November 24, 19 10] 



NATURE 



113 



Dr. Glazebrook, continuing, briefly sketched the 

 history of the Laboratory as contained in the book, 

 which he said was written by men who took part 

 in the events they described. 



The book has been written partly in the hope of enabling 

 educated Englishmen who are not physicists to under- 

 stand the meaning of the work done at the Cavendish 

 Laboraton,-. ... It covers a wide range of intellectual 

 qualification from that of the M.B. student to that of the 

 brilliant band Rutherford, Wilson, Townsend, McLellan, 

 Langevin, Richardson, Zeleny, and the others who were 

 research students ten years ago. The Master of Trinity 

 in an eloquent speech a few months ago told his audience 

 he was a dreamer of dreams, and in one dream he 

 pictured a larger university with its portals opened wide 

 and men of many nations and kindred flocking in from 

 all lands to reap the rich harvest of ancient learning or 

 modern science which only Cambridge can furnish, and to 

 carry back to their distant homes the garnered sheaves to 

 feed and fertilise the world. Sir J. J. Thomson has 

 realised such a dream. The new regulations for advanced 

 students passed in 1895 were accepted in large measure 

 through his advocacy, and since that time an ever- 

 increasing stream of men coming from ever\- land has been 

 directed towards Cambridge ; the list of those who have 

 carried on researches in the Cavendish Laborator}- during 

 the last forty years contains some 250 names ; the list of 

 published memoirs covers fortv' pages. Former students 

 hold important posts in almost every great university ; the 

 fact that of the professorships of physics in the colleges 

 of university rank in England all but one are held by 

 Cambridge men shows the wide influence of the laboratorj' 

 at home. Go where you will, not only in English-speak- 

 ing lands, to any centre of physical study and you will 

 find one or more who is proud to say he was a research 

 student of the Cavendish Laboratory and a pupil of Sir 

 J. J. Thomson- 



As representing those pupils and in the name of the 

 large assembly here present, in the name of the scientific 

 world, I am here to express to you our high appreciation 

 of the services you have rendered to science and to the 

 Universit}', to assure you of the affectionate regard for 

 you personally of all your pupils, and to wish for you 

 and Lady Thomson many years of fruitful activity- and 

 continued happiness. Can I do better than repeat the 

 Chancellor's wish — that the future mav resemble the 

 past? 

 I ^ It is my privilege to ask you to accept this volume with 

 j Its record of your great work as some slight recognition 

 of all you have done. 



>ir J, J. Thomson responded in a characteristic 



-<Mcech. There was no mention of his own work further 



' than the expression of the wish, which raised a smile 



on all faces, that he had done more. His speech was 



I an acknowledgment of all he owed to his College, 



i his Ujiiversity, and those personal friends from whom, 



j he said, he had received help without which there 



i would have been no such celebration. He referred to 



I the triumvirate Rutherford, McLellan, and Langevin, 



; and meiitioned that one of them had received the 



{ Nobel prize. Xo one was forgotten in the expression 



jhis thanks; the demonstrators, the students, the assis- 



jtants in the Laboratory-, were all remembered and 



I many of them mentioned by name. To evervone full 



I appreciation was accorded,' and the one person not 



I mentioned, whose work and influence were not alluded 



^'^ was the Director of the Laboratory-, the Professor 



whom all else was due. 



The Vice-Chancellor briefly declared the proceedings 

 jended, and passed, "as a business man," to the next 

 litem of the agenda, " Cavendish Laboratorv Afternoon 

 jTea," an institution of Sir J. J. Thomsonj which has 

 accompanied Cambridge Physicists to all parts of the 

 ■world and, conversation becoming general, the after- 

 noon ended most pleasantlv. 



S. J. D. S. 



::o. 2143, VOL. 85] 



MR. ir. R. FISHER. 



A S announced with regret last week, Mr. \V. R. 

 **• Fisher, assistant professor of forestry at Oxford, 

 died on November 13, after an operation. He h^d not 

 been in good health for some time past, but his death 

 occurred rather suddenly. 



Mr. Fisher was born in 1846, at Sydney, New South 

 Wales, where his father was Crown Solicitor, but 

 became afterwards the first Attorney-General of New- 

 Zealand. He caine to England quite young, and was 

 educated at Cambridge, the home of his father and 

 grandfather, the latter having been a banker in Petty 

 Cury. He joined St. John's College, and toc^c his 

 degree in 1^7, being placed 17 senior optime. Soon 

 afterwards he became a mathematical master at 

 ^epton School. 



In 1869 Mr. Fisher competed for an appointment in 

 the Indian Forest Service, being bracketed first. After 

 the necessan.' training in forestry', chiefly at Nancy, 

 and partly in Scotland, he joined the Bengal Forest 

 ' Department in 1872. On the establishment of the 

 ' Assam Chief Commissionership, in 1874, he was 

 transferred to that administration and remained there 

 until 1878. During that time he started the Charduar 

 Rubber Plantation (Ficus elastica), which was ex- 

 tended to an area of about 1000 acres. Mr. Fisher 

 was thus one of the pioneers of artificial rubber 

 plantations. In 1878 he was specially selected for the 

 appointment of deputy-director of the newly-estab- 

 lished School of Forestry- at Dehra Dun, and he rose 

 subsequently to become the director of the school and 

 conser\-ator of forests of the school circle. 



In the year 1889 he came home on furlough, and 

 in 1890 he joined the staff of the School of Forestry 

 at Coopers Hill College. In the year 1905 he w-ent 

 with that school to Oxford, where he became a mem- 

 ber of Brasenose College. 



Mr. Fisher has left his mark uptm forest science 

 and practice. .\t Dehra Dun he taught chiefly- forest 

 botany, and he brought out a volume on plant physio- 

 logy. After he joined at Coopers Hill, he taught 

 silviculture, forest protection, and utilisation. He 

 joined Sir W. Schlich in bringing out the latter's 

 " Manual of Forestry," of which he undertook the 

 preparation of vol. iv. on "Forest Protection," and of 

 vol. v., on '■ Forest Utilisation," now in their second 

 edition. Although these two volumes are adaptations 

 of Hess's work on protection and Gayers's book on 

 utilisation, Fisher's books are more than the original 

 works, since he adapted the material to British and 

 Indian conditions. They may be considered the 

 standard wcwks on the two subjects. 



Throughout his life Fisher was an active w-riter, 

 and it would be difficult even to enumerate the many- 

 articles on forestry- which he published. He was an 

 active member, and president for two y-ears, of the 

 Royal English Arboricultural Society-, and editor of 

 the society's Journal. After his arrival at Oxford, he 

 started an arbcwetum of indigenous and exotic trees 

 on land belonging to Magdalen College. 



During his leisure time he advised many- British 

 proprietors on the management of their woods, and 

 thus helped forward the question of forestry- and 

 afforestation in these islands. He was, in 1907. a 

 member of the Departmental Committee of the Board 

 of Agriculture in Ireland on afforestation, and lately 

 of the committee sitting in London, dealing with 

 agricultural and forestal education in Britain. 



Mr. Fisher was a man of very- simple character, 



with a w-arm heart, and he was universally- liked, 



not only by the students, but also by a large host of 



friends. He conducted the annual excursion to 



i France, and it was quite touching to see how French 



