June 29, 191 i] 



NATURE 



589 



SIR KUBERT BOYCE, F.R.S. 

 T^HE news of the premature death of Sir Rubert 

 -*■ Boyce, at the age of forty-eight, will come as 

 a shock to many, not only at home, but throughout 

 the tropical world. A baVe record of his scientific 

 work would give but little idea of what his achieve- 

 ments really were. His rare abilities were of a prac- 

 tical nature, and took shape eventually in the initia- 

 tion and organisation of manifold activities. He was 

 educated in London, Heidelberg, and Paris, and after 

 taking his medical degree in 1889 he devoted himself 

 to research work, mainly on the pathology of the 

 nervous system, under Sir Victor Horsley, at Univer- 

 sity College, and in 1893 was appointed professor of 

 pathology at the then University College, Liverpool. 

 Soon afterwards he was asked to take up the position 

 of bacteriologist to the city of Liverpool, which he held 

 until his death. 



In 1902 Sir Rubert Boyce was elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society. He was a member of the Royal 

 Commission on Sewage Disposal, and for a period' ot 

 five years he supervised the researches conducted for 

 the Commission at Liverpool. In 1904 he was ap- 

 pointed a member of the Royal Commission on 

 Tuberculosis, and on the day of his death he was to 

 have signed the final report of the Commission. 



During these years his powers of organisation were 

 being put into practice, and to mention one project 

 only, his part in the transformation of Universitv 

 College into the University of Liverpool is a well- 

 known fact. While this and many other achieve- 

 ments — for in each he took a most active part — repre- 

 sent an amount of work and energy that can onlv 

 be appreciated by those who know the manifold diffi- 

 culties and the dead weight of opposition that has 

 to be removed before such objects can be successfully 

 carried through, yet they were still to be followed 

 by even greater things. 



Sir Rubert Boyce had established a close relation- 

 ship, often indeed a warm friendship, with those 

 other great organisers who mould the destiny of the 

 great commercial world of Liverpool. He was never 

 tired of telling the commercial community that science 

 was not merely an academic pursuit, but was inti- 

 mately connected with the carrying on of their busi- 

 ness. Whilst he preached that science was not merely 

 an academic pursuit, his practice was a proof of it. 

 One of the most remarkable and devoted of his 

 friendships was with one of the most striking of the 

 great personalities of Liverpool — the late Sir Alfred 

 Jones. Sir .'\lfred himself was a man of great prac- 

 tical organising genius, and the great organising 

 powers of Sir Rubert Royce now found their full scope 

 in association with this untiring orginator of ideas. 

 It was in 1898 that he, together with Sir Alfred Jones, 

 founded the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 

 which rapidly became known throughout the whole 

 world, both scientific and non-scientific, for its work. 

 Now also at his initiative commenced that remarkable 

 series of expeditions which, apart from their scientific 

 side, fired the imagination of all residents in the 

 tropics. 



Tropical medicine was forced on the ear of the 

 public, and their help and that of the governors in 

 the tropical dependencies was enlisted, in securing that 

 the conditions in the tropics should be improved. The 

 improvement in the last ten years has been great, but 

 the work has really only begun. Sir Ronald Ross 

 had at this time been conducting his anti-malarial 

 campaign, but there was more to be done, and Sir 

 Rubert, not content with having founded a great 

 school, himself actually went into the field to see 

 matters at first hand. 



In 1905 an outbreak of yellow fever occurred at 

 NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



New Orleans. He quickly availed himself of the 

 opportunity, offered by the American authorities, to 

 take part in the campaign. He then laid the founda- 

 tion of that experience which was to bear fruit later. 

 At the same time, at the request of the British 

 Government, he visited British Honduras, where also 

 yellow fever had broken out. In 1906 the first 

 symptoms of the illness that eventually proved fatal 

 occurred. In 1909 again, at tjie request of the Govern- 

 ment, he visited the West Indian Islands to investi- 

 gate yellow fever, and in 19 10 he made his last expe- 

 dition to West Africa, where an epidemic of yellow 

 fever had occurred. 



Not content simply with official reports of these 

 expeditions, he determined to impress the importance 

 of these subjects, of which yellow fever was only 

 one, on the public. The result was in two short year's 

 three popular works, " Mosquito or Man," " Health 

 Progress and Administration in the West Indies," and 

 "Yellow Fever and its Prevention," stating in clear 

 and forcible language the bearing of scientific results 

 on the health and prosperity of the community. The 

 success of these works was immediate, and the name 

 of Sir Rubert Boyce became a household work to 

 every European in the tropics. But even this was not 

 enough ; he must do something to remedy the state 

 of affairs revealed, and the formation of "the Bureau 

 of Yellow Fever at Liverpool marks the last of his 

 many practical works. It is as a great scientific 

 organiser that Sir Rubert Boyce will take his place, 

 and when the history of tropical medicine comes to 

 be written, his will be a foremost and revered name. 



In tropical medicine it may well be said that he 

 found the passion of his life. The founding of the 

 school may be regarded as the culminating effort of 

 his practical genius, but his actual experience of 

 tropical medicine in the field, in his visits to the 

 tropics, so impressed his imagination that it is impos- 

 sible to think he ever would have forsaken it ; and, 

 very shortly before his death, which he knew might 

 take him at any moment, he declared that his one 

 desire in life was to do sorae work to alleviate the 

 condition of those who lived in the tropics. His 

 methods came as a sharp electrical shock to those 

 accustomed to more sedate ways. Financial difficul- 

 ties seemed to present to him no obstacle, once he 

 had seen that the end was desirable ; his unrivalled 

 success in collecting funds from the most unpromis- 

 ing quarters was well known, and he will be sorely 

 missed not least by those who suffered gladlv in this 

 way at his hands. 



His care and thought for those who worked with 

 him were often unsuspected, but those who did their 

 work thoroughly found that they were not forgotten 

 in the race, and there are many in various parts of 

 the world who can testify to his generous help. 



His many activities often aroused keen antagonisms, 

 and to many perhaps his personal qualities were quite 

 unknown. But those who knew him in his private 

 life, who had enjoyed his hospitality, or had further 

 had the privilege of his friendship, found in him a 

 warm, generous, and noble spirit. 



J. w. w. s. 



SCIENCE AND CORONATION HONOURS. 

 /^WING to the necessity of going to press earlier 

 y-^ than usual last week no reference was made to the 

 list of Coronation honours. There is, however, little 

 to record ; for though the list is very long, the ser- 

 vices which men of science render to the State are 

 but scantily represented in it. From a national point 

 of view this disregard of scientific work must be con- 

 sidered as unenlightened policy. A title does not 



