October i, 19 14] 



NATURE 



119 



The major part of the Adelaide programme was 

 occupied by excursions, which were well patronised 

 by the visiting members. On the day of arrival 

 a party of fourteen left Adelaide for an excursion 

 to Broken Hill and the smelting works at Port 

 Pirie. On Monday morning about fifteen mem- 

 bers departed, under the leadership of Mr. Walter 

 Howchin, to visit places of geological interest to 

 the south of Adelaide, chief among their objects 

 of investigations being the remarkable evidences 

 of glaciation discovered by Mr. Howchin. On the 

 same day a botanical excursion to the hills in 

 the vicinity of Adelaide, under the leadership of 

 Prof. T. G. B. Osborn, and an anthropological 

 excusion to Milang on the shores of Lake Alexan- 

 diina to inspect a party of aborigines there, was 

 made under the guidance of the veteran ethnolo- 

 gist, Prof. E. C. Stirling, who is also the chairman 

 of the local reception committee. 



On Tuesday, August ii, a second botanical 

 excursion by motor-car to Mannum on the MurraV 

 was made by about a dozen members, and an 

 excursion to Roseworthy Agricultural College by 

 about twenty-five more. Members who did not 

 participate in other excursions were conveyed on 

 Monday by special train to Angastoh, a small 

 town fifty-one miles from Adelaide and the centre 

 of a very important viticultural industry, where 

 they were entertained at luncheon by Mr. Charles 

 Angas. 



On Tuesday a large number of members were 

 entertained to luncheon by the Adelaide branch of 

 the Commonwealth Club. On Wednesday after- 

 noon, August 12, overseas members departed in 

 three special trains for Melbourne. 



DR. H. J. JOHNSTON-LAVIS. 



HENRY JAMES LAVIS, who was descended 

 from a Huguenot family settled in Devon- 

 shire, and added his mother's name to his own, 

 was born on July 19, 1856, and was unfortunately 

 killed in a motor accident near Bourges, depart- 

 ment of Cher, on September lo. After receiving 

 his early education in a private school, Johnston- 

 Lavis commenced his medical education at Uni- 

 versity College, London, and here came under the 

 influence of Prof. John Morris, from whose 

 teaching he acquired a passion for geological 

 studies. Joining the Geological Society when 

 only nineteen years of age, he had written several 

 geological papers, one of them published in the 

 Journal of the Geological Society, before he was 

 t\venty-one. After obtaining his degree of 

 M.R.C.S. in London and holding some minor 

 medical posts in this country, he proceeded in 1880 

 to Naples, where he established himself as a 

 consulting physician, taking the degree of M.D. 

 in the University of Naples in 1884, and acting 

 as medical officer to Sir William Armstrong's 

 works at Puzzuoli from 1892 to 1897. 



It was at Naples that Johnston-Lavis found his 

 , most useful sphere of geological labour; besides 

 I keeping a diary with photographic records of the 

 ' action of Vesuvius, he prepared a valuable geo- 



XO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



logical map illustrating the past history of the 

 \olcano, with petrological studies of its ejected 

 materials. Incidentally, these studies led to one 

 of his most important memoirs, undertaken in 

 conjunction with Prof. J. W. Gregory, in which 

 the non-organic origin of the one-time famous 

 Eozoon canadense was finally demonstrated. 



In addition to his studies of Vesuvius, 

 Johnston-Lavis did much useful work in con- 

 nection with the vulcanology and seismology 

 of the whole South Italian region. Between 

 the years 1892 and 1897 Johnston-Lavis was 

 in the habit of spending his summers at Harro- 

 gate, where he acted as a consulting physician. 

 In 1895 he left Naples and, having taken a degree 

 of M.D. at Lyons, established a practice on the 

 Riviera at Beaulieu, while in 1909 he added to 

 this a summer practice at Vittel in the Vosges. 

 His scientific energies never flagged, and more 

 than 160 papers — on volcanoes, earthquakes, 

 mineral waters, and medical subjects— were 

 issued by him, some of them dealing with im- 

 portant theoretical questions. Many geologists 

 and others who visited the Mediterranean area 

 were indebted to Johnston-Lavis for the friendly 

 and valuable aid which he was always readv to 

 afford. 



NOTES. 



The death is announced, at seventy-five years of 

 age, of Dr. A. S. Bickmore, formerly curator of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York. 



In consequence of the closure of the Anglo-American 

 Exhibition, the visit of the Geologists' Association to 

 the science section, arranged for October 10, will not 

 take place. 



Dr. Henry Owen, treasurer of the National Library 

 of Wales, has be^n appointed a member of the Royal 

 Commission on Ancient Monuments in ^Vales, in 

 succession to the late Sir Edward Anwvl. 



The death is announced, by accidental drowning, of 

 Dr. L. C. P. Ritchie, late president and secretary of 

 the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and the 

 author of a number of papers on medical subjects. 



Announcement was made in Nature of August 20 

 that, in consequence of the war -the publication of the 

 " British Pharmacopoeia " had been postponed. The 

 General Medical Council has resolved that advance 

 copies should be made accessible to the public for in- 

 spection at the offices of the council in London, Edin- 

 burgh, and Dublin on October i, at 10 a.m., and 

 thereafter from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The work 

 will be published at the end of the year. 



The council of the Junior Institution of Engineers 

 has elected the Marquess of Graham as president of 

 the institution for the year 1914-15, in succession to 

 Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart. The Vickers prize, con- 

 sisting of a gold medal and premium of instruments 

 or books, has been awarded to Mr. James Richardson, 

 for his paper on high-power Diesel engines : their 



