April 4, 19 18] 



NATURE 



89 



trustworthy guide. Hooker's maps have helped in I 

 settling boundary disputes and in conducting | 

 military operations. 



Artists or climbers who have followed Hooker's 

 path have rarely described their tours ; there was 

 little to tell that Hooker had not already told. 

 Scientific travellers have deviated as much as pos- 

 sible from Hooker's track; their writings record 

 facts already noted by Hooker; they less often 

 allude to places he visited. 



Among wanderers in Sikkim who have felt the 

 spell of the region and the charm of Hooker's 

 style is Lt.-Col. W. J. Buchanan, CLE., who 

 has, in "Bengal Past and Present" (Calcutta 

 Historical Society, vol. xiv.), taken us "In the 

 Footsteps of Hooker through Sikkim and Nepal. ' ' 

 The intrinsic value of this interesting article is 

 enhanced by the testimony it bears to the accuracy 

 of Hooker's observations and the soundness of 

 Hooker's conclusions. It forms a fitting and 

 graceful centenary memorial of the great traveller 

 and naturalist. 



Besides minor excursions. Hooker made two 

 great Sikkim journeys. During the first — October, 

 1848, to January, 1849 — he explored the upper 

 catchment area of the Rangiet, in western Sikkim, 

 and penetrated some way into eastern Nepal. The 

 second journey — May to December, 1849 — took 

 him to the valleys of north-eastern Sikkim, drained 

 by the Lachen and the Lachung, which unite to 

 form the Tista. Wide as Hooker's interests were, 

 he w'as primarily a botanist, and singularly few of 

 the floral features of the land escaped his eye, 

 especially during the second journey, one episode 

 of which was his capture and imprisonment, along 

 with the Political OflBcer, Dr. Campbell, by the 

 Rajah of Sikkim. 



Much, however, was still left to do. Hooker's 

 friend and fellow-student, T. Thomson, who joined 

 him at Darjeeling, and explored the Khasia Hills 

 along with him in 1850, ultimately succeeded 

 H. Falconer as superintendent of the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and continued the 

 botanical investigation of Sikkim. T. Anderson, 

 superintendent from 1858 to 1870, did the same. 



Hooker, in his "Journals," describes the efforts 

 made to prevent his reaching the Tibetan border. 

 To the energy and tact of Sir G. King, super- 

 intendent of the Calcutta Garden from 1871 to 

 1898, we owe more than the systematic investiga- 

 tion of valleys and passes not visited by Hooker. 

 Though political difficulties prevented King from 

 supplementing Hooker's Nepalese results, he was 

 able to explore the district of ChumbI, which, 

 though politically Tibetan, is geographically 

 Himalayan, as thoroughly as he did Sikkim. 

 Among those whose share in the botanical survey 

 of Sikkim during this period deserves especial 

 mention were W. T. Blanford, C. B. Clarke, 

 H. A. Cummins, D. D. Cunningham, Sir J. Ware 

 Edgar, J. S. Gamble, G. A. Gammie, H. C. 

 Levinge, J. L. Lister, R, Pantling, and Sir G. 

 Watt. 



One district, Lonakh, in northern Sikkim, 

 behind the Kinchinjanga massif, still remained 

 NO. 2527, VOL. lOl] 



unexplored. Objection was not taken in 1849 to 

 Hooker's attempt to enter this district, but his 

 party was unable to cut a path through the dense 

 rhododendron forest of the upper Zemu, which 

 blocked the way. Political difficulties frustrated 

 King's wish to explore Lonakh, the "great black 

 south" of the Tibetan graziers, who drive their 

 yaks to its poor alpine summer pastures. An 

 expedition organised by him for the purjjose in 

 1892, under Mr. G. A. Gammie, had at the last 

 moment to be diverted to another district. 



This region, difficult of access from the south, 

 was at last traversed by Mr. Freshfield, whose 

 account of his journey, "Around Kanchenjunga," 

 published in 1903, now almost takes the place of 

 Hooker's "Journals." The first Lonakh plants to 

 reach the Calcutta herbarium were sent from the 

 Naku-la by Sir F. Younghusband in 1903. It has 

 been the good fortune of the present superin- 

 tendent of the Calcutta Garden, Lt.-Col. A. T. 

 Gage, to organise an expedition, led by Messrs. 

 W. W. Smith and G. H. Cave, which in 1909, by 

 investigating this district, has done much towards 

 completing the botanical survey of Sikkim begun 

 by Hooker. 



NOTES. 



That "prevention is better than cure" needs no 

 argument, and yet it may be observed from time to 

 time in the daily papers that the general idea of a 

 Ministry of Public Health seems to be that the various 

 organisations for treatment of disease are very specific- 

 ally involved, and that, provided the interests of these 

 organisations are secured, all might go well. It is 

 only Lord Rhondda who appears to place prevention 

 well to the front. Insurance against sickness is neces- 

 sary where prevention fails, but surely every bed occu- 

 pied by a sick man or woman is a possible censure 

 upon the prevention side. There are, therefore, two 

 distinct branches of work. Prevention involves the 

 organisation of science, not merely laboratory science, 

 but also the practical applications of the lessons learned in 

 the laboratory, these applications being carried out by 

 scientifically trainf.d men. Treatment involves the re- 

 construction of our hospital system. If we are to have 

 a Health Ministry and a really national Health Service 

 it is the prevention side that demands, and must re- 

 ceive, the chief attention of our statesmen. For the 

 cure of disease we may justly be proud of our doctors 

 of all ranks. But what is their work? Nine-tenths of 

 it is trying to remedy and cure easily preventable 

 disease. King Edward asked : " If preventable, why 

 not prevented? " and his question has not yet been 

 answered. If the Health Ministry is to be a success 

 its chief aim must be prevention. We who believe in 

 the urgent necessity for a Ministry of Health want to 

 answer King Edward's question, and so to deal with 

 the health of the nation that the next generation will 

 know nothing of preventable disease, or, if it occurs, 

 will regard it as a disgrace, and that the sufferer frc»n 

 any disease the cause of which is known and prevent- 

 able will be as ashamed to admit it as is now the case 

 with those affections which are known to be the result 

 of excesses and loose living. 



For several years before the war various branches 

 of science had gradually been acquiring the elements 

 of an international organisation, and in several in- 

 stances Germany had secured that the central bureaux 

 should be associated with her own national institutions 



