252 



NATURE 



[January 13, 1898 



Home Secretary was by the facts thus brought to light 

 led to appoint a special committee, and, as a result of 

 its report, Gathorne Hardy's Act was passed. This 

 Act, by the establishment of the Metropolitan Asylums 

 Board and in other ways, has worked an immense mi- 

 provement in the care of the sick, infirm, and imbecile 

 poor. 



Ernest Hart's great opportunity came in 1866, when 

 he was appointed editor of the British Medical Journal, 

 then, as now, published by the British Medical Association. 

 He threw his whole energies into the task of making the 

 Journal more useful to practising members of the pro- 

 fession, while at the same time extending and consolidat- 

 ing its influence on the course of public health legislation 

 and administration. A special Parliamentary Bills Com- 

 mittee was appointed. Of this he was elected chairman, 

 and through it he did most of the work which earned him 

 his reputation as a sanitary reformer. Among the sub- 

 jects to which he gave special attention were the amend- 

 ment of the Public Health Acts, the introduction of the 

 system of notification of infectious diseases, and of the 

 registration of plumbers ; the improvement of factory 

 legislation, and of local administration in public health 

 matters, the abatement of the smoke-nuisance, and the 

 desirability of replacing arm to-arm vaccination by the 

 use of calf lymph. On all these matters his industry in 

 accumulating facts and his power of arranging them 

 into a logical statement of the need for reform and the 

 mode in which it should be carried out, were of great 

 value in moulding professional and public opinion. 



His chief claim to recognition as a man of science 

 rests, on his life-long study of the dissemination of cer- 

 tain infectious diseases by water specifically contamin- 

 ated. His attention was early directed to the matter 

 during the investigations of the curious outbreak of 

 cholera at Theydon Bois in 1865, and of the more exten- 

 sive epidemic in the East-end in 1866. Subsequently he 

 gave much attention to the question of the dissemination 

 of typhoid fever by the same vehicle, and gradually 

 accumulated a mass of evidence drawn from the suc- 

 cessive object-lessons provided by municipal authorities 

 in various parts of the country, which put beyond ques- 

 tion the fact that, whatever may be the cause of the en- 

 demicity of typhoid fever, the specific contamination of 

 drinking water is the immediate cause of epidemics of 

 that disease. In 1894, during a tour in India, he ex- 

 pounded this doctrine and its application to the condi- 

 tions of Eastern life. The greater degree of importance 

 which the Government of India is now disposed to 

 attach to bacteriological investigations is to be attri- 

 buted in no small degree to Mr. Ernest Hart's forcible 

 advocacy. 



His chief recreation in his later years was the study 

 of Japanese art. He formed a large and choice collec- 

 tion. A few years ago he visited Japan, in the company 

 of his wife, who was also his companion during his 

 journey ings in India and Burmah, and lives to mourn 

 his loss. 



He was a man of great alertness of mind, of untiring 

 industry, of steady perseverance, and strong convictions. 

 These sometimes brought him into controversies in 

 which he showed himself a hard hitter ; but he was 

 always ready to sink personal differences for the public 

 good. 



NOTES. 

 A CABLEGRAM received from Ratnagiri on Saturday last, 

 informs us that H.M.S. Melpomene, having on board Sir 

 Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F. R.S., and other members of his 

 eclipse party, has arrived at Viziadurg. Following the scheme 

 •drawn up last year at Norway, Sir Norman Lockyer hopes to 

 take advantage of the keen sight and trained faculties of the 

 NO. 1472, VOL. 57] 



officers and men of the ship's company to obtain observations 

 during the forthcoming eclipse. He has asked for volunteers, 

 and has obtained as many as 115. Unless unforeseen circum- 

 stances arise, the records obtained by this large number of 

 observers will assist in making the eclipse memorable in the 

 annals of astronomy. 



We regret that by an oversight the name of a distinguished 

 Fellow of the Royal Society was not mentioned in our note on 

 the New Year Honours. We refer to Brigade-Surgeon Lieut. - 

 Colonel Dr. George King, who has been promoted to be a 

 Knight Commander of the most eminent Order of the Indian 

 Empire (K.C.I.E.). Sir George King is renowned as an Indian 

 botanist, and for the valuable services he has rendered in con- 

 nection with the introauction and cultivation of the cinchona in 

 India. He is Superintendent of the Royal Botanical Gardens, 

 Calcutta, and also of the Government Cinchona Plantations, 

 Darjeeling. 



Among the new officers of the Legion of Honour we notice 

 the names of M. Henri de Parville, editor of La Nature ; Dr. 

 G. Hayem, professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the Uni- 

 versity of Paris ; Dr. Raymond, professor in the same Faculty ; 

 M. Paul Buquet, director of the Central School of Arts and 

 Manufactures ; and M. Jourdan, director of the School of Higher 

 Commercial Studies, Among the new Chevaliers of the Legion 

 of Honour are : M. Albert Gauthier-Villars ; Prof. Grouvelle, 

 professor of industrial physics at the Central School of Arts and 

 Manufactures ; M. Leclanche, maker of electric batteries ; M. 

 Auguste Lumiere, manufacturer of photographic plates ; land M. 

 Molteni, manufacturer of projection apparatus. 



At a meeting of the managers of the Royal Institution, held 

 on January 6, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., was elected 

 Fullerian Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution. 



M. Van Tieghem has been elected Vice-President of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences for the current year, in succession to 

 M. Wolf, who passes to the presidential fauteuil. 



The Watt Memorial Lecture, given at Greenock on the 

 anniversary of the great engineer's birth, will this year be 

 delivered by Prof. Thorpe. The subject will be "James Watt 

 and the Discovery of the Composition of Water." 



The Geological Society of London will this year award its 

 medals and funds as follows : — The Wollaston medal to Prof. 

 F. Zirkel ; the Murchison medal and part of the fund to Mr. 

 T. F. Jamieson ; the Lyell medal and part of the fund to Dr. 

 W. Waagen ; the balance of the Wollaston fund to Mr. E. J. 

 Garwood ; the balance of the Murchison fund to Miss J. 

 Donald ; the balance of the Lyell fund to Mr. Henry Woods 

 and Mr. W. H. Shrubsole ; a part of the balance of the Barlow- 

 Jameson fund to Mr. E. Greenly. 



M. Le Chatelier has been nominated, by the Minister of 

 Public Instruction, to the chair of Inorganic Chemistry in the 

 College of France. 



Subscriptions are invited for the erection of a bronze monu- 

 ment in honour of the eminent German chemist, August Kekule, 

 who established stereo-chemistry. The scheme is receiving 

 generous support, and there is every reason for believing that a 

 memorial worthy of Kekule's great reputation will be erected. 

 Friends, admirers, and old pupils who wish to assist in this 

 object are requested to send their contributions to Dr. J. F. 

 Holcz, Berlin N. Miillerstrasse 170-171, or to Consul J. Zuntz, 

 Bonn Poppelsdorfer, Allee 61. 



It is announced that the German Association of Naturalists 

 and Medical Men will hold its annual meeting this year at 

 Leipzig, under the presidency of Prof. Waldeyer, of Berlin. 



