November 4, 1920] 



NATURE 



3»7 



the 26-in. refractor there. He suffered for some 

 time from heart trouble, and his death was prob- 

 ably accelerated by a bad fall last spring. He 

 married in 1885, and leaves a son and daughter. 



Alfred Lionel Lewis. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. 

 Alfred Lionel Lewis on October 22. Mr. 

 Lewis, who was in his seventy-ninth year, joined 

 the Anthropological Society of London in 1866, 

 and was elected a member of its council in i86g. 

 When the society was absorbed by the foundation 

 of the Anthropological Institute in 1871, Mr. 

 Lewis became a member of this body, of which 

 at the time of his death he was one of the oldest 

 members. He was elected a member of the 

 council in 1876, and in 1886 he became treasurer, 

 an office which he continued to hold for seventeen 

 years. From 1905 to 1907 he served as vice- 

 president. Mr. Lewis's interests were directed 

 almost exclusively to archaiology, and in particular 

 to megalithic monuments, a subject on which he 

 was for many years recognised, especially in 

 France, as one of the foremost authorities. The 

 great accuracy of his measured plans and draw- 

 ings was not the least valuable feature in the 

 numerous papers on this subject which he con- 

 tributed to the Proceedings of the Anthropological 

 Institute, the Prehistoric Congresses of France, 

 the International Congresses on Prehistoric 

 Archseology, the International Congress of Re- 

 ligions, and the British Association. He had 

 already attained the fiftieth year of his member- 

 ship of the last-named body, and had looked for- 

 ward eagerly to taking part in 192 1 in the cele- 

 bration of the jubilee of the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute. 



arthritis. Before long he turned his attention to 

 the then young science of bacteriology, and in'r 

 vestigated the cause of pneumonia. .About i886'v 

 after a detailed investigation of a number of cases 

 of this disease, he published a paper in which he 

 described a coccus, the Diplococcus pneumoniae, 

 as the causative organism, which corresponded 

 with the organism previously described by 

 Fraenkel. In 1887 his magnum opus appeared, on 

 the discovery and description of the causal organ- 

 ism of cerebrospinal fever, the Diplococcus intra- 

 cellularis, which is now almost universally ac- 

 cepted as the causative organism of this disease. 

 j In 1885 Weichselbaum succeeded Rokitansky \t\ 

 I the chair of pathological anatomy, remaining on 

 i the active staff of the university until last year; 

 when he was appointed emeritus professor. In 

 1912 he was installed as Rector Magnificus for 

 the year, the highest honour in the gift of the 

 university. Weichselbaum was a great investi- 

 gator and a teacher of repute. In addition to 

 numerous original papers and communications, h^ 

 was the author of " Elements of Pathological 

 Histology," which was translated into English, j 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy- 

 five, of Dr. Anton Weichselbaum, emeritus 

 professor of pathological anatomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Vienna. Soon after graduation, 

 Weichselbaum became interested in pathology, 

 and published work on the nature of rheumatoid 



The death of Mr. William Melville is re- 

 corded in Engineering for October 29 as having oc* 

 curred on October 21. Mr. Melville was born ir» 

 1850, and served his pupilage with the North 

 British Railway Co., under Mr. James Bell. He 

 joined the Glasgow and South-Western Railway 

 in 1874, and rose to be engineer-in-chief of the 

 company, a position from which he retired in 

 1916. Mr. Melville was responsible for a large 

 number of extensions and improvements on the 

 railways and docks in Scotland, among which 

 may be mentioned the widening of the City Union 

 lines, Glasgow, which comprised the demolition 

 of the old viaduct carrying the railway over the 

 Clyde, and the substitution therefor of a new 

 viaduct carrying four lines on the site of the old 

 viaduct. He also extended St. Enoch Station, 

 Glasgow, adding six new platforms to the six of 

 the original station. 



Notes. 



We are glad to note that a movement is on foot 

 to establish a memorial to the late Mr. W; Duddell, 

 whose early death In November, 1917, deprived many 

 of a valued friend and cut short a career of scicntifir 

 research of great brilliance. Mr. Duddell 's work on 

 the recording of the wave-form of alternating cur- 

 rents. Including the development of the oscillograph, 

 had great influence on alternating current theory as 

 well as on telephony, while his well-known researches 

 on the electric arc led up to a large field of develop- 

 ment In wireless telegraphy. The memorial is to 

 take the form of a medal to be awarded periodically 

 by the council of the Physical .Society at its discretion 

 to those who have advanced physical knowledge by 

 the invention or design of scientific instruments or 



NO. 2662, VOL. 106] 



of materials used in their construction. If sufficient 

 funds arc available, it is also proposed to form a 

 fund to be devoted to the foundation of scholarships 

 or prizes to be awarded to students of the Physical 

 i Society under conditions to be determined by the 

 council. We are sure that the many friends whom 

 Mr. Buddell made among the members of the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers and of the Riintgen 

 Society, of both of which bf had been president, and 

 I of the Physical Society, of which be was for some 

 ; years the treasurer, will be glad of the opportunity 

 ' to support the scheme. .\n influential committee has 

 been forme<l under the chairmanship of Sir William 

 ! Bragg (president of the Physical Society). Mr. ft. S. 

 Whipple (president of the Optical Society) i* acting 



