820 



NA TURE 



[June 24, 1922 



Laveran who demonstrated pigment granules in certain 

 bodies exhibiting amoeboid movements in the blood. 

 These bodies were crescentic or spherical in shape, 

 and he looked upon them as of a parasitic nature, 

 though it was not until 1880, when at Constantine, 

 that all doubts were swept from his mind by his dis- 

 covery of the phenomenon known as " flagellation 

 of the male crescent." So remarkable were the 

 appearances presented that he no longer hesitated to 

 declare his belief. 



As is always the way in this conservative world 

 when something new and strange is revealed, there was 

 much scepticism as to the validity of his findings, but 

 Laveran, who possessed most of the qualities of the 

 successful investigator, was not to be daunted. By 

 a series of careful observations, pathological, cHnical, 

 geographical, and therapeutic, he routed his opponents 

 and eventually satisfied the scientific world that his 

 conclusions were well founded. 



Laveran shared the view which King advanced in 

 1883 that human malaria was a mosquito-borne 

 disease, but he had no opportunity of testing the 

 theory, which was finally established as a fact by 

 Grassi, Bignami, and Bastianelli in Italy in 1897 after 

 Ross had, in India, completed his epoch-making work 

 on the transmission of bird malaria by culicines, and 

 had seen the early stages of the development of the 

 human malaria parasite in anophelines. 



The Academy of Science set its seal on Laveran's 

 discovery in 1889 and elected him a member in 1895. 

 In 1893 he became a member of the Academy of 

 Medicine, and he also joined the Society of Biology. 

 It was not, however, until the true significance of his 

 researches had been rendered apparent by the work 

 which resulted from them that Laveran's claims to be 

 in the first rank of living men of science were fully 

 recognised. Then, indeed, he was paid the honour 

 which was his due, and among many other distinctions 

 was given the Nobel prize for medicine in 1907. 



Together with some of his colleagues Laveran 

 founded the Societe de Pathologic Exotique, of which 

 he was the first president, and during the dozen years 

 of his chairmanship the society prospered greatly. In 

 the Bulletin of the society many of Laveran's papers 

 were published, and he did much to forward the cause 

 of tropical medicine and hygiene throughout the 

 French colonial possessions. 



Laveran, like Manson, inspired others with his 

 enthusiasm, and was an acknowledged leader in his 

 own subjects. He wrote much on malaria, and 

 collected his contributions in the well-known " Traite 

 de Paludisme " in 1898, of which a second edition 

 appeared in 1907. 



His work at the Pasteur Institute was most prolific, 

 and much of it was carried out in collaboration with 

 Prof. Mesnil. Together they produced an important 

 work on trypanosomes and trypanosomiasis, which 

 reached a second edition, and was a mine of well- 

 arranged information. Laveran was well qualified 

 to write on the subject from the laboratory standpoint, 

 for he conducted a great deal of experimental work on 

 trypanosome infection, and tested many remedies 

 with the view of finding a cure for sleeping sickness. 

 Turning his attention to leishmaniasis, he published 

 the first treatise on this subject, the study of which 



NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



led him to investigate many of the flagellate parasites 

 of man and animals. The sporozoa of animals had 

 earlier attracted his attention, and he investigated 

 the properties of sarcocystine, the first toxin extracted 

 from a sporozoon, and the pathogenicity of which 

 was determined by Pfeiffer. 



Considerations of space prevent any full account of 

 Laveran's manifold activities. He was never idle, 

 and no sooner was one piece of work completed than 

 he was busy at another. His conclusions have not 

 always been generally accepted, but he had ever the 

 courage of his convictions, and adhered to his well- 

 considered views with that tenacity which was so 

 strong a feature of his character. In reality a kindly 

 man, he was apt to be considered a trifle brusque by 

 those who did not know him, especially if they tres- 

 passed overmuch on his working hours, but he was 

 ever ready to aid the genuine inquirer and also to give 

 credit where credit was due. He was precise and 

 accurate in his work, careful in his writings, and 

 possessed in a very high degree the scientific habit of 

 mind, qualities which enabled him to stamp his person- 

 ality on whatever he undertook, and will entitle him, 

 for all time, to a foremost place in the ranks of those 

 who have advanced the causes of parasitology and 

 medicine in the tropics. A. B. 



Dr. J. Rene Benoit. 



The world of science has suffered a severe loss by the 

 death at Dijon, on May 4, of Dr. J. Rene Benoit, 

 honorary director of the Bureau International des 

 Poids et Mesures, Sevres. Dr. Benoit, who was born 

 in 1844, commenced his scientific career in the study 

 of medicine, but, having attained his doctorate, trans- 

 ferred his attention to pure physics, working first in 

 Jamin's laboratory, where he prepared a thesis on the 

 electrical conductivity of metals. After some years 

 in industrial life he joined the Bureau International 

 in 1878 as assistant director to Dr. 0. J. Broch, whom 

 he succeeded as director in 1889. It was at the Bureau 

 International that his great work was achieved. His 

 first investigations were related to the improvement 

 of thermometric and barometric measurements, and 

 were followed by very careful experiments directed 

 to the measurement of thermal expansions, particu- 

 larly with the Fizeau apparatus, which he greatly 

 perfected, and which continued to hold his interest to 

 the end of his career. Dr. Benoit took a large personal 

 share in the work of verifying the principal series of 

 prototype metres, and executed a number of very 

 accurate comparisons of the International Metre with 

 other current standards of length, including the British 

 Imperial Yard and the ancient Toise du Perou and 

 Toise de Bessel, on which the original French metre 

 and the geodesic measurements of central and western 

 Europe had formerly been based. 



In 1891 Prof. A. A. Michelson was invited by the 

 Comite International to carry out at the Bureau his 

 contemplated researches into the relation between 

 the metre and the wave-length of light. Dr. Benoit 

 threw himself enthusiastically into this work, and 

 was closely associated with it throughout. Again in 



