December 23, 1915] 



NATURE 



461 



Jakerian lecture of 1868, and the value of both 

 ras further recogriised by the Royal Society by 

 le subsequent award to him of a Royal Medal. 



Other important work which has long since 

 iken its due place in the literature of the science 



his observations on the constitution of aqueous 

 )lutions of acids and his investigation on per- 



loric acid and its compounds. 



Roscoe did a notable service to science by his 

 ;tion in making Bunsen and Kirchhoff's work 

 spectroscopy generally known in this country, 

 during the early 'sixties there were few of 

 larger towns in which he did not demonstrate 

 means of popular lectures the astonishingly 

 interesting results of the then novel form of 

 chemical analysis. His first lectures on the sub- 

 ject in London were republished in collected form, 

 suitably illustrated, and the book had a consider- 

 able success and passed through several editions. 

 He made, in addition, a number of original 

 spectroscopic inquiries, the results of which appear 

 in the publications of the Royal Society. 



But the work by which he will continue to be 

 known is the service he rendered to teaching by 

 his many manuals of instruction, some of which 

 were highly popular, ran through many editions, 

 and were translated into a variety of languages. 

 Of these the most important is the large 

 treatise in which he co-operated with his former 

 assistant and friend, Carl Schorlemmer, the first 

 professor of organic chemistry in this country, 

 a man of great erudition, and an able and well- 

 informed chemist. No combination of workers 

 could be more happily selected, for each, in a 

 sense, was complementary to the other. Schor- 

 lemmer was the bibliographer, with quite a re- 

 markable knowledge of chemical literature and 

 an extraordinarily retentive and accurate memory, 

 whilst Roscoe 's gift of exposition and faculty of 

 clear and simple statement and of systematic 

 arrangement enabled all the accumulated wealth 

 of facts to be set forth in an eminently attractive 

 and readable form. 



This appreciation is concerned more particularly 

 with Roscoe as a teacher engaged in the pursuit 

 of experimental inquiry, with which aspects of his 

 career the writer may claim to have some right 

 to speak from personal knowledge. It must be 

 left to others to deal with his many other activi- 

 ties during the later years of his life, such as his 

 political life, his work in regard to technical educa- 

 tion, and in connection with the still unsolved 

 problem of the true function of a great metro- 

 politan university, and the important services he 

 rendered to preventive medicine in his association 

 with the Lister Institute. T. E. Thorpe. 



NOTES. 

 Sir Archibald Geikie, CM., K.C.B., F.R.S., will 

 reach his eightieth birthday next Tuesday, December 

 28. He is in excellent health, and still busy with his 

 pen. 



We announce with much regret the death on Decem- 

 ber 17, at seventy-five years of age, of Sir John Rhys, 

 NO. 2408, VOL. 96] 



principal of Jesus College, Oxford, and professor of 

 Celtic in the University. In addition to his other 

 titles io distinction, Sir John Rhys was well known 

 for his work in archaeology and anthropology. He, 

 was president of the Anthropological Section of the 

 British Association in 1900. 



Lord Alverstone, late Lord Chief Justice of England, 

 whose death occurred on December 15, was a fellow 

 of the Royal Society, having been elected in 1902 under 

 I a statutory provision, formerly in operation, which 

 allowed of the election of Privy Councillors. He was 

 a familiar figure at the society's annual soirees, and 

 from time to time attended and spoke at the presi- 

 dential anniversary banquets. Lord Alverstone had 

 a long and traditional connection with the Royal 

 Society of Arts, the son in this respect continuing the 

 highly useful services rendered by his father, Mr. 

 Thomas Webster, Q.C. Elected on the council in 

 1883, fi^ was chairman of that body from 1890 to 

 1894, remaining afterwards an ordinary member of 

 council for a long period of years. On King George's 

 accession to the throne in 1910, the presidency of the 

 society became, thereby, vacant, and the late Lord 

 Chief Justice accepted the post. He resigned in 191 1 

 in order to make way for his Royal Highness 

 the Duke of Connaught. It may be recalled 

 that Lord Alverstone opened the proceedings of the 

 " Law, Political Economy, and Legislation Affecting 

 Chemical Industry " Section of the International Con- 

 gress of Applied Chemistry, held at South Kensington 

 in 1909, giving a thoughtful address on the right 

 method of legislating upon and dealing with scientific 

 technical knowledge. 



The letters in the Times during the last few days 

 from Mr. C. H. L. Alder, Sir William Ramsay, and 

 Mr. J. A. Goudge again direct attention to a remark- 

 able state of affairs. As recently pointed out in 

 Nature, Germany is necessarily suffering from a 

 serious shortage of fats, and consequently of glycerine, 

 which is obtainable from no other source. Notwith- 

 standing our supposed blockade, Germany is making 

 up for this shortage by the import, through neutral 

 countries, of fats and oil-containing seeds. Though 

 primarily produced abroad, the fatty materials to a 

 large extent pass through British hands and British 

 ports. In the correspondence referred to, disturbing 

 statistics are given concerning linseed, which is one 

 fatty material out of many. Sir William Ramsay 

 shows by a simple calculation that from linseed oil 

 alone our Government has furnished the enemy with 

 no fewer than 18,000 tons of gun ammunition. 

 Actually the position is much worse, and the addi- 

 tional complication is now arising that, owing in 

 part to the general dislocation of transport, there is 

 more than a possibility of a future shortage of fatty 

 materials, and consequently of glycerine, in this 

 countr)'. The price of fats here is rising in an alarm- 

 ing manner, though since their cost is still small 

 compared with that ruling in Germany, the financial 

 temptations to export to neutral countries bordering on 

 Germany remain immense. It is difficult to under- 

 stand whether the present policy of the Government 

 is due to want of knowledge or to reasons of high 



