348 



NA TURE 



[March i6, 1922 



the return of swallows to their native districts in 

 subsequent summers. Seventeen- marked as nestlings 

 have been so recorded, sixteen in the following summer 

 and one in summer two years after marking, the 

 localities ranging from Hampshire to Kincardineshire. 

 Six marked as adults have been similarly recorded, 

 three after one year and three after two years, the 

 localities ranging from Staffordshire to Peeblesshire. 



In some of the foregoing cases the return to the same 

 place was very exact — even to the self-same porch or 

 outhouse. In others the place of recovery was a few 

 miles from the place of marking ; a swallow marked 

 as a nestling at Beaulieu (Hampshire), for instance, 

 was recovered in the following May at Ringwood, in 

 the same county but 18 miles distant. There are 

 other cases, still to be mentioned, in which swallows 

 marked as nestlings returned in the following summer 

 to parts of the country rather more widely separated 

 from their respective birthplaces, the distances being 

 from Hampshire to Sussex (30 miles), from Hampshire 

 to Middlesex (70 miles), from Stirlingshire to Yorkshire 



(170 miles), and from County Kildare to County 

 Armagh (75 miles). 



Migration of swallows from Great Britain to South 

 Africa is thus clearly established, and it is also now 

 certain that the birds commonly return to the same 

 summer quarters, often with great exactness, in 

 subsequent years. Much still remains to be learnt, 

 and some of this the marking method may give us in 

 time. What route is followed between Great Britain 

 and South Africa, for example, and are the identical 

 winter quarters repeatedly sought out in the same way 

 as breeding-places ? Further, how do the migrations 

 of British swallows compare with those of swallows 

 native to other countries : can we, for instance, con- 

 firm Dr. Hartert's suggestion that " the most northerly 

 dwellers migrate furthest south, while the breeding 

 birds of the Atlas Mountains probably go only to 

 the oases of the Sahara for the winter " ? These 

 questions strike at the very roots of the nature of the 

 migratory instinct, one of the great wonders of the 

 animate world. 



lObit 



Prof. Benjamin Moore, F.R.S. 



BY the death of Prof. Benjamin Moore, at fifty-five 

 years of age, science has suffered the loss of an 

 original and daring thinker. Moore was born, and 

 studied, in Belfast, and the first degree he took was 

 Bachelor of Engineering. At one time he thought of 

 following that profession. He received a travelling 

 research scholarship, and studied physical chemistry 

 under Ostwald in Germany, and then came to London 

 and studied physiology under Sharpey Schafer. From 

 thence he went to fill a chair at Yale Medical College, 

 but returned a few years later to be lecturer in 

 physiology at Charing Cross Medical School, and at 

 the same time to qualify himself as a medical man — 

 a double task requiring much nerve, energy and courage. 

 Moore was then elected to the newly-founded Johnston 

 chair of biochemistry at Liverpool — the first chair in 

 that subject to be founded in this country. He took a 

 most active share in the development of the Medical 

 School at Liverpool University, and jointly with Mr. 

 Whitley founded the Biochemical Journal. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 191 2. In 

 1914 he accepted an invitation to join the Department 

 of Applied Physiology under the Medical Research 

 Council, and after rendering valuable services to 

 industrial medicine during the War, was elected, in 

 1918, to the newly- founded Whitley chair of bio- 

 chemistry at Oxford. There he quickly inspired 

 several of his honour school students to carry out pieces 

 of research work, and all too soon he has passed from 

 thence, the victim of influenza. He took the greatest 

 interest in Public Health, and a State Medical Service, 

 as shown by his book " The Dawn of the Health Age." 

 Moore was a man of impetuous imagination, conceiv- 

 ing brilliant ideas, and stimulating others by these and 

 his enthusiasm ; he was impatient under the necessarily 

 slow accumulation of results required for confirming 

 his ideas— an impatience which sometimes led him 

 to be too hasty in publication, and to subject him,self 

 to criticism whereby his spirit was vexed and his energy 

 wasted in controversy. He was perhaps sometimes 

 wild, sometimes wrong, but often the pioneer in visions 

 of great value. To him we owe the first attempts in 

 this country to apply the results of physical chemistry 

 NO. 2733, VOL. 109] 



uary. 



to the intricate problems of biology. The article 

 by Moore published in " Recent Advances in Physio- 

 logy," edited by L. Hill, and last year elaborated 

 and republished in book form, did much to found the 

 British school of physico-chemical physiology. 



Moore was fascinated by the problem of the origin of 

 life, and formed conceptions of the first steps in the 

 evolution of life by the synthesis of inorganic com- 

 pounds. He was able to show the formation of 

 formaldehyde from CO2 and HgO under the influence 

 of sunlight on a commonly occurring substance like 

 iron oxide. This was the beginning of a series of papers 

 on photosynthesis, on which a value higher than at 

 present will probably be set in future time. He recently 

 demonstrated the production in the air of oxides of 

 nitrogen by the action of sunlight, and conceived the 

 assimilation of these when dissolved in rain and dew 

 by the green leaf. He was a pioneer in the work which 

 is now given so much attention among physiologists, 

 namely, on the normal reaction of body fluids and the 

 maintenance of this normality, acidosis, etc. 



Tackling the problem of trinitrotoluene poisoning, 

 which was working havoc in munition factories during 

 the War, Moore found that the chief danger was 

 due to the absorption of this material through the 

 skin — a view which met with considerable opposition, 

 and led to controversial strain upon his sensitive nature. 

 This discovery, when fully accepted, enabled thousands 

 of workers to be preserved from poisoning during the 

 War, and saved the country paying out hundreds of 

 thousands of pounds in the settlement of employers' 

 liabilities. 



The sudden death, from appendicitis, of Moore's wife, 

 who was devoted to his care, was an irreparable loss to 

 him, and made a vast difference to the happiness and 

 health of his last years. He leaves one son — a chemist 

 in training — and two daughters. L. H. 



Dr. a. D. Waller. 

 We record with much regret the death on March 11, 

 at fifty-five years of age, of Dr. A. D. Waller, director 

 of the physiological laboratory and professor of 

 physiology in the University of London. 



