246 



NATURE 



[February 23, 1922 



as amygdalin, salicin, and arbutin, but will quickly 

 die when the aromatic constituents of these glucos- 

 ides are separately introduced. They found that 

 plants are capable of transforming saligenin, benzyl 

 alcohol, and vanillin into glucosides, saligenin, for 

 example, being converted into salicin. They studied 

 the effect of the inoculation of pyridine, piperidine, 

 and pyrrole derivatives on the formation of alkaloids ; 

 they found that the amount of nicotine in the toJDacco 

 plant could be considerably increased by the intro- 

 duction of dextrose. Their results lent support to 

 the view that vegetable alkaloids have their origin 

 in amino-acids, and that bases, such as lysine and 

 ornithine, formed from amino-acids, are utilised by 

 plants in the synthesis of alkaloids. 



The chemical action of light has long been a 

 special -study with Italian chemists. Blessed with 

 sunnier skies than we enjoy in these latitudes, they 

 have had ampler opportunities than we possess to 

 observe its effects, and, thanks to their long-con- 

 tinued and systematic work, a considerable body of 

 information has been accumulated. Some of 

 Ciamician's earliest observations had reference to 

 this subject, and it continued to interest him to the 

 end of his days. He noticed the conversion under its 

 influence of quinone into quinol ; of an alcoholic solu- 

 tion of nitrobenzene into aldehyde, aniline, and quin- 

 .aldine ; and of a-nitrobenzaldehyde into <?-nitroso- 

 benzoic acid, the nature of the changes and the 

 character of the products formed being affected by 

 the vehicle in which the substances under examina- 

 tion were contained, and the refrangibility of the 

 light-rays. Unsaturated compounds tended to poly- 

 merise. An aqueous solution of acetone yielded 

 acetic acid and methane ; raaleic acid was converted 

 into fumaric acid ; vanillin, piperonal, salicylalde- 

 liyde, and cinnamaldehyde yield the corresponding 

 acids ; laivulic acid forms propionic acid ; many 

 •cyclo-ketones are broken down and fatty acids and 

 aldehydes formed ; benzaldehyde is resinified, and 

 may be condensed with many different compounds ; 

 solutions of benzophenone in aromatic hydrocarbons 

 yield benzopinacone, and the hydrocarbon undergoes 

 •condensation ; camphor in dilute aqueous alcoholic 

 solution yields acetaldehyde and campholenalde- 

 hyde; fenchone forms carbon monoxide and 

 fenchone hydrate. Aromatic hydrocarbons in 

 presence of water and oxygen are partly oxidised to 

 the corresponding carboxylic acids. Pyrrole by 

 prolonged exposure is completely decomposed, one 

 of the products being succinimide, which may be 

 regarded as the ketonic form of the quinol of pyrrole. 



This is but a bald and imperfect summary of an 

 intensely interesting and most important chain of 

 observations, the full significance of which is scarcely 

 yet realised. The potency of light has, of course, 

 long been recognised, but no such evidence of its 

 power to induce chemical action had hitherto been 

 adduced as that afforded by Ciamician's work. 



Giamician was an accomplished, well-informed 

 man, of great personal charm, whose influence on 

 the chemistry of his epoch will long be felt. His 

 merits- were widely recognised. He was a foreign 

 associate of the Frencli Academy and an honorary 

 NO. 2730, VOL. 109] 



fellow, since 191 1, of our Chemical Society. He 

 was an occasional visitor to London, and per- 

 sonally known to some British chemists who will 

 long cherish his memory as an earnest and single- 

 minded follower of the science he has done so 

 much to enlarge and adorn. T. E. Thorpe. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death on 

 Saturday, February 18, of Sir John McClure, 

 who for the' past thirty years has been headmaster of 

 Mill Hill School. Sir John McClure, who was born 

 in i860, received his education at Cambridge, where 

 he took mathematics and law. From 1885-91 he 

 acted as lecturer in astronomy and other scientific 

 subjects under the Cambridge University Extension 

 Syndicate, while from 1888-94 he was professor of 

 astronomy at Queen's College, London. It was in 

 1891 that he received the appointment of headmaster 

 at Mill Hill School, a post which he filled with con- 

 spicuous success for more than thirty years. The 

 school, which was founded in 1807 for the educa- 

 tion of Nonconformists when the older universities 

 were not open to them, was reconstituted in 1869, 

 and flourished for a time ; but when Sir John 

 McClure arrived in 1891 there were only sixty-one 

 boys. He immediately set to work to develop and 

 reconstruct the school, with the result that last year 

 he was able to announce that the number of boys 

 under his charge had grown to 361. Sir John 

 McClure was also active in the cause of education 

 outside his school. From 1904—13 he was honorary 

 secretary of the Incorporated Association of Head- 

 masters, and later became president, and it was 

 mainly in recognition of these and similar services to 

 education that he received the honour of knighthood 

 in 1913. 



Oriental learning has suffered a grievous loss by 

 the death, at the age of eighty years, of Sir Arthur 

 N AYLOR WoLLASTON, K . C . I . E . Appointed to a post 

 in the India Office at the age of sixteen, Wollaston 

 served for forty-eight years in that Department. In 

 1898 he succeeded the late Mr. F. C. Danvers as 

 registrar, and he was so successful in arranging the 

 voluminous series of records that they became readily 

 accessible to students. In this task he was suc- 

 ceeded by his pupil, Mr. W. Foster, who has done 

 valuable work in calendaring the collection. 

 Wollaston, in addition to his official duties, became 

 an admirable Persian scholar, though he never had 

 the good fortune to visit the East. He translated 

 the Fables of Bidpai, and edited Sir Lewis Belly's 

 "Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain." But the 

 work by which he will be best remembered is his 

 great English-Persian Dictionary. At Walmer, 

 where he resided for many years, he took an active 

 share in the local administration. 



The death is announced of Prof. Erich Ebler, 

 professor of inorganic and analytical chemistry in 

 the newly founded University of Frankfort-on- 

 Main. Prof. Ebler, who was forty-two years of 

 age, was appointed only in 1920, after service with 

 the Army in the field. 



