PLAYFAIR, LYON PLAYFAIR, 1ST BARON 1898), was born at Chunar, Bengal province, on May 21, and educated at St. Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, University College, London, and under Liebig at Giessen, where he took his doctor's degree. Playfair translated into English Liebig's Chem istry of Agriculture. From 1841-42, he was chemical manager of the Primrose print-works at Clitheroe, and in 1843 was elected honorary professor of chemistry to the Royal Insti tution of Manchester., Soon after he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns, a body whose investigations may be said to have laid the foundations of modern sanitation. In 1845 he was appointed professor in the new School of Mines, and chemist to the geological survey, and thencefor ward was constantly employed by the public departments in mat ters of sanitary and chemical inspection. For his services as special commissioner of the 1851 Exhibition, he was made C.B.
From 1856 to 1869 he was professor of chemistry at Edinburgh University. In 1868 he was elected to represent the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in parliament, and retained his seat till 1885, from which date until 1892 he sat as member for Leeds. In 1873 he was made postmaster-general, and in the fol lowing year, after the dissolution of parliament, was made presi dent of a commission to inquire into the working of the civil service. Its report established a completely new system, known as the "Playfair scheme." From 1880, when Gladstone returned to power, till 1883, Playfair acted as chairman of committees. In 1892 he received a peerage, and in 1895 the G.C.B. He died in London, on May 29, 1898, and was buried at St. Andrews. He published a volume, Subjects of Social Welfare.
A memoir by Sir Wemyss Reid was published in 1899.