December 15, 1923] 



NATURE 



871 



lOok was, in 1918, translated into English under the 

 uispices of the Committee of the Priv}' Council for 

 scientific and Ifidustrial Research. The " Schule der 

 I )ptik " has been translated into Spanish. As a 

 theoretical treatise, his first work, published in 1902 

 and later translated into French, the " Lehrbuch der 

 geometrischen Optik," is generally regarded as his 

 most valuable legacy to the literature of optics. 



The long list of Dr. Gleichen's books and contribu- 

 tions to scientific journals and societies is indicative of 

 a life the leisure hours of which were exclusively applied 

 to the study and expression of the science to which 

 he was devoted ; and yet it was characteristic of Dr. 

 Gleichen that he was never too absorbed in his own 

 affairs to appreciate the needs of others and was ever 

 ready to leave his desk to assist a fellow-worker. 



James Weir French. 



Mr. G. D. Maynard. 



The untimely death of George Darell Maynard at 

 the age of forty-seven has removed another of the small 

 company of medical biometricians which lost Dr. 

 Goring in the pandemic of influenza and Dr. R. J. 

 Ewart this year. Maynard did not enter the field of 

 statistics until he had had wide clinical experience, and 

 at the time of his death he was in active medical 

 practice. 



The first notable contribution by Ma^iiard to medical 

 statistics was a paper on anti-typhoid inoculation pub- 

 lished in the sixth volume of Biometrika, and he con- 

 tributed four other memoirs to that journal, the last 

 of which was published this year. He was the author 

 of three of the memoirs issued by the South African 

 Institute for Medical Research. The first of these, 

 " An Enquiry into the Etiology, Manifestations, and 

 Prevention of Pneumonia amongst Natives on the Rand 

 recruited from Tropical Areas " (November 1913), is 

 perhaps his most important contribution. Apart from 

 the critical appraisement of the value of inoculation, 

 the section of the memoir which examines the evidence 

 in favour of the view that pneumonia is an infectious 

 disease is a strikingly original piece of work. 



Maynard was the first writer to propose statistical 

 ' riteria of infectiousness, and his treatment of " runs " 

 of cases is very suggestive, while his use of time intervals 

 shows that he had grasped a notion which has since 

 been developed by various mathematical statisticians. 

 The joint memoir (with Dr. G. A. Turner) on " Bantu 

 Natives " (1914) is a careful piece of biometry, and the 

 same may be said of his biometric study of the typano- 

 somes of sleeping sickness (1915). Maynard 's work on 

 the correlation of the death-rates from cancer and 

 diabetes (Biotn. vii. 276) was one of the first applica- 

 tions to the problem of cancer of the calculus of correla- 

 tions and contains a great deal which is valuable and 

 suggestive. As, except during a brief period, his re- 

 search work was the product of a scanty leisure, and 

 he never enjoyed access to a first-rate collection of 

 statistical literature, the range and accuracy of his 

 contributions are remarkable. His loss, at the zenith 

 of his powers, is a serious blow to science, M. G, 



Mr. T. F. Cheeseman. 



Botany in New Zealand has sustained a heavy 

 ^,^^ hv the death of Mr. Thomas Frederic Cheeseman, 



NO. 2824. VOL. 112] 



Curator of the Auckland Museum. Thomas Kirk had 

 been entrusted with the writing of the " Students' 

 Flora " of New Zealand, but it was cut short by 

 his death in 1897. The half-finished volume being 

 brought out by the Government in 1899, was followed 

 in 1900 by a commission to Mr. Cheeseman to draw 

 up a complete flora of the Dominion, at the same 

 time he was set free from his duties of Curator. 

 He had begun his researches in 1870, embracing the 

 whole region from the Kermadec Islands to Otago. 

 The result appeared in 1906, entitled " Manual of the 

 New Zealand Flora," and is regarded by those who 

 have used it, as one of the best local floras in existence. 

 This volume being completed, its author turned his 

 attention to a series of plates in illustration, selected 

 by Mr. Cheeseman, but drawn and lithographed in 

 England under the care of ]\Ir. W. Botting Hemsley, 

 F.R.S., which were worked and sent to New Zealand, 

 where the text was printed, and the book published 

 at WeUington in two quarto volumes. 



At the last anniversary meeting of the Linnean 

 Society, the award was made to Mr. T. F. Cheeseman 

 of the gold medal, its highest award, which was received 

 for him by the High Commissioner. It was a matter 

 of the highest gratification when received, but a few 

 months later, news came that his death had occurred 

 in October last, unexpectedly, though he was known to 

 be far from strong. He had read the proof of his 

 revised " Manual " as far as the end of Monocotyledons. 



For years Mr. Cheeseman had worked alone, without 

 a botanical companion, his knowledge being entirely 

 due to reading and observation. He was gifted with 

 extraordinary patience, sound judgment, and calm 

 common sense ; gentle and lovable, he had a quiet 

 sense of humour, betrayed by the twinkle in his eye. 

 Mr. Cheeseman, who was bom in Hull in 1846, had been 

 a fellow of the Linnean Society since 1873. 



B. D. J. 



We regret to announce the following deaths : 



Canon T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., emeritus professor of 

 geology in University College, London, on December 

 10, aged ninety. 



Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin- Austen, F.R^.S., on 

 December 2, aged eighty-nine. 



Dr. L. Grunmach, a member of the Physikalisch- 

 Technischen Reichsanstalt, Berlin, and Privatdozent 

 in physics at the Berlin Technical CoUegC; on October 

 23, aged seventy-two. 



Prof. J. Harkness, Peter Redpath professor of pure 

 mathematics in McGill University, Montreal, aged 

 fifty-nine. 



Col. C. Swinhoe, distinguished by his work in entomo- 

 logy, on December 2, aged eighty-six. 



Prof. C. C. O. R. Tigerstedt. professor of physiology 

 in the University of Helsingfors, Finland, author (.f 

 works on the physiology of the blood circulation, on 

 December 2, aged seventy. 



Sir Frederick Treves, Bart., formerly Hunterian 

 professor of anatomy and Wilson professor of patho- 

 logy at the Royal College of Surgeons, Serjeant 

 Surgeon to King Edward VII. and to the present 

 King, on December 7, aged seventy. 



Prof. D. T. Wilson, since 1903 a member of the 

 department of astronomy of the Case School of 

 Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, who was known for 

 his work on the perturbations of the minor planets, 

 on October 12, aged sixty-one. 



