researches into the compounds of substances, and the evolvement of gases, Mr. Kemp studied deeply the mysteries of electricity and magnetism, and was so fortunate as to be the discoverer of the use of zinc plates in galvanic batteries, by which that invisible power of galvanism can be controlled at pleasure, and directed to the most useful purposes. "Let us never forget to whom we owe this discovery, which, itself, enables galvanic batteries to be used in the arts. Ages to come will, perhaps, have to thank the inventor, whom we are too apt to forget—yet still the obligation from the public to Mr. Kemp is the same." This testimony, an eminent writer, who could well appreciate the subject, will, we trust, have its weight in identifying the discovery with its originator. Another,
