April 14, 192 1] 



NATURE 



213 



so that in 1894 he had discovered more than half 

 of the known pairs of which the distance was less 

 than \" . 



Burnham afterwards returned to Chicago as 

 professor of practical astronomy at the University. 

 The first volume of the Publications of the Yerkes 

 •Observatory consists of his great "General Cata- 

 logue of Double Stars," which has become the 

 standard work of reference on the subject. He 

 •continued the work of discussing measures and 

 orbits, and of drawing up lists of stars that needed 

 observation, until within a few years of his death. 



Burnham was elected a fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society in 1874 on the nomination 

 of the Rev. T. W. Webb, whose "Celestial Ob- 

 jects " had first directed his attention to double 

 stars. He was elected an associate in 1898, 

 having received the gold medal in 1894. 



A. C. D. C. 



We announce with regret the death on Thurs- 

 day, March 31, of Mr. T. E. Gatehouse at the 

 age of sixty-six years. Mr. Gatehouse was for 

 some forty years associated with our contem- 

 porary, the Electrical Review, of which he had 

 become editorial and technical director. As a 

 young man he was a pupil of Robert Sabine, one 

 of the most able pioneers of electrical industry, 

 and later he worked with Sir Charles Wheat- 

 stone and Sir Samuel Canning. From these he 

 obtained a broad knowledge of electrical engineer- 

 ing in all its aspects, and especially of telegraphy, 

 both on land and by submarine cable. As a young 

 engineer he also took great interest in schemes 

 for electric lighting, and himself held a number 

 of patents for improvements in both the arc and 

 incandescent lamp systems. In 1881 Mr. Gate- 

 house joined forces with a fellow-pupil under 

 Sabine, Mr. R. H. Kempe, who was proprietor, 

 with Mr. H. Alabaster, of the Telegraphic Journal 

 and Electrical Review (afterwards the Electrical 

 Review), and Mr. Gatehouse was made editor, 

 a post which he held until a few years 



ago. Failing health compelled him to give 

 up active work as editor, but as editorial and 

 technical director he kept in touch with the 

 journal, and lent his aid in a consultative capacity 

 until a few days before his death occurred. 



The death is announced of Mr. Sydney Fisher, 

 one of the leading authorities on agriculture in 

 Canada. Mr. Fisher was born in 1850, and 

 educated at McGill University, and later at Cam- 

 bridge. At the age of thirty-one years he entered 

 the Dominion Parliament, and, with the exception 

 of an interval lasting from 1891-96, was a repre- 

 sentative in it continuously until 191 1. He made 

 a study of the principles of agriculture, and when 

 Sir Wilfrid Laurier came into power in 1896 was 

 appointed Minister of Agriculture, an office which 

 he held for fifteen years. During his tenure of 

 office Mr. Fisher initiated a progressive agricul- 

 tural policy, the most important part of which was 

 the establishment, in various parts of the 

 Dominion, of experimental farms, where careful 

 and profitable research has been undertaken, Mr. 

 Fisher will also be remembered as the first vice- 

 president of the International Institute of Agri- 

 culture convened at Rome in 1908. 



The death is announced of Mr, Alexander 

 Wynter Blyth, which occurred on April i 

 at the age of seventy-six years. Mr. Blyth 

 was for forty years public analyst for the 

 county of Devon and the borough of St. 

 Marylebone, and a past-president of the In- 

 corporated Society of Medical Officers of 

 Health. He will be best remembered as the 

 author of a number of books on public health, 

 among which are " Foods : their Composition and 

 Analysis," "Poisons: their Effects and Detec- 

 tion,'' and "A Manual of Public Health." He 

 also communicated a number of papers to the 

 Royal Society, the Chemical Society., and the 

 Royal Sanitary Institute. 



Not 



At the meeting of the Royal Society on May 5 the 

 'Croonian lecture will be delivered by Dr. Henry Head 

 on "Release of Function in the Nervous System." 



Prof. J. Norman Collie, professor of organic 

 chemistry in the University of London, and Sir W. 

 Morley Fletcher, Secretary of the Medical Research 

 Council (Privy Council), have been elected members 

 of the Athenaeum under the provisions of the rule 

 of the club which empowers the annual election by 

 the committee of a certain number of persons "of 

 distinguished eminence in science, literature, the arts, 

 or for public service." 



The Institute of Physics will be inaugurated at a 

 meeting- to be held on Wednesday, April 27, at 6 p.m., 

 in the hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great 

 George Street, Westminster. Sir Richard Glazebrook, 

 'the president, will preside, and Sir J. J. Thomson will 

 NO. 2685, VOL. 107] 



es. 



deliver an address. Mr. A. J. Balfour is expected to 

 be present and to extend a welcome to the institute. 

 Non-members of the institute or of the societies asso- 

 ciated with it may obtain tickets of admission on 

 application to the Secretary, 10 Essex Street, Strand, 



W.C.2. 



A GOOD deal of attention has been devoted in the 

 medical, pharmaceutical, and general Press to the 

 provisions of the Draft Regulations drawn up by the 

 Home Office under the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920. 

 The drugs specified in the draft regulations are opium, 

 morphine, diamorphine, cocaine, and ecgonine, and, 

 with certain exceptions as regards pharmacists, 

 medical men, dentists, and veterinary surgeons, the 

 manufacture, possession, purchase, or sale of any of 

 these drugs is prohibited except to persons duly 

 licensed or otherwise authorised by the Home Office. 

 Apparently a chemist successfully synthesising one of 



