March 2^, 191 1] 



NATURE 



117 



In 1873, the chair of chemistry at Leyden becoming 

 vacant owing to the retirement of van der Boon 

 Mesch, Dr. van Bemmelen was elected into it, and 

 Bakhuis Roozeboom became his assistant. The first 

 ten years of the professorship were almost exclusively 

 devoted to the chemistry of soils, and the results place 

 van Bemmelen in the front rank of agricultural 

 chemists. Thenceforward, from 1880 onwards, the 

 rest of his long and active life was devoted to elucida- 

 tion of absorption as a phenomenon of the colloidal 

 state. 



In this region van Bemmelen ranks as a pioneer, 

 and his fame rests now, and must always rest, on 

 his classical researches on the relations between the 

 components in the hydrogels of various colloidal 

 oxides. 



The work is in the main experimental and descrip- 

 tive. It embodies an enormous amount of exact 

 observation which has not yet been fully assimilated 

 into the general body of knowledge. In one marked 

 respect van Bemmelen stands apart from the Dutch 

 school of chemists. With the exception of an address 

 on the application of thermodynamics to chemistry 

 which he delivered when rector of the university of 

 Leyden in 1889, van Bemmelen 's work is non-mathe- 

 matical. His colloidal work is the application of the 

 old-fashioned descriptive and experimental methods to 

 a new region. His first assistant, Roozeboom, and 

 his second assistant, Schreinemakers, on the other 

 hand, were purely of the thermodynamic school. 



Van Bemmelen possessed great personal charm. 

 Xo picture which the present writer has seen does 

 justice to features which were singularly delicate and 

 refined. As the descendant of an old Dutch family, 

 he was somewhat of an aristocrat in altogether the 

 best sense of the word. Although his devotion to 

 science was intuitive and instinctive, it left space for 

 manv interests amid the "humanities." As his life- 

 long friend and colleague in the professoriate, Prof. 

 Tiele said of him:- — "Although an assiduous investi- 

 gator in special fields of learning, van Bemmelen 

 always bore in mind those greater questions the 

 answering of which is the aim of us all." 



W. B. H. 



DR. JOHN ATTFIELD, F.R.S. 



ON Saturday, March 18, Dr. John Attfield passed 

 to his rest, and scientific pharmacy lost one 

 who had devoted much of his life and work to its 

 advancement. 



Born in 1835, Attfield, after the completion of his 

 school education, became a student in the School of 

 Pharmacy of the Pharmaceutical Society, and subse- 

 quently demonstrator of chemistry at St, Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital, a position which he occupied for 

 eight years. In 1862 he graduated at the University 

 of Tubingen. In the same year he was appointed 

 director of the laboratory of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society, and soon afterwards professor of practical 

 chemistry, a chair which he filled for thirty-four 

 years. During this long period Attfield devoted him- 

 self, with marked success, to the advancement of 

 pharmacy and particularly of chemistry as applied 

 to pharmacy. His industry and ability in this respect 

 is attested by the long series, some seventy in number, 

 of original articles that appeared under his name in 

 the Pharmaceutical Journal and other journals, an 

 industry and ability that was soon to be rewarded 

 by the blue ribbon of science, the Fellowship of the 

 Royal Society. Of his publications the most im- 

 portant, and that which undoubtedly had the most 

 far-reaching influence, was his "Handbook of Prac- 

 tical Chemistry," a work which was quickly accepted, 



NO. 2160, VOL. 86] 



both in this country and abroad, as an ideal text- 

 book for students of pharmacy. 



But it was not by his scientific labours alone that 

 Attfield accomplished so much for pharmacy. Him- 

 self an admirable organiser and possessing extra- 

 ordinarily methodical habits, he took an active pr.rt 

 in founding the British Pharmaceutical Conference, 

 an association that has proved itself of inestimable 

 value to pharmacy, and later the Institute of Chem- 

 istry. To the subject of pharmaceutical education he 

 devoted much time and attention, and no more 

 strenuous advocate could be found of the advantages 

 that would accrue to pharmacy through the raising 

 of the standard of education amongst its members. 

 Further scope for Attfield's scientific ability and in- 

 clination presented itself in the editorship of the 

 " British Pharmacopoeia " and of two of its 

 addenda. The pages of these works bear abundant 

 testimony to the care and skill that was bestowed 

 upon them. 



To his students Attfield was a genial, kindly 

 teacher, ready at all times to sympathise with them, 

 to assist them in their difficulties, to encourage them 

 by becoming a student himself, and to stimulate 

 them by holding up to them an ideal towards which 

 they should strive. Much as he accomplished directly, 

 it was little compared with what he accomplished 

 indirectly by organising others and directing their 

 efforts. During the thirty-four years of his teaching 

 career many hundreds of students passed through 

 his hands; there is not one that does not owe a debt 

 of gratitude to John Attfield, 



Henry G. Greenish. 



NOTES. 



The annual meeting of the British Science Guild will 

 be held at the Mansion House on Friday, April 7, at 

 4 p.m. The Lord Mayor will preside, and the president 

 (Mr. Haldane) and others will address the meeting. 



Mr. F. J. Bridgman, demonstrator in zoology and 

 curator of the zoological museum of the Imperial College 

 of Science and Technology, South Kensington, has been 

 appointed naturalist on the staff of the Plymouth Labora- 

 tory of the Marine Biological Association. 



.'\lthou3H attacked by a destructive epidemic some two 

 or three years ago, wood-pigeons have of late increased 

 to such an extent that measures are being taken to 

 diminish their numbers. Some letters have appeared in 

 the public Press directing attention to pigeon diphtheria 

 and its risk to man. Pigeon diphtheria, however, has 

 nothing to do with human diphtheria ; the micro-organism 

 is quite different, and is probably very minute and a 

 " filter passer," 



An influential deputation from the Royal Institute of 

 Public Health waited on the Presidents of the Thecal 

 Government Board and Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 on March 16 to urge the necessity for appointing a Royal 

 Commission for the purpose of inquiring into (i) the 

 increase of vermin and the steps to be taken for their 

 destruction ; (2) the question of what creatures are or are 

 not harmful to man and his industries ; and (3) the safety 

 and efficiency of the various viruses on the market and 

 other means advocated for such destruction. Mr. Burns 

 acknowledged the influential nature of the deputation and 

 the importance of their representations, and promised con- 

 sideration of the matters brought before him. 



The Popular Science Monthly for March contains an 

 interesting article, by Dr. Fielding Garrison, on Ehrlich's 

 work on specific therapeutics and on " salvarsan " in 



