323 



NATURE 



[June 27, 1918 



incidentally for the Exchequer because any un- 

 considered fractional difference might gx> there. 



It is time for those who think that a unified 

 system of measurement is worth having to make 

 a push for at. It is scarcely likely that, to the 

 open mind, there can be any real difference of 

 opinion as to the units which should be chosen. 

 It is one of the truisms of science that the same 

 reasoning always leads fo the same conclusion. 

 All the '^traditional obstacles have disappeared, 

 and, ahove all things, we want to get on. 

 Another era with the schools and universities 

 using one set of units and all practical people 

 using a different set is almost as deplorable an 

 oullnnk as peace by negotiation. 



X A PIER SnA\\". 



PROF, H. G. PLIMMER, F.R.S. 



BIOLOGICAL and medical science has sustained 

 a great loss by the passing away of Henry 

 George Plimmer on Saturday last, June 22. 

 Plimmer had contributed much by his writing and 

 influence to comparative pathology during his life, 

 and his last illness interrupted a valuable and 

 strenuous research on trench fever. During his 

 earlier years he prepared himself for a scientific 

 career by visiting and working with the great 

 pioneers of that time, and it was doubtless owing 

 to the influence of men like Pasteur that the direc- 

 tion of much of his subsequent research was due. 

 He always kept xrp his Continental interests, and 

 often took part in the proceedings of foreign 

 scientific congresses. 



For many years Plimmer was connected with 

 the Royal College of Surgeons and with the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, which afforded him great oppor- 

 tunities for investigating pathological problems. 

 About three years ago he was appointed to the 

 chair of comparative pathology at the Imperial 

 College of Science and Technology, which had 

 been founded by the munificence of an anonymous 

 donor. 



The scientific, as well as the sterling human, 

 qualities of Plimmer found abundant opportunity 

 in his new post. His lectures were eagerly at- 

 tended by a large body of students, and as this 

 attendance was quite voluntary, it is no small 

 tribute to his genius that the room was often 

 crowded, even to overflowing. Gifted with an 

 unassuming and sympathetic nature, as well as 

 possessed of a knowledge of the world, his help 

 and advice were often sought by those in trouble 

 or difficulty, and many a young man would readily 

 acknowledge the debt owing to his kindly help and 

 wise counsel, 



Plimmer was a fellow of the Royal Society, as 

 well as of many other learned societies, both at home 

 and abroad,, and his contributions to science are 

 scattered through their Proceedings and Trans- 

 actions. He was an accomplished microscopist, 

 and his presidential address to the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society is a model of critical and scholarly 

 research. 



This is, however, neither the time nor the place 

 NO. 2539, VOL. 1 01] 



to attempt a fall 4ccouiSt of his scientific labours. 

 That must come later. But PUma>€r's in- 

 terests were not restricted to the pursuit of 

 science. Endowed with many and varied gifts 

 (he was, for example, a musician of the very first 

 rank), it was often a matter of surprise to many 

 of his friends that he could have possibly found 

 time and opportunity to develop and excel in them 

 as he actually did. 



It is hard to speak of Plimmer as a friend in 

 sufficiently measured terms, and those who knew 

 him best are best able to appreciate the rare quali- 

 ties of the man. Partly Stoic, partly Epicurean, 

 and largely something -wholly his own, he was 

 a delightful companion. Added to. • a philo- 

 sophical and discriminating enjoyment of the best 

 that life has to offer, his loyal and unselfish nature 

 endeared him to a wide circle of devotedly attached 

 friends. Perhaps the most that can be said of any 

 man is that the world is a better place for his 

 having lived in it, and this is emphatically true of 

 Plimmer. J. B. F. 



DR. E. A. NEWELL ARBER. 



THE death of Dr. Newell Arber, on June 14, 

 in his forty-eighth year, after a long illness, 

 adds another name to the already long list of 

 palseobotanists whose obituary notices have 

 appeared in these columns during the last two or 

 three years. After taking hi!s degree at Cam- 

 bridge, Arber was appointed university demon- 

 strator in palaeobotany in 1899, a post which he 

 held at the time of his death. He devoted himself 

 heart and soul to the study of fossil plants both 

 by his own researches, extending over a wide field, 

 and by his ever willing help to the students whom 

 he taught : through his energy a large number of 

 fossil plants were added to the Sedgwick Museum, 

 and the well-arranged and carefully named collec- 

 tions bear witness to his methodical and careful 

 curxitorship. In 1909 he married Miss Agnes 

 Robertson, an accomplished botanist, who has 

 recently been re-elected to a fellowship at Newn- 

 ham College. 



In addition to numerous papers, Arber pub- 

 lished four books : a British Museum Catalogue 

 of the Plants of the Glossopteris Flora (1905), a 

 work which is much more than a compilation and 

 is indispensable to palaeobotanical and geological 

 students; "Plant Life in Alpine Switzerland" 

 {1910); a volume on the coast scenery, of North 

 Devon (191 1); and a very useful book on coal, 

 one of the "Cambridge Manuals," which has been 

 translated into Russian. Much of his original 

 work was concerned with British Carboniferous 

 plants : he by no means confined himself to col- 

 lecting and describing specimens, but made valu- 

 able contributions to the stratigraphical problems 

 connected with the floras. He was particularly 

 interested \n the Kent coalfield and added consider- 

 ably to our knowledge of the floras of the Forest 

 of Wvre, the Forest of Dean, and other coalfields. 

 He published papers on the anatomy of Sigillaria, 

 in collaboration with Hamshaw Thomas, Medul- 



