November 17, 192 1] 



NATURE 



379 



Obituary. 



Dr. F. \V. Passmore. 



WE regret to announce the death of Dr. 

 Francis William Passmore at his home at 

 Bexley Heath on Saturday, October 29. Dr. Pass- 

 more began his training with Dr. B. H. Paul. In 

 those days London was probably the largest 

 market in the world for cinchona bark, and Dr. 

 Paul acquired no small reputation as a " quino- 

 logist." After five years in. Dr. Paul's laboratory 

 Passmore proceeded to Wurzburg, where he 

 worked under Emil Fischer about the time the 

 latter began his classical investigation of the 

 sugars. He published three papers with Fischer 

 on the formation of acrose from formaldehyde, 

 the phenylhydrazides of acids derived from 

 sugars, and on the synthesis of higher homologues 

 of J-mannose. 



On his return to London Passmore became an 

 assistant at the Pharmaceutical Society's Research 

 Laboratory, then recently started under Prof. 

 W. R. Dunstan as director, with whom he con- 

 tributed a paper to the Transactions of the Chem- 

 ical Society on the formation and properties of 

 aconine, the basic hydrolytic product of the highly 

 toxic alkaloid aconitine. If one may judge from 

 the four papers in which Passmore had collab- 

 orated up to this time, he would have made a 

 valuable addition to the small band of workers 

 who have devoted attention to the chemistry of 

 natural products in this country. 



The death of his father made it necessary for 

 him to take up more lucrative work, and he joined 

 the late Mr. H. Helbing as a consultant and 

 analyst. His success as an expert witness led to 

 his being constantly employed in patent cases in- 

 volving chemical questions of all kinds, but he 

 retained his interest in drugs, and from time to 

 time published notes, arising out of his profes- 

 sional work, on such subjects as wool-fat, euca- 

 lyptus oils, salicylic acid, chloroform, coal-tar dis- 

 infectants, and potassium bromide. These notes 

 were for the most part concerned with standards 

 of purity and methods of analysis, and were 

 written in collaboration with his partner. 



Passmore was also interested in the manufac- 

 ture of saccharin, and devoted some attention to 

 processes for the production of synthetic camphor, 

 but it is as a consultant that his frank and en- 

 gaging personality will be chiefly missed. 



Dr. Oscar Montelius. 



By the death of Dr. Oscar Montelius at Stock- 

 holm on November 4 the study of the prehistor\' 

 of Europe has suffered a grievous loss. 



Gustaf Oscar Augustin Montelius was born in 

 Stockholm in 1843. He was attracted to the 

 studv of archaeology at an early age. His first 

 paper on the subject was published as long ago 

 as i86g. An accomplished linguist — he seemed 

 equallv at home in most European languages — 

 NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



and the master of a ready pen, throughout a 

 period of more than fifty years he was a constant 

 contributor to the scientific journals both of his own 

 and of other European countries, as well as the 

 author of numerous books, several of which have 

 been translated into English. Notwithstanding 

 the volume of his published works, it is safe to 

 say that not one word of his writings is not deserv- 

 ing of careful consideration. Of these his " Primi- 

 tive Civilisation in Italy " is the most considerable, 

 and probably will also be the most enduring. 

 Montelius was well known personally in this 

 country, and had contributed papers to Archaeo- 

 logia and the Journal of the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute, and in 1904, at the Cambridge meeting 

 of the British Association, which he attended as 

 a distinguished guest, he read a paper before 

 Section H on "The Origin of the' Lotus Orna- 

 ment." His greatest and most lasting service to 

 archaeology lay, beyond question, in his investiga- 

 tion of the Bronze-age culture upon lines which 

 enabled him to formulate a systematic scheme of 

 chronology for that period. 



Montelius was for many years a director of the 

 State Museum of Sweden. He was a fellow of 

 the Swedish Academy, and an honorary fellow 

 of many European societies. In 1913 thirty-seven- 

 archaeologists of European reputation, represent- 

 ing ten different countries, united to do hinr 

 honour in a handsome memorial volume presented' 

 to him on his seventieth birthdav. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. E. 

 Windsor Richards, on Saturday, November 12,. 

 at ninety years of age. Mr. Richards started his. 

 career at the age of twenty-three as an assistant 

 engineer with his brother at Tredegar Iron Works, 

 thus beginning a connection with the iron and steeL 

 industry which he maintained throughout his life. 

 While still a young man, he was appointed chief 

 engineer at the Ebbw Vale Steel Works, where he 

 designed and constructed a special blast furnace 

 for the production from Somerset spathic ore of 

 spiegeleisen, which until that time had been im- 

 fKjrted from Germany. In 1876 Mr. Richards 

 became general manager, and later chairman and 

 director, of Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., 

 of Middlesbrough, where, in co-operation with 

 Thomas, the basic method of steel manufacture, 

 was successfully launched. In recognition of his 

 services to the iron and steel industry, Mr. 

 Richards was awarded in 1884 the Bessemer gold 

 medal of the Iron and Steel Institute, of which ten 

 years later he became president. He was also a 

 past-president of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers and of the Cleveland Institution of 

 Engineers. 



The death is announced of Prof. Sheridan 

 Delepine, professor of public health and bacterio- 



