766 



NATURE 



[February io, 192 i 



three parts of the series. Perhaps one of 

 the most interesting features arising- out of this 

 work was the final demonstration that there arc 

 two distinct o-dinitrobenzidines yielding distinct 

 acetyl derivatives and distinct dinitrodiphenyls, 

 phenomena which, it is suggested, are due to a 

 form of isomerism which depends on the limita- 

 tion of the free rotation of the singly linked carbon 

 atoms. 



During the war Cain placed his services where 

 they were most needed, and as chief chemist to 

 the Dalton Works of British Dyes, Ltd., at Hud- 

 dersfield, he was responsible for much of the work 

 which has led to the reorganisation of our dye 

 industry. He also, for a short time, acted as 

 superintendent to H.M. factory at Hackney Wick. 

 The services he rendered to the Chemical 

 Warfare Committee were especially valuable, 

 because to him was allotted the task of searching 

 the literature for substances likely to be of a 

 noxious character. This, to the writer's know- 

 ledge, he did in no uncertain manner. 



During recent years Cain produced a new edition 

 of the " Chemistry of the Diazo-Compounds, " a 

 valuable and interesting book on the " Inter- 

 mediate Products," and a revision of vol. i. of 

 " Roscoe and Schorlemmer. " It will be seen, 

 therefore, that Cain was an organic chemist 

 of no mean order, especially in connection 

 with the theory and practice of his favourite 

 subject. That he was an editor who carried 

 out the duties of his editorship with the 

 thoroughness which characterised all his actions 

 the publications of the Chemical Society for fifteen 

 years bear witness ; but it will be neither as an 

 organic chemist nor as an editor that he will be 

 remembered best, because he occupied a position 

 alone, in that he possessed a knowledge of chem- 

 istry and of chemical data which can onlv be de- 

 scribed as encyclopaedic. He was. in fact, a living 

 "Beilstein," and no question, seemed to come to 

 him amiss. Woe betide the man who ventured to 

 ignore the previously published work of others, 

 Cain soon pointed out his error to him. The writer 

 can recall an instance in which he had happened 

 to forget a prev-ious paper published bv himself 

 on the same subject and to which Cain at once 

 directed his attention. 



Cain had an exceedinglv lovable disposition. 

 His loss to his friends will be grievous, and to 

 science one which it will be hard to repair. 



J. F. T. 



Ch.\rles Edward Pagan, C.B.R., I.S.O. 



Mr. C. E. Pagan, secretary of the Natural 

 History Departments of the British Museum, died 

 at his residence in \^'^est Kensington on 

 January 30, after an illness which commenced 

 about a month earlier. A short account of the 

 value of his services to the museum was published 

 in Nature of January 13, p. 638. in a notice of 



NO. 2676, VOL. 106] 



his impending retirement, which was to have 

 taken place on March 31 next. 



Mr. Pagan's immediate ancestors were in the 

 Diplomatic Service, and he himself possessed to 

 a remarkable degree qualities which might well 

 have led to high distinction in the same career if 

 he had adopted it. He was born at Naples on 

 Christmas Day, 1855, when his father was Secre- 

 tary of the Legation in that city. At the age of 

 nine he came to England and was placed under 

 the charge of Sir Anthony Panizzi, being sent to 

 .school at Leytonstone. After Sir Anthony's re- 

 tirement from the post of principal librarian of 

 the British Museum, Mr. Pagan was frequently at 

 his house, where Mr. W. E. Gladstone sometimes 

 joined them in a game of whist. In 1873 he 

 entered the British Museum, and he afterwards 

 followed the natural history collections to the 

 South Kensington branch, where the remainder of 

 his work was done. He became assistant secre- 

 tary in 1889, and he was appointed secretary of the 

 Natural History Departments in 1919, in special 

 recognition of his services, as a part of the re- 

 organisation consequent on the retirement from 

 the directorship of his contemporary. Sir Lazarus 

 Fletcher, who died on January 6 last. 



Mr. Pagan was a man of wide and varied tastes. 

 He had a strong love for natural history ; but he 

 was also interested in art, on which he was well 

 informed, and in European history. He could 

 speak with authority of the Napoleonic cam- 

 paigns, on which he had a good library, and he 

 had also a wide knowledge of the history of the 

 Victorian era. He was joint-author with Mr. 

 Andrew W. Ture of a book on this subject, 

 entitled "The First Year of a Silken Reign." 

 He was interested in every form of sport, and 

 he never missed a University boat race from the 

 year in which he came to London to the last year 

 of his life. His knowledge of the history of 

 English racing was of good service to the museum 

 in the formation of a collection of distinguished 

 racehorses. During the recent war he organised 

 propaganda work, which was important in in- 

 forming our Allies of the efforts made by this 

 country in the great struggle. In view of his 

 ancestry, which was partly Italian, and of his 

 artistic tastes, it is not surprising that he had a 

 special affection for Italy, which he often visited. 

 It is impossible to speak too highly of the 

 services Mr. Pagan rendered to the Natural 

 History Museum. Events beginning with Sir 

 William Flower's illness while still director placed 

 important responsibilities in his hands, and the 

 administrative experience thus gained was of the 

 greatest use to Flower's successors in that post, 

 while he worthily upheld the interests of the 

 museum during periods of interregnum. He pos- 

 sessed conspicuous tact and remarkable insight, 

 and he had an extraordinary capacity for forming 

 a correct judgment on a difficult question. These 

 qualities gave him an exceptional position in the 

 museum, and his colleagues who sought his assist- 



