50 



NATURE 



[January 12, 1922 



Meldola medal be presented annually for the most 

 meritorious chemical work of the year ending on 

 the last day of December preceding the award. The 

 award is not to be restricted to any particular 

 branch, but the administrators, who are the council 

 of the institute and a memlier of the Maccabgeans 

 appointed by their committee, will have primary 

 regard to work done in analytical chemistry. The 

 award, however, is restricted to British subjects of 

 not more than thirty years of age at the time of 

 the completion of the work — a condition seldom, if 

 ever, attaching to awards of this kind. •It is iri- 

 tended to afford encouragement to young investi- 

 gators and to imply recognition of high merit — 

 Avhich is more frequently accorded in later life to 

 those who have long achieved distinction. The 

 medal, which is in bronze and is here illustrated, has 

 been designed and executed by Mr. Frank Bowcher. 



The council of the Institute of Chemistry hopes 

 that the first award may be made at the annual 

 general meeting of the institute on March i next. 

 Chemists are invited at any time prior to P'riday, 

 January 20, to direct attention to published work 

 of distinctive character, preferably in analytical 

 chemistry, carried out during 1921. Such com- 

 munications should be headed " Meldola Medal," 

 and should be addressed to the registrar of the 

 institute, 30 Russell Square, W.C.i. 



Meldola died on November 16, 191 5, and many 

 will remember that in 191 7, by subscription among 

 his friends, two portraits of him, by Mr. S. J. 

 Solomon, R.A., were presented to the Royal 

 Society and the Institute of Chemistry. The 

 medal affords an additional fitting tribute to 

 one of the most notable men of science of our 

 time. 



D 



Obit 



Dr T. a Chapman, F.R.S. 

 R. THOMAS ALGERNON CHAPMAN 



died at Reigate on December i; 



last 



after a long period of failing health, in the 

 eightieth year of his age. His father. Dr. 

 Thomas 'Chapman, of Glasgow, was in his 

 day an entomologist of high repute, and the life- 

 long devotion ot the son to the study of insects 

 commenced at an early age. After graduating in 

 medicine (with honours) and surgery at Glasgow and 

 Edinburgh, Dr. Chapman was for a time resident 

 physician and surgeon to the Glasgow Royal In- 

 firmary, and in 1866 he received an appointment to 

 the Joint Counties Asylum at Abergavenny. He 

 afterwards became Medical Superintendent to the 

 County and City Asylum of Hereford, and during 

 his tenure of this office, from which he retired in 

 1895, he contributed several important papers to the 

 Journal of Mental Science. 



A keen and successful collector, and a delightful 

 companion in the field. Dr. Chapman was, in addi- 

 tion, one of the most philosophical of naturalists 

 and the most accurate and painstaking of observers. 

 His long series of entomological memoirs- — the Royal 

 Society's Catalogue and the "Zoological Record " 

 enumerate more than 250 separate papers published 

 by him from 1868 onwards in the current magazines 

 and the Transactions of the Entomological Society 

 of London — regarded as a whole, takes rank among 

 the most important contributions to the science of 

 entomology by a single individual in recent years. 

 Some of his early papers deal with the life-histories 

 of certain wood-feeding Coleoptera of great 

 economic importance and interest, but the great bulk 

 of Dr. Chapman's work relates to the Lepidoptera, 

 chiefly from the bionomic and taxonomic aspect. Of 

 late years he devoted considerable attention to the 

 biology of sawflies, and the last paper from his pen 

 on this subject appears in the Entomologisis'' 

 Monthly Magazine for January. 



Among the most important of Dr. Chapman's 

 memoirs are those on the value of pupal characters 

 in the classification of the I-epidoptera ; on the life- 

 NO. 2724, VOL. 109] 



uary. 



history of the Micropterygidse, and the true rela- 

 tions of these singular insects, for which he recently 

 proposed a new order, the Zeugloptera ; and the 

 life-histories, in some cases previously unknown, 

 of many species of British and P^uropean Lycgenidai 

 or " blue " butterflies, and the association of their 

 larvai with ants and other insects, the material for 

 these researches being acquired in many visits to 

 the Alps and other parts of the Continent in his 

 later years. The solution of the mystery of the 

 larval and pupal life of Nomiadcs arion, for so 

 many years an entomological enigma, is in large 

 measure due to his acumen and patient observation. 



Dr. Chapman became a fellow of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of London in 1891, served repeatedly 

 on the council, and was vice-president of the 

 society on no fewer than four occasions ; but, to the 

 great regret of his colleagues, he could never be in- 

 duced to assume the office of president, which was 

 long open to his acceptance. He joined the Zoological 

 Society in 1898, and in 191 8 he was elected a fellow^ 

 of the Royal Society. His genial and engaging 

 personality will be greatly missed by his wide circle 

 of friends and fellow-workers, and very few men 

 were more highly and deservedly esteemed in life 

 or are more deeply regretted in death. J. J. W. 



It is announced in Science that Prof. Henry 

 Turner Eddy, professor emeritus of mathematics 

 and mechanics in the University of Minnesota and 

 dean emeritus of the graduate school, died on 

 December 18 last at the age of seventy-seven years. 

 Prof. Eddy was professor of mathematics, astro- 

 nomy, and civil engineering in the University of 

 Cincinnati for sixteen years, and w-ent to the 

 University of Minnesota in 1894 as professor of 

 engineering and mechanics. Later he became pro- 

 fessor of mathematics and mechanics. He served 

 both as secretary and vice-president of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, and 

 was also a member of several other learned societies 

 in America. 



