12 



NATURE 



[September 2, 19 15 



ciate of the Royal School of Mines, and a fellow of 

 the Chemical Society. 



The death is announced of Lieut. -Col. Edward 

 Lawrie, M.B., I. M.S. (ret.), at the age of sixty-nine. 

 Col. Lawrie was educated at Edinburgh University, 

 and after acting as house surgeon to Prof. Syme, 

 whose views probably largely influenced his subsequent 

 work on chloroform anaesthesia, he entered the Indian 

 Medical Service, from which he retired in 190 1. During 

 his career he held the posts of resident surgeon of the 

 Medical College, Hospital, Calcutta, acting for some 

 time as professor of physiology in the Medical College, 

 professor of surgery in the Lahore Medical College, 

 and residency surgeon at Hyderabad, one of the most 

 important medical appointments in India. He was 

 best known for his views on anaesthesia, being an 

 ardent advocate of the claims of cholorform to be the 

 best and safest anaesthetic for general use. Lawrie 

 held, with his old teacher Syme, that chloroform killed 

 only through the respiration, and not through the heart. 

 As many held the converse opinion, Lawrie prevailed 

 upon the Nizam of H\'derabad to institute and finance 

 a commission to investigate the subject, of which com- 

 mission Sir Lauder Brunton was president and Col. 

 Lawrie and the late Sir Gerald Bomford were mem- 

 bers. Much experimental work was done, which con- 

 firmed Lawrie 's views, the monkeys dying without 

 exception from failure of respiration, and a valuable 

 report was published; he was also the author of 

 " Chloroform : A Manual for Students and Practi- 

 tioners" (1901). When the hospitals for the Indian 

 troops were opened at Brighton in December last, 

 Lawrie was appointed anaesthetist, and carried out 

 his duties until the beginning of his fatal illness last 

 May. 



Lieut. Ernest Magowan Harper, 7th Batt. Mun- 

 ster Fusiliers, who was killed in action on August 

 9, at the Dardanelles, was a graduate of Queen's 

 University, Belfast. He was educated at the Royal 

 School, Dungannon, where he gained a reputation 

 for brilliant work, and received his training as a keen 

 sportsman, which afterwards characterised him at the 

 University. On matriculation he entered Queen's 

 with a junior science scholarship, which he held 

 throughout his undergraduate course. In 1913 he 

 graduated bachelor of science with first-class honours 

 in chemistry, and afterwards was appointed to the 

 Andrews research studentship, which he held until the 

 time of his death. During his tenure of this scholar- 

 ship he conducted extended researches on the connec- 

 tion between the absorption spectra and the constitu- 

 tion of organic nitro-compounds, publishing two 

 papers in the Journal of the Chemical Society. On 

 the declaration of war he applied for a commission 

 and was gazetted last September, being posted to the 

 7th Munster Fusiliers. He relinquished his post of 

 senior assistant in chemistry in the University, aban- 

 doned his scientific career, and gave himself up un- 

 selfishly for his country's cause. In his death the 

 country has lost an able officer, and science a most 

 promising young man. 



Lieut. Wolfred Reeve Cloutman, R.E., who was 

 killed in action in France on August 21, w.as an 

 NO. 2392, VOL. 96] 



associate of the Royal School of Mines, obtaining his 

 associateship in mining (first class) in 1912, after 

 winning many prizes and completing a most distin- 

 guished career at the school, where his death is felt 

 as a serious loss. Mr. Cloutman 's work at the Royal 

 School of Mines (an integral part of the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology) was further recog- 

 nised by the award to him of the diploma of member- 

 ship of the Imperial College. On leaving the school 

 Mr. Cloutman was awarded a scholarship by the 

 council of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 

 for a post-graduate course in mines or works in 

 various parts of the world. In 1914 the governors of 

 the Imperial College awarded to him the Warrington 

 Smyth prize and medal for a report which he sub- 

 mitted on certain mining operations in Western Aus- 

 tralia. As a mining engineer Mr. Cloutman was 

 valuable to the Army, and in June last he was men- 

 tioned in despatches for his skill and success in mining 

 operations. 



The death is announced, at the age of forty-nine 

 years, of Dr. R. W. Johnstone, a medical inspector 

 of the Local Government Board. Dr. Johnstone had 

 been British delegate at the International Health 

 Office, Paris, a member of the Commission for the 

 Investigation of Mediterranean Fever, chief technical 

 delegate for Great Britain at the International Sani- 

 tary Conference at Paris, 1911-12, and plenipotentiary 

 to sign the International Sanitary Convention of Paris 

 in 1912, 



The death is reported, in his sixty-fourth year, of 

 Dr. Thomas Bliss Stilln>an, an American chemist, who 

 had spent the greater part of his career on the staff of 

 the Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey. 

 From 1886 to 1903 he was professor of analytical 

 chemistry in that institution, and from 1903 to 1909. 

 professor of engineering chemistry. He was the 

 author of "Engineering Chemistry," first published in 

 1897, and of various monographs in American and 

 European scientific journals. 



Many of our readers, especially among those who 

 attended the meeting of the British Association at 

 Winnipeg in 1909, will be grieved to hear of the death 

 of Mrs. W. H. Thompson, who has recently suc- 

 cumbed to an attack of appendicitis. Mrs. Thompson 

 was an active member of the committee responsible 

 for the arrangements of the Winnipeg meeting. She 

 was for some years a contributor to the work of 

 the Ductless Glands Committee, and published 

 an important paper on the thyroid gland (Phil. Trans., 

 1910), in addition to contributions to the Trans, of the 

 Royal Society of Canada and other journals. For 

 some years Mrs. Thompson was librarian of the 

 University of Manitoba, and her loss will be keenly 

 felt in academic circles in Canada. 



Mr. Bernard Kettle, curator of the Guildhall 

 Museum, reports some interesting finds of Roman 

 pottery from dust-heaps in the City of London. A 

 large series of these was disclosed when the old 

 General Post Office in St. Martin 's-le-Grand was 

 demolished. A few whole pots and many fragments 

 of Samian ware were found here, besides building 



