788 



NA TURE 



[June 17, 1922 



keenly interested in Puritan history and biography, 

 for the pursuit of which study his retirement from the 

 Museum in 1895 gave increased opportunity. His 

 younger son, John Bennett Carruthers, who pre- 

 deceased him, held important botanical posts in several 

 parts of the Empire, Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, 

 and Trinidad. A. B. R. 



Adolphus Collenette. 



Mr. Adolphus Collenette, who died in Guernsey 

 on May 7, in his eighty-first year, was an active 

 worker in local climatology and physical geography, 

 as well as an interesting personality, full of 

 enthusiasm for the scientific point of view. His 

 frequent expositions of scientific discoveries and 

 theories in addresses, papers, and articles in the local 

 society's transactions and the local press made him a 

 well-known figure, and undoubtedly helped to arouse 

 a good deal of scientific interest in an island which 

 gives special opportunities for study. He was one 

 of the moving spirits in what has now become the 

 Societe Guernesiaise, and his very active temperament 

 made him one of its best-known guides in the long 

 series of excursions which it has organised to teach 

 its members the features of the Channel Islands. It 

 is noteworthy that the research interest was well to 

 the fore in this work. For many years Mr. Collenette 

 kept detailed meteorological records in succession to 

 those of the late Dr. Hoskins, so that the book he was 

 writing at his death on the climate of Guernsey would 

 have been based on observations registered continuously 

 for nearly eighty years. 



Mr. Collenette read a great deal of contemporary 

 scientific literature and studied local details in the 

 light of this reading. His was an attitude of courageous 

 adventure ; he made frequent suggestions criticising 

 or modifying the theories of recognised authorities, 

 sometimes with serious evidence to back him, always, 

 at any rate, with the stimulation of discussion and 

 further observation as a result of his work. Like Mr. 

 Joseph Sinel of Jersey, he concerned himself especially 

 with the relations of land and sea, and did a good deal 

 towards the tracing of the raised beaches and some 

 submerged beaches around Guernsey. One set is at 

 maximum elevations between 23 and 30 feet, another 

 varies between 46 and 65 feet ; higher elevations range 

 up to 75 feet. Mr. Collenette tried to identify platforms 

 of marine denudation in connection with these beaches, 

 and claimed to show that there were former sea-levels 

 at. practically all elevations from ordnance datum up 

 to 300 ft. 



While both Mr. Sinel and Mr. Collenette broadly 

 accepted Mr. Clement Reid's view that the coast-level 

 has been relatively stable during the past 2000 years, 

 they nevertheless "think that, in detail, there has been 

 slow submergence around the Channel Islands within 

 that period, and the evidence is by no means negligible. 

 It was characteristic of Mr. Collenette that he upheld 

 the view that Guernsey once had an ice-cap, and he 

 claimed to show that Guernsey is rich in primitive 

 implements, rostro-carinates and the like, including 

 many made of crystalline rock. On this last point 

 judgment must be left to the future. 



Mr. Collenette gave attention to problems of local 

 fruit-growing and contributed to research on tomato 

 diseases. He was also honorary curator of the museum 

 at the Guille-Alles Library and shared in its pioneer 

 efforts for scientific education. It is greatly to be 

 hoped that in the reconstruction which must follow his 

 death, an effort will be made to combine all the local 

 antiquities at the now public Lukis Museum, which is 

 so important scientifically, and thus to permit the 

 further development of the biological and geological 

 collections at the older institution. 



The death on April 25 of Dr. Jeno Holzwarth, pro- 

 fessor of radiology at the University of Budapest, 

 is announced in the issue of the Lancet for May 20. 

 Prof. Holzwarth studied at one time under Prof. 

 Rontgen and afterwards acted as surgical radiologist 

 in the clinic of Prof. Dollinger. During the earlier 

 years, when insufficient protective appliances were in 

 use, he suffered injuries which later developed into 

 malignant disease. His chief contributions to the 

 subject of radiology were on the therapeutic side, and 

 his main papers are to be found in the Orvosi Letil, 

 Budapest, during the years 1907-12. This publication 

 appears to have ceased since the war. 



We much regret to record the death, on June 10, of 

 Prof. William Gowland, F.R.S., emeritus professor of 

 metallurgy^ Royal School of Mines, in his eightieth 

 year; also of M. Ernest Solvay, the distinguished 

 industrial chemist and founder of the Solvay Institute 

 of Chemistry, at the age of eighty-four years. 



The Chemiker Zeitimg of May 27 announces the 

 death of Prof. C. V. Zanetti, Director of the Institute 

 of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Toxicology in the 

 University of Parma. 



Current Topics and Events. 



The second conversazione of the Royal Society this 

 year will be held in the rooms of the Society at Bur- 

 lington House on Tuesday, June 20. 



At the annual meeting of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, Prof. A. S. Eddington and Sir 

 T. Clifford Allbutt were elected honorary foreign 

 members. 



The annual conversazione of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers will be held at the Natural His- 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



tory Museum, South Kensington, on the evening of 

 Thursday, June 29. 



The unveiling and dedication of the War Memorial 

 in memory of the members of the Institution of 

 Electrical Engineers who fell in the Great War will 

 take place at the Institution building on Wednesday, 

 June 28, at 4.30 p.m. The memorial will be dedicated 

 by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ryle, Dean of Westminster, 

 and unveiled by Air Chief Marshal Sir H. M. Trenchard, 

 Bart. 



