86 



NATURE 



[September i6, 1920 



stances formed in the putrefaction of proteins. The 

 earlier literature relating to the ptomaines — a term 

 now fallen into disuse in scientific nomenclature — 

 is full of errors, and there is practically no evi- 

 dence that what is called "ptomaine poisoningf 

 is due to poisonous alkaloids : it is rather to be 

 attributed to bacterial infection and is caused by 

 bacterial toxins. Gautier found in fresh tissues a 

 number of basic substances, related to uric acid 

 and creatinine, which he regarded as the products 

 of ordinary metabolism, and to whiclf he gave the 

 name of leucomahics, to distinguish them from the 

 products of bacterial action. 



A subject which engaged Gautier's attention for 

 some time, and to which he occasionally returned, 

 was the widespread diffusion of arsenic in the 

 animal organism, which led to work on improved 

 methods of detecting and estimating that element 

 in micro-chemical quantities. His speculations 

 concerning the role played by arsenic, as well as 

 by iodine, in our organism may be said to be at 

 the basis of modern therapeutics. The question 

 of the influence of the infinitely little on hygiene 

 had, in fact, a special attraction for him. It is 

 seen in his work on the action of the impurities of 

 the air of towns on the public health. He detected 

 the constant presence in air of iodine, as well as 

 of hydrogen ; the former, he imagined, was due 

 to the presence of microscopic algfe, the latter to 

 emanations from primitive rocks, volcanoes, and 

 thermal springs. 



Gautier, as a biochemist, also engaged himself 

 in questions of plant physiology and on the 

 chemical transformations of various products in 

 the life-history of vegetable organisms. These 

 studies occasionally took a practical turn, as, for 

 example, in his inquiries into the colouring matter 

 of the grape and the detection of the fraudulent 

 colouring and dilution of wine, and into the 

 influence of "plastering," "collage," and fortify- 

 ing on the weight of the dry extract. The nature 

 of tobacco-smoke also attracted his attention. He 

 found that when tobacco is smoked in a pipe the 

 volatile liquid products consist mainly of basic 

 compounds, among them nicotine, a higher homo- 

 logue, CjjHjgN.j, which pre-exists in tobacco leaf, 

 and a base, C5H9NO, which appears to be related 

 to picoline. Hydropyridines and other alkaloids 

 are also present, resulting from the decomposition 

 at relatively low temperatures of the carbo- 

 pyridic and carbohydropyridic acids present in 

 the leaf. 



Gautier was a fellow-worker with Maxwell 

 Simpson in Wurtz's laboratory, and the two col- 

 laborated in the study of the action of hydro- 

 cyanic acid upon aldehyde. He was an occasional 

 visitor to this country, and represented France 

 at various academic gatherings in London. He 

 was a genial soul, and, as was said of him 

 by M. Deslandres, president of the Academy of 

 Sciences, when pronouncing his dlofre, remained 

 young in spirit and young of heart until the 

 end. 



T. E. Thorpe. 



NO. 2655, VOL. 106] 



By the death of Mr. Henry Bassett, F.I.C, £t 

 the age of eighty-three, on August 30, we have 

 lost one of the few remaining survivors of that 

 ardent band of young chemists who studied under 

 Dr. A. VV. Hofmann at the Royal College of 

 Chemistry. Handicapped at the start by the death 

 of his father when he was only nine years old, 

 Mr. Bassett had an uphill fight all his' life; but 

 he was animated by the same spirit which often 

 enables the poet and the artist to produce good 

 work under most unfavourable conditions. For 

 a time he acted as assistant to Brodie at Oxford, 

 but most of the best years of his life were taken 

 up in testing anthracene as assistant to Mr. F. A. 

 Manning. In 1894, at an age when men more 

 fortunately situated are thinking of retiring, he 

 started a consulting practice of his own, first at 

 St. Andrew's Hill and then at 104 Queen Vic- 

 toria Street, specialising in non-ferrous alloy and 

 anthracene work. Never lacking in ideas, Mr. 

 Bassett always had some research work in hand, 

 and at intervals, from 1863, he published some 

 seventeen papers and short notes, mainly in the 

 Journal of the Chemical Society or the Chemical 

 News, Several of these had reference to anthracene 

 testing, into which he introduced some improve- 

 ments, and on which he was a recognised authority. 

 His most important research was certainly that on 

 ethyl orthocarbonate, which he prepared by the 

 action of sodium on a mixture of chloropicrin and 

 absolute alcohol. This was published in the 

 Journal of the Chemical Society for 1864, and 

 may give him a permanent place in chemical 

 literature. Several short papers on chlorides of 

 carbon and one on eulyte and dyslyte may also be 

 mentioned. During the course of his consulting 

 practice Mr. Bassett carried out a considerable 

 amount of research work, notably on the corrosion 

 of manganese and other bronzes by sea water, 

 which was never intended for publication. Of 

 recent years he had been doing some very inter- 

 esting work on graphite, and until within a fort- 

 night of his death had been trying to get his 

 results into a form suitable for publication. 



We regret to note that the death of Mr. I sham 

 Randolph on August 2, at seventy-two years of 

 age, is announced in the Engineer for September 

 10. Mr. Randolph's most prominent work was on 

 the Chicago drainage canal, of which he was chief 

 engineer from 1893 until 1907, and was there- 

 after its consulting engineer until 1912; this great 

 work cost about 12,000,000/., and has a hydro- 

 electric plant of 40,000 h.p. He was a member of 

 the international board of consulting engineers 

 for the Panama Canal, and occupied manv other 

 important public posts. Mr. Randolph was a 

 member of many engineering societies, including 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers. The 

 Franklin Institute awarded him the Elliott Cresson 

 Medal for distinguished achievements in civil en- 

 gineering, and the University of Illinois conferred 

 upon him the degree of Doctor of Engineering in 



1 IQIO. 



