Chief Assistant Research Articles

Sir William Christie, K.C.B., F.R.S

WILLIAM HENRY MAHONEY CHRISTIE was the youngest son of Samuel Hunter Christie, professor of mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and secretary of the Royal Society from 1837 to 1854. He was born in 1845, the same year as George Darwin and two years later than David Gill. Educated at King's College School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was fourth wrangler in 1868, and in the following year was elected to a fellowship of his college. On the recommendation of Airy, Christie was, in the autumn of 1870, appointed chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. At that time the activity of the Observatory was largely concentrated on its traditional duty of the regular observation of sun, moon, planets, and fundamental stars, the stars being regarded as points of reference for the planets, and especially the moon, and serving also for the determination of time. The observations were made with the transit circle erected by Airy in 1850. Christie made a careful study of (1) the most suitable value of the refraction constant at Greenwich, (2) the corrections to be applied for a well-established and persistent difference between the zenith distances of stars when observed by reflection from mercury and when observed directly, and (3) the value of the latitude at Greenwich—data required to deduce the declinations of stars free from systematic errors. In this involved and somewhat indeterminate problem his judgment was correct, as is shown by the smallness of the systematic corrections applicable to the Greenwich catalogues of 1880, 1890, and 1900 to bring them into accord with the mean of other observatories.

Obituaries

AGRICULTURAL chemistry has lost a distinguished exponent by the death of PROF. EDWARD KINCH on August 6 at the age of seventy-one. Prof. Kinch was educated at the Grammar School, Henley-on-Thames, and the Royal College of Chemistry, and successively occupied the follow-ing positions:—Chief assistant to the professor of chemistry (the late Sir Arthur Church) at the, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 1869–73; on chemical staff of Royal School of Mines, 1873–75 superintendent of minerals, India Museum, 1875–76; professor of chemistry, Imperial College of Agriculture, Tokyo, 1876–81; professor of chemistry, Cirencester, 1881–1915, when the Royal Agricultural College closed on account of the war. He published many technical papers on agricultural chemistry, in which he was a leading authority, always distinguished by the soundness of his judgment. As a teacher Prof. Kinch did much for his subject both in this country and in Japan, and he will be remembered with respect and affection by many generations of students and numerous former colleagues. His life was saddened by the premature death of his young wife (a daughter of the late Rev. Geo. Huntington), whom he married in 1889, and after this he led a somewhat retired life. Those privileged to be his intimate friends will not easily forget his many sterling qualities and quiet sense of humour.

THE PIRQUET SYSTEM OF NUTRITION

(From a Special Correspondent) Vienna, July 1, 1920. To the Editor: —It is probably not known in the United States that the name von Pirquet, famous for the discovery of the reaction following inoculation with tuberculin toxins— tuberculin test—is now better known in Austria because of system of nutrition. This system is described in a three volume work entitled Pirquet's System der Ernahrung, and also in a smaller booklet by his chief assistant, Prof. B. Schick, entitled Das Pirquetsche System der Ernahrung, published in Berlin in 1919. This system is today widely discussed here. People are being fed according to this system—not only adults, but also rachitic children and nurslings. It is also used in soup kitchens which have been established under the American Relief Association, which prepare food daily for 288 dining rooms in which 165,000 children receive one meal daily. The unit of nutrition has heretofore been

A History of Chemistry from the Earliest Times till the Present Day

THE late Prof. Campbell Brown, of the Liverpool University, was in the habit of delivering annually a series of lectures on the history of chemistry to his senior students as part of their degree course, and he had the intention, on his retirement, of preparing these lectures for publication. His sudden and unexpected death while still in the occupation of his chair prevented him from personally realising his wish. Mrs. Campbell Brown, with the assistance of Mr. Henry H. Brown, and Prof. Brown's late chief assistant, Mr. W. H. Roberts, has, however, sought to give effect to his intention, and the present handsome volume is the result of their labours. Its compilation has obviously been a labour of love, and forms a fitting memorial to a singularly earnest, conscientious, and high-principled man who played a notable part in the educational history of Liverpool, and particularly in the creation and development of its University. Its preparation for press must have been a matter of no little difficulty, and the form in which it is now presented reflects great credit upon Mr. H. H. Brown and his coadjutor. A History of Chemistry from the Earliest Times till the Present Day. By the late Prof. J. C. Brown. Pp. xxx + 543. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1913.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

University and Educational Intelligence

CAMBRIDGE.—At a meeting of the electors to the Plumian professorship of astronomy held on April 19 Mr. A. S. Eddington, chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was elected into the professorship, in succession to the late Sir George Darwin.

University and Educational Intelligence.

SHEFFIELD.—The council of the University of Sheffield has made the following appointments:—(i) Dr. H. R. Dean, to the Joseph Hunter chair of pathology, in succession to Prof. J. M. Beattie, who has been appointed to the chair of bacteriology in the University of Liverpool. Dr. Dean is at present assistant bacteriologist to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. (2) Mr. Leonard Southerns, to the post of junior lecturer and demojistratpr in physics, vice Dr. J. Robinson, resigned. Mr. Southerns is at present chief assistant at the Eskdalemuir Observatory, N.B. The council received the resignation of Prof. F. W. Hardwick of the professorship of mining, owing to his retirement from active work. Prof, Hardwick has been on the staff since October, 1891.

The Non-simultaneity and the generally Eastward Progression of Sudden Magnetic Storms

UNDER the above heading, Dr. L. A. Bauer contributes to NATURE of March 2 a letter of five columns. Referring to his Table II., p. 10, he says:—“It will be noticed that Kew is not included, for the simple reason that although Dr. Chree scaled the required data some months ago, he has not yet published them nor forwarded them to me”; and later he adds:—“Dr. Chree could not have done better than immediately to have published his own data in the same open manner that Mr. Faris had done. Instead, he labours to discredit the Coast and Geodetic Survey observations, and withholds his own from public scrutiny. In half the interval of time between the first and second presentation of his paper, had Dr. Chree chosen, he could have had at his command data from Europe and Asia which, combined with his own, would have served admirably to have tested the main contentions”. The real facts are as follows. In July, 1910, I consulted the Kew curves for the dates of the fifteen disturbances treated by Mr. Faris and Dr. Bauer, and, as stated in the paper read before the Physical Society (Proc., vol. xxiii., part i.) on November 11, “I was able to identify ten of the fifteen disturbances with reasonable certainty”. The measurements I then took were confined to the times of commencement of these ten disturbances. Dr. Bauer's request for data, which reached me in January, included, not merely the times, but the amplitudes of all the movements. I supposed, mistakenly, as it proves, that before publishing anything Dr. Bauer would await the data from the more remote stations, which could not well reach him in less than two or three months. I thus gave precedence to official work of urgency. Also, to get the best results possible, I had an independent set of measurements made by my chief assistant, and took a fresh set myself, and considered carefully all cases in which the times obtained differed by more than one minute, the limit of accuracy I hoped to attain. In a good many cases I was doubtful which of several small movements was the one intended, so curves were drawn indicating the movements and times, and amplitudes were given for the various alternatives. The results of this very considerable labour were dispatched to Dr. Bauer on February 25, no hint having meantime been received from him that the data were urgently wanted.

Magnetic Expeditions

OF the many successfully conducted land expeditions sent out by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington since its establishment in 1904, news has just been received of the successful completion of two of the most important and Interesting ones. Mr. D. C. Sowers headed an expedition which started out from Peking, China, on January 30 of this year, passing through China and Chinese Turkestan, reaching Kashgar on. August 2, and then crossing the Himalayan range and arriving at Leh, India, at the end of September. Magnetic observations and other geographical data were obtained along, the entire route traversed. Mr. Sowers's chief assistant was Prof. Fuson, formerly professor of history and geography at the Christian College, Fuson, China.

REPORT ON ABDOMINAL AND PELVIC SURGERY.Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Abdominal and Pelvic Surgery, read before the Kentucky State Medical Society, May (6, 1892.

REPORT OF THIRTY-ONE SUCCESSFUL LAPAROTOMIES. (Concluded from page 696.) In reporting the following cases I will omit many of the minor details. All of these operations except one were on intelligent private patients, and most of them at St. Joseph's Infirmary; they were seen by some of our most reputable physicians, and my chief assistant was usually either Dr. J. M. Holloway or Dr. F. W. Samuels, and the aæsthetizer Dr. Henry Orendorf. Case 1.—Mrs. W., from New Haven, Ky.; aged 32; married fifteen years; has never been pregnant; was referred to me in the fall of 1889. A few months after marriage she had pelvic peritonitis and has since been an invalid, frequently suffering intense pain in the uterus or its adnexa, especially severe at the menstrual period. She has been treated by many physicians with but little temporary relief. The body of the uterus is pressed against the

William Dittmar

ALL who take an interest in the progress of chemistry will regret the death of William Dittmar; a smaller circle feel that they have lost an invaluable friend. Born at Umstadt, near Darmstadt, April 15, 1833, he was the second son of Fritz Dittmar, then Assessor at Umstadt, afterwards Landrichter at Ulrichstein, in Ober-Hessen, where he took a part in the movements of 1848 displeasing to the Hessian Government, who removed him from office, allowing him to retire on a pension. At the age of sixteen, therefore, William became a resident in Darmstadt, where his father spent his enforced leisure. He was apprenticed to the Hof-Apotheker in Darmstadt, and in due time passed his “Gehiilfe Examen” with distinction. He had access to a good collection of books on chemistry and physics, which he eagerly read. He went as Gehiilfe to Miihlhausen in Alsace, where he spent several years, and returning to Darmstadt passed the “Staats Examen” in pharmacy, passing in the first class. But the attraction of pure chemistry prevailed, and in 1857 he went to Heidelberg. Bunsen soon saw what kind of student he had got, and appointed him assistant in the laboratory. There he met Sir Henry Roscoe, who invited him to Manchester as his private assistant. On Roscoe's appointment as Professor of Chemistry in the Owens College, Dittmar went with him as assistant. In 1861 he became chief assistant in the Edinburgh University Chemical Laboratory under Prof. Sir Lyon Play-fair. In 1869 he went to Bonn, where he acted first as Privatdocent and afterwards as Lecturer on Meteorology at the Agricultural College at Poppelsdorf. In 1872 he declined the Chair of Chemistry in the Polytechnic School at Cassel, preferring to return to Edinburgh to his old post in the University. Here he remained only a few months, accepting in 1873 tne Lectureship on Practical and Technical Chemistry in the Owens College. Thence he removed to Glasgow to succeed Prof. Thorpe in the Chair of Chemistry in the Andersonian College. This office he held till his death, February 9, 1892. He died literally in harness. He lectured in the morning, but not feeling very well, went home in the middle of the day, and after a few hours' illness died at 11.30.

Sounding a Crater, Fusion-Points, Pyrometers, and Seismometers

I HAD expected to see some confirmation of the remarks that form the chief part of the letter on this subject by Dr. H. J. Johnston-Lavis in NATURE of the 30th ult. (p. 197), but as no one has taken up the matter yet, perhaps you will allow me, as for years the chief assistant of the late Robert Mallet, to say that it is quite true that elaborate apparatus was devised by him and made by different instrument-makers, with a view to obtaining experimental imformation on the whole of the questions and more than those referred to by Dr. H. J. Johnston-Lavis. A preliminary report was presented by him to the British Association in 1863, in which the scope of his inquiry and nature of apparatus were mentioned, and other reports were written by him which I have not by me now. I am also able to say that the whole of the apparatus remained for years, through Prof. Guiscardi, in the University of Naples, and that Mallet wrote to him as to its disposition for the use of others, should occasion permit, just before his death.

Our Astronomical Column

THE MELBOURNE OBSERVATORY.—The thirteenth official Report of the Board of Visitors of the Melbourne Observatory, with the annual statement of the Government Astronomer, is before us. Mr. Ellery reports that the new building to contain the magnetical and meteorological instruments registering continuously by photography is completed. The staff of the Observatory now consists of the director, with a chief assistant (Mr. White) and three junior assistants. The transit-circle is found to be inadequate for modern requirements, and the Board of Visitors lay stress upon the necessity of providing an instrument of greater pretensions, to enable Melbourne to co-operate effectively with European and American observers; the Sydney Observatory being already in possession of a very superior meridian-instrument, and one having been ordered, it is understood, for the observatory under the direction of Mr. Todd at Adelaide, it is hoped that a new transit-circle may soon be provided for Melbourne, and it is suggested that the necessary appropriation, about 1,200l., might be made in two annual votes, as two years will be required for the completion of the instrument.