340. 



NATURE 



[May 12, 1921 



phasise the far-reaching importance of the prin- 

 ciples which they have clearly explained and 

 beautifully illustrated. It is to be hoped that the 

 volume will be widely and carefully read. Con- 

 sidering- the scale and style of the work, with its 



Fig. 3. — Common skunk as in Fig. 2, but with sky "background" cut off 

 by dark, making his white conspicuous ; photographed outdoors from a 

 stuffed skin. From " Conceaiing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom." 



sixteen coloured plates and 140 black-and-white 

 figures, the price is very moderate. 



The appearance of this new edition is, as is 

 explained by Gerald H. Thayer in his preface, 

 related to the great part which its principles have 



played in the war. That they should have been 

 collectively named "camouflage" is a curious in- 

 stance of word-history, " Camouflage " is not to 

 be found in Murray's Oxford Dictionary, but 

 "camouflet" is there, with this meaning: "a 

 mine containing a small charge of powder, placed 

 in a wall of earth between the galleries of be- 

 sieged and besieger, so as, in exploding, to bury, 

 suffocate, or cut off the retreat of the miner on 

 the opposite side ; a ' stifler. ' " " Camouflet or 

 stifler" is quoted from the "Penny Cyclopaedia" 

 of 1836. Then, when smoke came to be employed 

 above ground it kept the same name ; and, as its 

 chief use was to act as a concealing screen or 

 curtain, "camouflage " became, in the Great War, 

 transferred from the cause to the effect, and ex- 

 tended to concealment, however attained. 



G. H. Thayer states that it has recently come 

 to light that, in Germany, the original edition was 

 "searched through with most diligent care for 

 information which could be put to military or 

 naval use." Here in England its principles were 

 applied long before the war, for many years ago 

 the great guns in our coast forts were painted 

 white beneath to neutralise their shadows, and 

 coloured above with an obliterative pattern. But 

 while all this was done for the guns our men 

 vvere sent to the war with a cap that seemed 

 specially designed, by its reversal of principles 

 explained in this volume, to render the head 

 conspicuous to an enemy. E. B. P. 



Obituary. 



Prof, W. R. Brooks. 



PROF. W. R. BROOKS was one of the most 

 successful of all modern comet-hunters. He 

 nearly equalled the wonderful success of Pons, 

 who found twenty-eight comets in the first twenty- 

 five years of last century. Prof. Brooks's total 

 was twenty-seven comets, but in regard to several 

 of these he was anticipated. 



Prof. Brooks was born at Maidstone, Kent, on 

 June II, 1844, and with his parents migrated to 

 the United States in 1857. He was educated in 

 various public and private schools in England and 

 America. He was awarded the Hon. A.M. 

 degree by Hobart College in 1891, and the Sc.D. 

 by Hamilton College in 1898. He was director 

 of Redhouse Observatory, Phelps, New York, from 

 1872 to 1888, and was appointed to the Smith 

 Observatory in the latter year ; finally he became 

 in 1900 professional astronomer at Hobart Col- 

 lege Observatory. 



As a discoverer of comets Prof. Brooks was 

 rivalled only by Prof. E. E. Barnard during the 

 years from 1881 to 191 1. Some of the comets 

 detected by him during his unwearying sweeps of 

 the heavens were of considerable importance. 

 Thus he was the first to find, in 1883, Pons's 

 periodical comet of 1812, and in 1886 he picked 

 up the expected comet of Olbers, last seen in 181 5 ; 

 he also discovered comets of short periods belong- 

 ing to the Jovian family in 1886 and 1889. The 



NO. 2689, VOL, 107] 



latter broke up into several fragments and proved 

 quite a notable object. 



Like Messier, Pons, Tempel, Barnard, Perrine, 

 and others. Prof, Brooks displayed special ability 

 in this field of observation, and though he en- 

 gaged in other departments of practical astro- 

 nomy, it was in exploring the sky for comets that 

 he met with his greatest successes. His results 

 afford another instance of the fact that natural 

 ability combined with enthusiasm, opportunity, and 

 well-directed effort usually bring ample reward. 



Prof, Brooks received ten gold prizes from 

 Mr, Warner, and nine comet medals from the 

 Astronomical Society of the Pacific ; he also re- 

 ceived the Lalande medal from the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences, and a number of other special distinc- 

 tions. He was elected a fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society on January 13, 1888. His 

 discoveries ranged over the thirty years from 1881 

 to 191 1, but it was during the first twenty years 

 of this period that his principal work was done. 



There was nothing in his early life or associa- 

 tions to lead Prof. Brooks to the pursuit of astro- 

 nomy except his inclination. His initial success 

 in making a reflecting telescope and in finding 

 new comets enabled him to relinquish his daily 

 avocation and to devote the greater part of his 

 life to the study . of the heavens. He died on 

 May 3 in his seventy-seventh year. , . 



W. F. Denning. 



