Raphael Meldola


Raphael Meldola FRS was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15.

Life

Born in Islington, London, he was descended from Raphael Meldola, a theologian who was acting minister of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London, 1804. Meldola was the only son of Samuel Meldola; married Ella Frederica, daughter of Maurice Davis of London. He was educated in chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry, London. There is a portrait of Meldola 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. He was appointed Lecturer, Royal College of Science and assisted Norman Lockyer with spectroscopy. Meldola was in charge of the British Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands and was Professor of Chemistry, Technical College, Finsbury. 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 ; Member of the Pharmaceutical Society; The Geologists Association; The Royal Anthropological Institute; Entomological Society of London.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1886, awarded the Davy Medal in 1913, and was Vice-President of the Council from 1914–1915.
Meldola was President of the Entomological Society, 1895–1897; the Chemical Society, 1905–1907; Society of Dyers and Colourists, 1907–1910; Society of Chemical Industry 1908-1909; Institute of Chemistry, 1912–1915. He was the first president of the Maccabaeans, 1891–1915. In his honour the Royal Society of Chemistry award the Meldola medal each year.

Mimicry

Meldola was a keen naturalist, spending five years eagerly collecting evidence on mimicry in butterflies, inspired by Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. His work provided evidence for natural selection, acknowledged by the evolutionary zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton in his book The Colours of Animals and thanked by Darwin for information on hexadactyly.

Inventions

He discovered the synthetic dye Meldola's Blue.