530 



NATURE 



[June 23, 192 1 



Mr. Dennett was also one of the most genial and 

 simple-natured of men, and his death will be most 

 deeply regretted by a wide circle here and in 

 Africa. C. 



Sir Thomas Wrightson, Bart., M.Inst.C.E. 



Sir Thomas Wrightson, Bart., a master of in- 

 dustry in the North of England, died at Neasham 

 Hall, his seat on the banks of the Tees, on 

 June 18, in the eighty-second year of his age. 

 Like his cousin, the late Lord Armstrong, in 

 whose Elswick works he served his apprentice- 

 ship, Sir Thomas combined a business aptitude 

 with the qualities which go to make a research 

 worker and inventor. He contributed numerous 

 papers on professional and technical subjects to 

 the Proceedings of engineering and metallurgical 

 institutes and societies with which he was asso- 

 ciated, but of his contributions to knowledge the 

 one which is most likely to be remembered is con- 

 nected with a pastime rather than with his profes- 

 sion. He was an ardent musician in his earlier 

 years, and became interested in the oower posses- 

 sed by the human brain of resolving compound 

 sound-waves into their component notes. He was 

 not satisfied with the theory put forward by von 

 Helmholtz in 1863, and in 1876, when giving 

 a presidential address to the Cleveland Institution 

 of Engineers, he put forward an observation which 

 he afterwards made the basis of a new theory of 

 the mechanism of hearing. This observation was 

 that if the sine curves representing a compound 

 sound-wave are plotted out on a zero line, and if 

 it is supposed that each crest, trough, and " cross- 

 ing point " on such a tracing could give rise to a 



stimulus on entering the ear, the time intervals 

 of all the primary component notes could still be 

 recognised. The cochlea, he supposed, must be 

 able to detect these as pressure pulses, and acted 

 not as a resonator but as an hydraulic apparatus. 

 A little later he became involved in public life and 

 in politics, and sat first for Stockton and after- 

 wards for St. Pancras East in the Conservative 

 interest. In 1906 he abandoned politics to devote 

 himself anew to working out the idea he had first 

 put forward in 1876. In 1907 he published a 

 monograph under the title, " On the Impulses of 

 Compound Sound Waves and Mechanical Trans- 

 mission through the Ear." In this publication he 

 describes and figures a machine of his own inven- 

 tion — an ohmograph he named it — by which he 

 could combine the tracings of two, three or four 

 simple notes into their combined form. Associat- 

 ing himself with Prof, (now Sir) Arthur Keith, a 

 reinvestigation of the finer anatomy of the cochlea 

 was undertaken, with the result that many facts 

 came to light which were favourable to his inter- 

 pretation of the mechanism of the internal ear, 

 but could not be explained on the supposition that 

 the cochlea serves as a resonator. In 1918 Sir 

 Thomas brought his evidence together in the form 

 of a book which was published by Messrs. Mac- 

 millan under the title, "An Enquiry into the 

 Analytical Mechanism of the Internal Ear." 

 The theory thus put forward is at present being 

 subjected to a searching criticism, and if it be 

 too much to claim that anything like finality has 

 been reached, it may be safely stated that the 

 author has made a contribution which has a per- 

 manent value for students of auditory mechanism. 



Notes. 



The formal opening of the new Intermediate Scale 

 Chemistry Laboratory of the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology by Mr. A. J. Balfour (the 

 Marquess of Crewe presiding) will take place to- 

 morrow (Friday) at 4 o'clock. 



The annual general meeting of the Research 

 Defence Society will be held at 11 Chandos Street, 

 W.I, on Wednesday, June 29, at 3.30, under the 

 chairmanship of Lord Lamington. Dr. H. H. Dale 

 will give an address on "The Work of the National 

 Institute for Medical Research." 



The Semon lecture for 1920-21 in connection with 

 the University of London will be given at 5 o'clock 

 on Tuesday, July 5, at the Royal Society of Medicine, 

 I Wimpole Street, W. i, by Dr. J. Home, who will 

 take as his subject "The Relationship of the Larynx 

 to Pulmonary Tuberculosis." Admission will be free, 

 without ticket. 



A Bill to provide for the time in the British Isles 

 being in advance of Greenwich mean time during a 

 certain period of the year has been presented to the 

 House of Commons. 



The president and council of the Royal Society 

 have appointed Mr. H. Robinson, of the University 



NO. 2695, VOL. 107] 



of Manchester, to the Moseley studentship for research 

 in molecular physics, the funds for which were be- 

 queathed to the Royal Society by the late Lieut. 

 H. G. J. Moseley. 



The John Fritz gold medal has been awarded by 

 the National Societies of American Engineers to Mr. 

 Schneider, past-president of the Iron and Steel Insti- 

 tute, In recognition of his work In connection with the 

 development of artillery. 



By the will of the late Sir Felix Semon, the 

 laryngological library of this well-known throat 

 specialist Is left to the Royal Society of Medicine. 



A GOLD loving-cup was presented on Friday last 

 by the members of the Royal Institution to Sir James 

 and Lady Dewar on the occasion of their golden 

 wedding. 



In consequence of the illness of Dr. J. Rennle, It 

 has been found necessary to suspend the arrangements 

 made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 for the examination of diseased bees. The Ministry 

 will issue a further announcement as soon as other 

 arrangements have been made. 



At the evening meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society on Monday last the president stated that the 



