February 24, 19 16] 



NATURE 



711 



Bv the death of Lieut.-Col. J. W. Stokes, on 

 February lo, the medical fraternity of Sheffield has 

 suffered a great loss. While engaged in the arduous 

 duties of a general practitioner in a highly populous 

 district, he also acted as demonstrator in anatomy for 

 many years in the University of Sheftield. His ser- 

 vices in this direction were entirely voluntary, and 

 were very much appreciated, owing to his regularity, 

 punctuality, and the zeal with which he discharged 

 his duties in the anatomical department. In addition 

 to being a stimulating teacher, he helped materially 

 to furnish the department with permanently mounted 

 specimens, which were sf>ecially acceptable at a time 

 when funds for equipment were very small. In his 

 Wusy life he managed to find time to write on anatom- 

 ical work, in addition to publishing papers dealing 

 with medicine and surgery. His geniality and quiet 

 humour, coupled with a frank, straightforward dis- 

 position, won. for him great popularity with his col- 

 leagues and students alike. 



The Canadian Army Medical Corps has sustained a 

 severe loss through the untimely death of Lieut.-Col. 

 Bridge Yates. Born in Montreal in 1865, he was 

 educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge University, 

 after which he returned to Canada, graduating M.D., 

 CM., at McGill University. After graduating, he 

 sf)ent several months in Germany studying bacterio- 

 logy, and on his return was appointed lecturer in 

 bacteriology in McGill University. He early became 

 interested in matters of public health, and in ambu- 

 lance work. In recognition of his services he was 

 appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John 

 of Jerusalem, and later president of the Province of 

 Quebec Branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society. 

 He took an active part in the reorganisation of the 

 Canadian Army Medical Corps, in 1907, and on the 

 >)utbreak of war was appointed acting A.D.M.S. for 

 I he Montreal District. Col. Yates joined the McGill 

 or No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in February, 

 1915, and organised the hospital buildings in France, 

 where he contracted his fatal illness. 



Mr. J. B. Jordan, news of whose death at Torquay 

 on December i, 1915, has just reached us, was for 

 many years compiler and editor of the Mining Record, 

 first at the Museum of Practical Geology and after- 

 ward at the Home Office. He was, however, better 

 known in the world of science as the inventor of the 

 glycerin barometer, which has almost the range of 

 the water barometer without its disadvantages. The 

 readings of this barometer were for a considerable 

 period published daily in the columns of the Times. 

 He also devised a simple form of a photographic sun- 

 shine recorder; this was apparently suggested by an 

 I ccentric genius, a secretary of the Coal Commission, 

 who used coconut shells for the purpose with approxi- 

 mately correct results. Mr. Jordan was also an expert 

 modeller; one of the finest examples of his work in 

 this direction is the model of the Southampton Docks 

 executed for the Lx)ndon and South-Western Railway. 

 Other works of his are a geological section showing 

 the order, superposition, and approximate maximum 

 thickness of sedimentary- strata in the British Isles, 

 a geological map of London on the scale of 6 in. to 

 NO. 2417, VOL. 96] 



I one mile, based on Stanford's well-known map, and 

 a model of London and its environs printed on tin and 

 stamped in tolerably high relief, this last being a very 

 ingenious, interesting, and useful map. 



By the death of Col. C. Stonham, C.M.G., senior 

 I surgeon to Westminster Hospital, on February i, we 

 4 lose not only a brilliant surgeon, but one who distin- 

 1 guished himself in other ways. He was educated at 

 University College Medical School, where he held the 

 I posts of demonstrator of anatomy and curator of the 

 pathological museum, and became assistant-surgeon to 

 the Westminster Hospital in 1887. In early life he 

 was an enthusiastic mountaineer, and as a member 

 of the Alpine Club made some noteworthy climbs. 

 While busily engaged in hospital work and private 

 practice he found time to make observations on bird- 

 life, formed a rare collection of British birds and their 

 eggs, and published his " Birds of the British Islands," 

 notable both for the bird-lore contained in it and for 

 the beauty of the illustrations. Col. Stonham com- 

 menced his military service as surgeon in the Middle- 

 sex Yeomanry, and in the South African war organised 

 and took out as surgeon-in-chief the Imperial Yeo- 

 manry Field Hospital, and for his services in this 

 campaign was made a C.M.G. He afterwards con- 

 tinued his ambulance work and organised a mounted 

 ambulance unit, which was ready for active service 

 on the outbreak of war. He was ordered to Egypt, 

 where he became inspector of hospitals, but his health 

 failed, and he had to return to Europe at the end of 

 last year. A man of striking personality, his untimely 

 death is a great loss to his profession. 



From a letter to the Times of February 18, by 

 Prof. J. Joly, it appears that experiments which he 

 has carried out in collaboration with Prof. H. H. 

 Dixon show that the undressed swimmer immersed in 

 water at 8° C. loses heat from the surface of his body 

 very nearly three times as fast as the dressed swimmer. 

 The e.xplanation is simple, since the clothing limits 

 the mobility of the water, and it is the constant con- 

 tact of fresh cold water with the surface of the body 

 which conveys the heat away (by convection, not con- 

 duction). The experiments also show that the down- 

 \\ard drag of ordinary clothing in sea-water amounts 

 to no more than the weight of 4 oz., and this only 

 after all the air has been expelled from the material. 

 These facts seem to justify the opinion expressed by 

 Prof. Joly, that when there is a probability of pro- 

 longed immersion the discarding of clothes is a draw- 

 back rather than an assistance, and that the only 

 condition which justifies stripping is the necessity for 

 rapid swimming. Probably the authors would agree 

 that in any case boots should come off. 



The general restriction of imports of papermakers' 

 raw materials brings into prominence our growing 

 dependence upon half-manufactured materials, in this 

 case the pulps or "half-stuffs." In adjusting the inci- 

 dence of the restriction to the various sections of the 

 industrj-, it is to be noted that the proportion of 

 labour and capital earnings and charges will be rela- 

 tively less in the case of materials which work up 

 such half-stuffs. On the other hand, the esparto mills 

 are equipped for preparing and boiling the grass, and 



