82 



NATURE 



[November 17, 1910 



animals, such as cattle, pigs, fowls, ducks, &c., are 

 susceptible to plague inftcuon, but extensive experi- 

 ments made by competent observers in several parts 

 of the world completely agree in opposition to this 

 belief. 



In the memorandum the importance of preventing 

 the access of rats to or their entrance into buildings 

 is emphasised. It is pointed out that a cat in the 

 house is a safeguard against domestic invasion by rats 

 and mice, although it must be borne in mind that the 

 cat is in some degree susceptible to plague. Major 

 Buchanan, of the Indian Medical .Service, has strongly 

 urged the advisability of stocking the villages in India 

 with cats as a preventive measure, but it must be 

 said that no very definite evidence in support of the 

 proposal has been produced. 



With regard to the extermination of rats it is 

 admitted that complete extermination is perhaps im- 

 possible. .-\ material diminudon in the rat population 

 would undoubtedly lessen the spread of infection 

 amongst them, but the fertility of the rat and the fact 

 that it overruns the whole country in enormous 

 numbers make the task of permanently suppressing 

 the rat community in this country an extremely diffi- 

 cult one. It is certain that only a never-ceasing and 

 complete organisation for rat destruction will appre- 

 ciably reduce their numbers, and it is perhaps not 

 sufficiently realised by some of the advocates of a 

 general rat campaign that in order to be thorough and 

 effective such a campaign would involve a most ex- 

 tensive and, in the aggregate, a most costly organisa- 

 tion. In this connection the experience of rat destruc- 

 tion gained in Japan is instructive. Kitasato has 

 reported that in five years 4,800,000 rats were killed 

 in Tokio alone at a considerable financial outlay, but 

 that at the end of this time no appreciable decrease in 

 the rat population could be detected. Kitasato attri- 

 buted this to the circumstance that the rate of de- 

 struction, vigorous as it was, did not keep pace with 

 the natural increase in the rat population. Recent 

 experience in India appears to point in the same 

 direction. 



It is beyond question, however, that so far as plague 

 prevention is concerned a great deal can be done in 

 this country by diminishing or, preferably, abolishing 

 rat infestation in human habitations and in their 

 immediate neighbourhood. 



G. F. Petrie. 



DR. THEODORE COOKE. 



AX7E announced with regret last week the death, on 

 •'' November 5, of Dr. Theodore Cooke, C.I.E., 

 formerly a member of the Bombay Educational De- 

 partment. Born at Tramore, co. \Vaterford, in 1836, 

 Dr. Cooke entered Trinity College, Dublin, where, 

 after a distinguished career as a student, he graduated 

 in 1859 in the faculties of arts and engineering. In 

 the former faculty he was Hebrew prizeman, first 

 honoursman, and senior moderator and gold medallist 

 in science ; in the latter he obtained special certificates 

 in mechanics, chemistry, mineralogy, mining, and 

 geology. Pursuing his profession as an engineer, he 

 joined in i860 the service of the Bombay, Baroda and 

 Central India Railway, then under construction ; dur- 

 ing this service he built for the company the great 

 iron bridge at Bassein. Five years later the Govern- 

 ment of Bombay secured the services of the talented 

 young engineer as principal of the Civil Engineering 

 College, which later with widened scope became the 

 College of Science, at Poona. The post proved con- 

 genial to Dr. Cooke ; his wide and varied knowledge, 

 with which were associated much tact and great 



NO. 2142, VOL. 85] 



administrative gifts, enabled him to fill it with signal 

 success until he retired from India in 1893. 



Throughout his service Dr. Cooke had taken a keen 

 interest in botanical studies, and field-work connected 

 therewith was one of his chief recreations. What he 

 did as a pastime was, however, characterised by the 

 thoroughnes.s that marked his official work; he soon 

 became a recognised authority on the vegetation of 

 Bombay and .Scinde, and it was only fitting that when, 

 in i8qi, the Botanical Survey of India was organised. 

 Dr. Cooke should be placed in charge of the survcx 

 operations in western India. Encouraged thereto bv 

 .Sir George King, then director of the survey, Dr. 

 Cooke made preparations for the production of a 

 " Flora of the Presidencv of Bombay." Difficulti( s 

 over which neither Sir George King nor Dr. Cooki- 

 had control at first prevented the realisation of thi- 

 scheme, and when Dr. Cooke retired in 1893 his 

 energies found an outlet in a post to which he wa^ 

 appointed at the Imperial Institute. 



The difficulties that had stood in the way of th( 

 publication of a local flora of Bombay having at la>t 

 been overcome, Dr. Cooke was able, some years later, 

 to settle at Kew and commence the preparation of the 

 work in the herbarium there. The first part was pub- 

 lished in 1901 ; the seventh and concluding part ap- 

 peared about two years ago. The work is marked b\ 

 the thoroughness and attention to detail characteristic 

 of all that Dr. Cooke did ; nothing is taken for 

 granted ; every previous statement is carefully verified 

 or, refuted ; and the " Flora " will remain a lasting 

 meniorial to Dr. Cooke's critical acumen, industry, 

 and energy. On its completion Dr. Cooke continued 

 to work in the herbarium with undiminished ardour, 

 assisting as a volunteer in the preparation of the grept 

 " Flora Capensis," edited by Sir W. T. Thiselton- 

 bver, until laid pside by the illness which has endei^l 

 his career. Dr. Cooke, on whom his university' had 

 already conferred the degrep of LL.D., was created a 

 CLE. in i8qi, and was a Fellow of the Linnean and 

 the Geological Societies. 



NOTES. 



The Nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to 

 Prof. Otto Wallach, professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Gottingen. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 November 13, of Mr. W. R. Fisher, formerly assistant 

 professor of forestry at Coopers Hill College. 



The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall at its annual 

 meeting at Penzance on November 8 awarded Dr. George 

 J. Hinde, F.R.S., the Bolitho gold medal for his valuable 

 papers and services in connection with the geology of the 

 county. 



A Reuter telegram from Pisa states that on 

 November 10, in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel 

 and a Government Commission, Signor Marconi received 

 wireless telegrams direct from Canada and Massowah by 

 means of his extra powerful installation at Coltano. 



Mr. a. E. Brown, secretary of the Zoological Society 

 of Philadelphia, has died suddenly of heart disease in his 

 sixty-first year. He was vice-president and curator of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences in the same city, and a 

 frequent contributor of zoological and biological articles 

 to various scientific journals. 



Dr. C. Willard Hayes, chief geologist to the U.S. 

 Geological Survey, is now visiting Panama by the direc- 

 tion of President Taft to make a preliminary study of 





