232 



NATURE 



[October 28, 1915 



PROF. VIVIAN B. LEWES. 



WE much regret to see the announcement that 

 Prof. Vivian B. Lewes died on October 23, 

 of pneumonia, at Mold, Flintshire, where he was 

 to deliver one of a series of Gilchrist Lectures 

 on explosives. 



Prof. Lewes was born in 1852. His education 

 was undertaken by his uncle, Georg-e Henry 

 Lewes, the well-known author of the " History 

 of Philosophy" and other works. On leaving- 

 University College School at the age of sixteen, 

 he became assistant to Dr. F. S. Barff, and in 

 1870 to Prof. A. W. Williamson at University 

 College. Later he worked under Dr. C. Graham 

 at the Birkbeck Institute, and was appointed 

 assistant at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 

 in 1879, where he succeeded Dr. H. Debus as 

 professor of chemistry in 1888, which post he 

 resig-ned a year ago. He was appointed chief 

 superintending gas examiner to the corporation of 

 the City of London in 1892, and at the time of his 

 death was chairman of the Chemical Section of 

 the Munitions Inventions panel. 



His chief scientific work was on the action of 

 heat on hydrocarbons and the cause of luminosity 

 of flames ; papers on these subjects were published 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society In 1893- 

 1895. Lewes's acetylene theory of luminosity, 

 whilst it has met with much criticism, has been 

 accepted widely as the correct explanation of the 

 main interactions giving rise to luminosity. He 

 was also the author of papers on pentathionates. 



When, In 1892, Wlllson, In Canada, first ob- 

 tained calcium carbide on a commercial scale, a 

 sample was forwarded to Lewes, who, at the 

 Royal Society of Arts, in 1894, brought this sub- 

 stance under the notice of an English audience. 

 Later he did much to establish the success of the 

 new industry. No one, indeed, was more welcome 

 or more certain of an appreciative audience at the 

 Society of Arts, and there he delivered several 

 series of Cantor and other courses of lectures, 

 dealing with such subjects as coal gas, explosives, 

 liquid fuel, etc. 



As a lecturer under the Gilchrist Educational 

 Trust he was most popular and widely known 

 throughout the country. He was. Indeed, the 

 last of the original group of Gilchrist lecturers, 

 the panel of which included many Illustrious 

 names. 



Prof. Lewes did excellent pioneer work in con- 

 nection with the University Extension lecture 

 scheme and as a lecturer for the Technical Edu- 

 cation Committee of the London County Council. 

 This was the work largely of a past decade, but 

 filled a most Important place in our educational 

 system. He laid claim justly to have Instilled the 

 desire for further chemical knowledge In num- 

 bers of young students, and contributed very 

 greatly to the success of systematic chemistry 

 courses In our numerous technical schools and 

 institutions. 



His connection with the Navy was naturally 

 not without Its influence on his researches, many 

 of which formed the subject of communications 

 NO. 2400, VOL. 96] 



to the Institution of Naval Architects (of which he 

 was a vice-president). The institution awarded him 

 Its first g-old medal for a paper on "The Forma- 

 tion of Boiler Incrustations and Oily Deposits." 

 Other Important papers were on the corrosion 

 of metals, anti-fouling compositions, and the 

 spontaneous ignition of coal. 



Prof. Lewes's principal technical field, how- 

 ever, was in connection with coal gas. He was 

 always a welcome lecturer at the Institute of Gas 

 Engineers and other similar societies, before the 

 members of which he dealt in a lucid manner with 

 current problems affecting this Important industry. 

 He was the author of several books, including 

 "Acetylene," which is a standard work of re- 

 ference, "Service Chemistry," now In its fourth 

 edition, "Liquid and Gaseous Fuel," and "The 

 Carbonisation of Coal." 



Prof. Lewes's genial personality, his kindly 

 and generous nature, endeared him to a very 

 wide circle, both of personal and professional 

 friends. Among the large number of naval 

 officers with whom his duties brought him in 

 contact no one was more popular or more re- 

 spected. 



NOTES. 



We much regret to announce the death, on October 

 23, from heart failure following influenza, at fifty-one 

 years of age, of Dr. R. Assheton, F.R.S., University 

 lecturer in animal embryology at Cambridge since 

 igii. 



We regret to announce that Sir Andrew Noble, 

 Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S., to whose scientific work on 

 artillery and explosives the marvellous developments 

 of heavy weapons within the last fifty years are chiefly 

 due, died on October 22, at eighty-four years of age. 



Mr. W. Marriott has retired from the post of 

 assistant secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society 

 held by him for the last forty years, and has been 

 succeeded by Mr. A. H. Brown, the chief clerk of the 

 society. 



Mr. W. K. Carr, the owner of one of the best-equipped 

 private laboratories in the United States, died recently 

 at his home in Washington, at the age of fifty-five. 

 On leaving the University of Virginia in 1878, he 

 spent twelve years in the sale and manufacture of 

 cotton at Norfolk, Va. Since then he had devoted 

 most of his time to scientific research. 



The death is announced, in his sixty-fifth year, of 

 Mr. C. F. Holder, of Pasadena, the writer of a large 

 number of books on the natural history of southern 

 California. He was educated at the Friends' School, 

 Providence, R.I., and at the United States Naval 

 Academy. For a few years he was an assistant at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, New York. 

 Mr. Holder's special interests were in marine zoology. 



The first meeting of the new session of the Geo- 

 logical Society will be held on ■ Wednesday next, 

 November 3, at 5.30 p.m., when Dr. C. W. Andrews 

 will exhibit photographs and give an account of the 



