January 13, 19 16] 



NATURE 



541 



pleasure of pointing out that their chief hierophant, 

 the late Prof. Winckler, got most of his astro- 

 nomy, on which he based his theory, all wrong. 

 His criticism is all the more effective for the 

 studious moderation of his language. 



So the book ends, with the final abolition of an 

 absurdity comparable only to that other absurdity ,~ 

 Winckler's Musri theory, which was first ex- 

 ploded in the columns of Nature some years ago 

 {September 25, 1902). The said theory, so far 

 as we can see, is not even mentioned by Prof. 

 King in his book, so dead is it and buried. 



So critical common-sense triumphs over non- 

 sense, and true scientific knowledge increases. 

 And Prof. King's book is a landmark of such 

 progress in Babylonian studies, besides giving 

 the general reader an admirable presentment of a 

 most interesting period of ancient history. Its 

 illustrations are good and well chosen : we show- 

 two of the photographs of the ruins at Borsippa 

 and Babvlon. " H. H. 



DR. BENJAMIN WILLIAMSON, F.R.S. 



THERE has just died at his residence in Dublin 

 Dr. Benjamin Williamson, F.R.S., who was 

 for sixty-three years a fellow of Trinity College. 

 Dr. Williamson was born at Mallow, in the county 

 of Cork, in 1827, and entered Trinity College from 

 Kilkenny College in 1843. In 1852 he was elected 

 to a fellowship of Trinity College, but owing to 

 the stagnation of promotion among the fellows, 

 due to the abolition of the obligations of celibacy 

 and of taking Holy Orders, he djdi not become 

 a tutor until many years afterwards. The. inter- 

 vening years were not, however, wasted, and 

 Williamson quickly earned a considerable local 

 reputation as a lecturer who was able to estimate 

 the capacity of his hearers and did not endeavour 

 to teach them what they were unable to learn'. 

 In 1872 he published his first work, a "Treatise 

 on the Diffeiential Calculus," which was followed 

 in 1874 by his " Integral Calculus," both of which 

 have run into many editions and have been used 

 all over the English-speaking world. In 1879 he 

 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 

 1884 he became professor of natural philosophy in 

 Trinity College. In the latter year he published, 

 along with Dr. Tarleton, a treatise on dynamics, 

 and in 1893 appeared his last publication, "The 

 Mathematical Theory of Stress and Strain." The 

 articles "Infinitesimal Calculus," "Maclaurin," 

 and "Variations, Calculus of," in the ninth edition 

 of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " are also due 

 to him. 



Williamson's personality U-as one of the most 

 delightful, and his rooms in college in the 'eighties 

 were the place of hospitality which many an 

 Englishman, sent for his sins to govern Ireland, 

 remembered with pleasure. The human side 6f 

 W^illiamson was always turned towards his fellows, 

 and his mind was always ready to receive sug- 

 gestions on which his generosity could act. When, 

 in 1897, he became a member of the governing 

 XO. 241 1, VOL. 96] 



body of the college, his -ripe judgment and his 

 wide acquaintance began at once to be appreciated 

 by his colleagues. The magnificent new labora- 

 tories for physics and botany are a portion only 

 of the fruit of his efforts. In matters of learning 

 he was free from prejudice, and proposals for the 

 founding of new chairs or the improving of old 

 found in him always a ready support. Until 

 a couple of years ago he filled with great dignity 

 the honourable othce of vice-provost of the college, 

 and it was only with the greatest reluctance that 

 he was compelled by weakness of the body to 

 abandon cares from which his mind did not recoil. 

 The fate of those who by living too long outlive 

 all their friends was not his, for his genial pres- 

 ence and the freshness of his mind made friends 

 for him everywhere. His death is mourned by 

 all who knew him. S. B. K. 



COUNT SOLMS-LAUBACH, For.Mem.R.S. 



BY the death of Hermann, Graf zu Solms-Lau- 

 bach, on November 25, 1915, Germany has 

 lost the most distinguished of her botanists and 

 the world of science one of its most impressive 

 figures. The sad news was communicated to this 

 country through the Swedish palaeontologist. Prof. 

 Nathorst, of Stockholm. 



Count Solms was born on December 23, 1842, 

 and had thus nearly completed his seventy-third 

 year. He came of one of the most ancient of 

 German families, who were sovereign in their own 

 domains down to the year 1806. He himself de- 

 voted his life wholly to science, holding the pro- 

 fessorship of botany, first at Gottingen and after- 

 wards at Strasburg. He resigned the latter post 

 a few years ago, but continued to live in the town, 

 surrounded by his university friends. 

 . His work extended to every department of 

 botainy. .Beginning with an important series of 

 researches on parasitic phanerogams, he subse- 

 quently monographed several natural orders, in- 

 cluding the screw-pines. His interest in the 

 morphology of flowering plants continued in later 

 years ; in 1900 he described the remarkable 

 Crucifer, Capsella Hegeri, with indehiscent fruits, 

 regarding it as a mutant of the common C. Bursa 

 pastoris. He was always interested in variation, 

 and carried out important investigations on the 

 history of cultivated plants, such as the fig, the 

 papaw, wheat, tulips, and strawberries. 



In embryology, he showed that in certain mono- 

 cotyledons the growing point of the embryo is 

 terminal, as in dicotyledons. 



In addition to the flowering plants, his system- 

 atic researches extended to every class of crypto- 

 gams. One of his most remarkable works in this 

 field is his monograph of the Acetabulariacese, a 

 family of calcareous Algae with an ancient fossil 

 history. This was published in 1895 in the Trans- 

 actions of the Linnean Society, and was his only 

 paper written in English. His book on the "Prin- 

 ciples of Plant Geography " (1905) treats in an 

 original manner of the leading conceptions in this 

 great subject. 



