6oo 



NATURE 



[January 27, 19 16 



be almost entirely a recluse. He published as the pre- 

 liminary studies of this work a series of monographs 

 on castes, which are full of interest, particularly those 

 devoted to the little-known forest tribes. It is a melan- 

 choly satisfaction to know that before he started on 

 his last fatal voyage he was able to complete this 

 great work on the "Tribes and Castes of the Central 

 Provinces of India," which is announced for early 

 publication by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. By 

 his early death the Indian Civil Service loses an officer 

 of exceptional ability, and anthropology an energetic 

 field worker and a competent authority on the general 

 questions of ethnology, comparative religion, and folk- 

 lore. 



Dr. Reginald Koettlitz and his wife have died 

 from dysentery at Somerset, South Africa, where Dr. 

 Koettlitz was in practice. Born in 1861, educated at 

 Dover College and Guy's Hospital, Dr. Koettlitz 

 settled in a country practice in England, where 

 he remained eight years, until he joined the 

 Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition in 1894. 

 He remained three years continuously in Franz 

 Josef Land, for he refused to return home 

 when he had the opportunity, and leave the expedition 

 without a medical officer. Dr. Koettlitz 's geological 

 researches in Franz Josef Land were most important 

 and carried out under very adverse conditions. In 

 1898 he joined Mr. Weld Blundell when the latter 

 accompanied Captain Harrington to Addis Abbeba, on 

 his appointment to the court of the Emperor of 

 Abyssinia. This entailed a journey through Somali- 

 land and south Abyssinia to the Berta country and the 

 Blue Nile, and home by the Sudan and Egypt. Later 

 Dr. Koettlitz travelled in Brazil, and in 1902 joined 

 the late Captain Scott as senior medical officer of the 

 Discovery. He served throughout that expedition, 

 and did much useful work. The Koettlitz Glacier 

 remains as a memorial to his enthusiasm for travel 

 and scientific research, and will keep alive the memory 

 of his kindly and unselfish nature. 



By the death of Lieut. William Inchley, of the 2nd 

 Duke of Wellington's Regiment, under shell fire in 

 France, on December 19, 1915, a scientific career of 

 great activity and high promise was cut short at the 

 age of thirty-two years. On leaving school, Lieut. 

 Inchley attended the engineering course at University 

 College, Nottingham, and graduated B.Sc. (Engineer- 

 ing) with honours in the University of London. He 

 was a brilliant student. In his second year at college 

 he gained first prize and silver medal of the City 

 and Guilds of London Institute in mechanical engineer- 

 ing, and in the next year their bronze medal and prize 

 in electrical engineering. He was apprenticed to 

 Messrs. R. Hornsby and Sons, Ltd., Grantham, and 

 engaged on the design, construction, and testing of 

 internal-combustion engines and steam boilers, and for 

 two years acted as technical assistant to this firm. As 

 a graduate of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 

 he gained a prize for a paper on " Steam Engine and 

 Boiler Trials." From January, 1907, he was lecturer 

 in mechanical and electrical engineering at University 

 College, Nottingham. His paper on "The Calorific 

 Value of Solid and Liquid Fuels " gives the results of 

 NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



a research, using the latest form of Mahler-Cook bomb 

 calorimeter. He also recalculated Mahler's figures, 

 and deduced simple empirical formulae for the heating 

 value of fuels which agree more closely with the values 

 obtained by the bomb calorimeter than those given 

 either by Dulong or Mahler. Lieut. Inchley wrote 

 several books on engineering; his "Theory of Heat 

 Engines " gives in a concise form thermodynamic and 

 mechanical principles with many numerical examples. 

 His book on " Steam Boilers " avoids advanced mathe- 

 matics, even when dealing with heat transmission. 

 He was also joint-author of "Elementary Applied 

 Mechanics." All who were associated with him in 

 his life-work will long cherish the memory of his 

 devotion to duty. His death is not only a severe loss 

 to his wife and three young children, but also to 

 University College, Nottingham, and his country. 



We learn with regret of the death, In his seventy- 

 seventh year, of Prof. Paul Sorauer, of the University 

 of Berlin. He early won recognition by his " Beitrage 

 zur Keimungsgeschichte der Kartoffelknolle," pub- 

 lished in 1868. Six years later appeared the " Hand- 

 buch der Pflanzenkrankheiten," written whilst Sorauer 

 was director of the Experimental Station for Plant 

 Physiology at the Imperial Cider Institute of Proskau. 

 This work, which was the first comprehensive pre- 

 sentation of the rapidly growing science of plant 

 pathology, immediately raised the author to a leading 

 position. A new edition, twelve years later, is note- 

 worthy for the author's acceptance of the then heretical 

 doctrine of the importance of bacteria as causal agents 

 of disease In plants. The last edition, completed in 

 191 1, must remain for many years the most authorita- 

 tive exposition of this subject, and we are glad to 

 note that it is being rendered accessible to English 

 readers. In the meantime appeared many other of his 

 valuable works dealing with various aspects of plant 

 pathology, and the eminently readable " Populare 

 Pflanzenphysiologle," which has since been translated 

 into English by Weiss. In 1891, the Zeitschrift fur 

 Pflanzenkrankheiten was founded under the auspices 

 of the " Internationalen Phytopathologlschen Kommis- 

 sion," and Sorauer became editor, a position he occu- 

 pied until his death. During that time he contributed 

 more than thirty articles embodying original research 

 to this publication alone, which latter under his guid- 

 ance remained the leading phytopathological journal. 

 Whilst it is by his " Handbuch," the successive editions 

 of which mark epochs in the history of the study of 

 disease in plants, that Sorauer will live, his enthu- 

 siasm and untiring energy in all international phyto- 

 pathological activities are worthy of the fullest recog- 

 nition, and have had a predominating influence in what 

 has been achieved to that end. 



The Scotia, which was the vessel that carried the 

 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the south 

 polar regions, under the command of Dr. W. S. Bruce, 

 has been burnt in the Bristol Channel, and has been 

 run ashore at Sully. It was hoped at the end of the 

 expedition that the Scotia might be further endowed 

 and handed over to the universities of Scotland as a 

 well-fitted oceanographlcal ship, but this was not to 

 be, and she fell to the hammer as a whaler. Later, 



