February 24, 19 16] 



NATURE 



709 



In connection with the British scheme, it has 

 'cently been stated that "many hundreds of men, 

 drawn from other occupations, have become 

 <'hemical workers, and are making more money 

 tlian they ever earned before." Although it is 

 satisfactory to know that these new-comers in 

 ilie dye field are already reaping a golden harvest, 

 \(.'t it must be admitted that the existing conditions 

 are exceptional, even in an enterprise largely subsi- 

 dised by the State. The ultimate justification of 

 iliis good fortune will be the capacity to meet the 

 loreign rival, whether German or American, with 

 dyes of equal tinctorial value at even prices. As 

 regards the French problem, Dr. Wahl is under 

 no illusions as to an easy victory. He warns his 

 compatriots that in this competition, as in the 

 war, the essential requirements are stupendous 

 ifforts, much expenditure of capital, and even 

 more of time. 



SIR WILLIAM TURNER, K.C.B., F.R.S. 

 (^IR V\^ ILL I AM TURNER, vice-chancellor and 

 »--^ principal of the University of Edinburgh, 

 <lied on Tuesday, February 15, in the eighty-fourth 

 year of his age. His much-lamented death was 

 unexpected. Almost to the day preceding the last 

 illness he had been engaged in university duties, 

 to which his whole life had been devoted. Although 

 lor several days previously he had been suffering 

 from a recurrence of slight symptoms of gastric 

 derangement, which for several years had been 

 the one " thorn in the fiesh " of an otherwise 

 singularly strong and robust constitution, they 

 had not prevented him from engaging in univer- 

 sity work. A profuse gastric haemorrhage, how- 

 ever, occurred early on Sunday morning, Febru- 

 ary 13, which produced collapse, soon followed by 

 a painless oblivion, terminating in the final rest 

 of death. 



His record is a great one of services to his uni- 

 versity and to the cause of education. A distin- 

 guished student of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 London, he went to Edinburgh on the invitation 

 of the renowned Prof. Good sir to assume the office 

 of demonstrator of anatomy. So successful was 

 he in this office and so meritorious were his early 

 ♦ ontributions to anatomical knowledge that on the 

 <leath of Goodsir in 1867, he was, by universal 

 approval, appointed to succeed him as professor 

 of anatomy. He brilliantly justified expectation 

 during his thirty-six years of tenure of the chair, 

 l^xact and methodical in his teaching, clear and 

 emphatic in his statements to the useful extent of 

 even being somewhat dogmatic, he proved a 

 highly successful expositor of the subject. The 

 anatomy department in his earlier professorial 

 days had a preponderating share in medical edu- 

 cation, and the number of students of anatomy 

 was large. Turner's genius for organisation 

 accordingly found ample scope in the arrange- 

 ment for teaching. He remained professor for 

 thirty-six years, and it is a melancholy recollection 

 that as 191 7 would have represented fifty years 

 since he first became professor, former pupils were 

 NO. 2417, VOL. 96J 



already considering a jubilee celebration in his 

 honour. 



During the tenure of the anatomy chair Sir 

 W'illiam Turner had shown, as a member of 

 Senatus, so thorough a knowledge of university 

 affairs, and, alx)ve all, so unequalled an ability 

 to deal with financial problems, that he was an 

 easy favourite for the principalship, in succession 

 to Sir William Muir. He was appointed to this 

 high office and also to that of vice-chancellor in 

 1903. The one reservation that found expression 

 in some quarters was the possibility that he might 

 exhibit a bias in favour of medical interests. He, 

 however, assumed office with the declared inten- 

 tion of acting always in the best interests of all 

 the faculties, and he loyally carried out this in- 

 tention. A retrospect shows how whole- 

 heartedly he furthered the well-being and success 

 of all the faculties. He has left his impress on the 

 development of each of them, which has been so 

 gratifying in recent years. He was largely instru- 

 mental in establishing new professorships and 

 lectureships, and in furthering tutorial instruction 

 in arts and science. With unflagging energy and 

 much tact he pioneered schemes for new build- 

 ings and new technical departments. On the site 

 of the famous old infirmary, monuments of his 

 untiring energy have been erected for science and 

 arts, rivalling in some respects the palatial build- 

 ings devoted to medical education, erected while 

 he was professor of anatomy. 



Turner did not confine his activities to university 

 affairs. In 1886 he was appointed member of the 

 (ieneral Medical Council, of which body he re- 

 mained a member for nearly twenty years. On 

 the resignation of Sir Richard Quain in 1898 he 

 was elected president of the council. This high 

 office gave him full opportunity for displaying the 

 qualities of tact, organising power, and familiarity 

 with details, not less than the skill in reconciling 

 conflicting interests, by which he was so con- 

 spicuously distinguished. As the mouthpiece of 

 the council he conveyed to the Privy Council the 

 views of the medical profession and the medical 

 authorities on all questions of public and State 

 importance, and thereby his influence on the well- 

 being of the medical profession and on medical 

 practice in the British Empire became a prepon- 

 derating one. He successively occupied many 

 other high appointments, such as those of presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, of the Royal Physical 

 Society of Edinburgh, of the Anthropological 

 section of the British Association,- and of this 

 Association itself on the occasion of its meeting 

 in 1900. 



Turner's business capacity led to his services 

 being frequently in request on various committees 

 and institutions affecting the public. Notwith- 

 standing these many occupations, the almost un- 

 bounded vitality displayed during the greater part 

 of life allowed him to do good and notable original 

 work. He was one of the editor-founders of the 

 Journal of Anafomy and a frequent contributor to 

 its pages. His writings on anthropology and 



