April i, 1922] 



NATURE 



419 



\ariations as did the administration of carbon dioxide, 



and (2) his inference that this similarity imphed 



liberation of carbon dioxide by the nerve. He in- 



( stigated also, in full detail, the " Nach-strom " of 



arlier German writers. He called this the " blaze- 



ii.rrent," found it to be one of the earliest and last 



ip,ns of hfe, and applied it successfully as a test of 



\ itality in seeds. 



Waller devoted much time and energy to anaesthetics, 

 studying their effects on surviving tissues and organs 

 as well as on the intact organism. He also devised 

 methods for estimating the concentration of anaes- 

 thetic vapours in air and apparatus for controlling 

 their dosage. 



During the last few years Waller concerned himself 

 chiefly with the psycho-galvanic reflex and with the 

 physiological cost of muscular work. In the first case 

 he elaborated and improved pre-existing . technique 

 and made valuable observations — e.g. on the distribu- 

 tion of the emotive response. The second problem 

 he tackled with all his energy and enthusiasm. Realis- 

 ing the importance of testing the workman, with the 

 least possible disturbance, in the course of his normal 

 job, he pushed simplification of apparatus and tech- 

 nique to the utmost. By this he made it possible to 

 estimate expired carbon dioxide anywhere, at short 

 notice, and from large numbers of subjects. He did 

 not think that his results yielded information so precise 

 as that obtainable from more detailed analyses and 

 more complicated and cumbrous apparatus. He 

 urged, however, that with his simplified technique he 

 was able to accumulate data which could not be 

 obtained, during a normal job, by the more complicated 

 procedures, and claimed that these data furnished a 

 good first approximation to the physiological cost of 

 various kinds of labour. 



Lack of space prevents detailed analysis of Waller's 

 remaining work. He made valuable contributions on 

 the laws of excitation and of sensation, on the sense of 

 effort, on the relation between stimulation and response, 

 on retinal and cutaneous currents, on the kneejerk and 

 other neuromuscular phenomena in man. He worked 

 also with plants — on photo-electric responses, and on 

 growth, as well as on the testing of seeds already 

 mentioned. 



In addition to his papers Waller wrote an exception- 

 ally original " Introduction to Human Physiology." 

 This was followed by volumes of lectures — on animal 

 electricity — the signs of life — physiology the servant of 

 medicine — the electrical action of the human heart, and 

 by a very suggestive essay on the psychology of logic. 

 Of his public services in the foundation and direction 

 of his laboratory it is difficult to speak too warmly. 

 On the opening of the laboratory Waller instituted short 

 courses of research lectures, without fee, the first of 

 which was delivered by himself. This was followed by 

 similar courses by physiologists from other laboratories, 

 not merely of London but also of Oxford, Cambridge, 

 the Colonies, Europe, and the United States. The 

 value of such lectures proved to be so great that they 

 were promptly adopted by most of the colleges and 

 schools of the University, not only in physiology but 

 also in other branches of experimental science. 



Not merely problems of academic science but 

 problems of applied physiology, in the broadest con- 



ception of the term, were undertaken bv the many who 

 utilised the laboratory for research. Some such 

 problems have already been mentioned, and to these 

 may be added, e.g., the chemistry of metabolic processes 

 and products ; the distribution of anaesthetics in the 

 blood ; snake poison ; memory, mental fatigue ; 

 surgical shock, tetanus ; the testing, assaying, and 

 standardisation of drugs ; the poison gases of the war ; 

 dietetics — studied by men of such varied interests as 

 Sir Leonard Rogers, Sir Sidney Russell Wells, Sir 

 William Willcox, Sir Irederic Hewitt, Sir Thomas 

 Lewis, Prof. Gamgee, Prof. Backmast^^r, Prof. M. C. 

 Potter, Prof. F. W. Hobday, Dr. F. W. Pavy, Dr. 

 George OliVer, Dr. F. S. Locke, in addition to the 

 laboratory staff and a whole host of younger workers. 

 The laboratory itself and its earlier work have been 

 dealt with more fully in a special article in Nature of 

 March 9, 1905, p. 441. 



Waller was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1892. The Academies of Science of Paris and of 

 Bologna also recognised his work, the former awarding 

 him a Prix Montyon, the latter the Premio Aldini sul 

 Galvanismo. 



We spoke of Waller as an unique personality. He 

 was extraordinarily energetic and able, combining 

 boyish impetuosity and rashness with great acumen 

 and exceptional intellectual power. He made unusually 

 warm friends, unusually bitter enemies, and was only 

 appreciated adequately by the greater among his 

 scientific contemporaries and by the more intimate of 

 his personal friends. W. L. S. 



News has been received of the death, on February 3, 

 of Professor Vladimir Ivanovitch Palladin, who for 

 many years had been Professor of Plant Anatomy and 

 Physiology in the University of Petrograd. Professor 

 Palladin's contributions to botanical science consist of 

 numerous publications, from 1886 onwards, recording 

 his researches in vegetable physiology. These are 

 chiefly of a biochemical nature, and many of them are 

 concerned with the respiration of plants, some of 

 Palladin's investigations on this subject having led 

 him to formulate his theory regarding " respiration- 

 pigments ' ' and oxidases . The decomposition of proteids 

 in plants, the formation of chlorophyll, and alcoholic 

 fermentation are among the other subjects which he 

 studied. An English edition of Palladin's text-book on 

 plant physiology was published in Philadelphia in 1918, 

 having been previously translated into both German 

 and French. 



We see with much regret the announcement of the 

 death on March 24, at fifty-eight years of age, of 

 Prof. W. B. Bottomley, Professor of Botany at King's 

 College, London, from 1893 to 1921. 



We much regret to record the death on March 21, 

 in his eighty-second year, of Dr. J. T. Merz^ author of 

 The History of European Thought in the Nineteenth 

 Century, and other notable works. 



The Chemiker Zeitung announces the death, at the 

 age of 54, of Prof. Emil Heyn, director of the Kaiser 

 Wilhelm Institut fiir Metallforschung, Berlin-Dahlem. 

 Prof. Heyn was well known to metallurgists for his 

 researches on allovs. 



NO. 



2735, VOL. 109] 



