28 



NATURE 



[September 13, 191 



sary information, and serious losses were pre- 

 vented where the measures advocated were carried 

 out. The outstanding feature concerning- fruit 

 crops was an outbreak of the pear thrips in British 

 Columbia, and investigations of its life-history and 

 means of control are now being conducted. The 

 warble-fly is also a problem of great importance, 

 especially as the two common species of Hypo- 

 derma are extending their range in Canada, 

 through the introduction of cattle from infested 

 areas. A definite method of control, by legisla- 

 tion or otherwise, is an urgent need not only in 

 Canada, but also in the British Isles. 



Among other topics, insects affecting the house- 

 hold and public health claimed much attention, 

 also the protection of birds and mammals, and the 

 arrangement of the national collections of insects. 



A. D. Imms. 



EDOUARD SARAS IN, (1843-19 17). 



WHILE the best young shoots are being ruth- 

 lessly destroyed the mature grain is 

 being harvested. Edouard Sarasin has passed 

 away. In, him Science deplores the loss of a 

 distinguished physicist, and Geneva a great man 

 of an historic race, whose traditions, however, do 

 not cease with him. 



The place which Sarasin held in the world of 

 science was in no way due to official position. He 

 was at no time a professor at the university. The 

 admirer of his work who sought him at the 

 University of Geneva did not find him, and was 

 told: "Edouard Sarasin? He is Maire of Grand 

 Saeonnex." In answer to a puzzled question as 

 to his academic position they would say : " He is 

 President of the Societe Helvetique, and editor of 

 the Archives des Sciences physiques et naturelles." 



Sarasin 's experimental work, which was of the 

 first order, was carried out at a private labora- 

 tory, often in collaboration with friends, whose 

 names are^ no less illustrious than his own. He 

 was not the head of a school, but a bright star in 

 a galaxy. These men of science grew up under 

 the influence of Auguste de la Rive; and Sarasin 's 

 first essay, dealing with electric discharges in 

 rarefied media in presence of a magnet, were 

 prompted by that great master. At the same time, 

 under Soret, he was obtaining results which have 

 become classical ; among these we may mention 

 the refractive indices of quartz, Iceland spar and 

 fluorspar, still printed in the tables. 



It was however in collaboration with Lucien 

 de La Rive, the son of Auguste, that Sarasin 's 

 best known work in physics was achieved. This 

 consisted in the experimental development of the 

 Maxwell-Hertz theory. The discovery of " mul- 

 tiple resonance " is one of the results due to them. 

 It is in virtue of this property that, for instance, 

 a Marconigram may be picked up in transmission 

 by any resonator. The last scientific work with 

 which Sarasin was, only recently, engaged, 

 consisted in delicate experiments on radio-acti- 

 vity carried out in conjunction with Tommasina. 



At Geneva, however, the man of science cannot 

 NO. 2498, VOL. ICX5] 



remain mewed up in a laboratory. Nature tempts 

 nim with her beauty and her mystery. Sarasin 

 was a passionate lover of nature and an ardent 

 student of the geophysics of his native land. We 

 can but refer to the instrument invented by him 

 for recording the " seiches " — those strange 

 undulations which from time to time traverse the 

 Lake Leman, and to his photographic studies on 

 the penetration of light under water. 



The reader who desires a fuller information as 

 to the work of Sarasin is referred to the interest- 

 ing article by C. E. Guye in the Journal de 

 Geneve of June 26, as well as to the forthcoming 

 account by L. de la Rive in the Archives des 

 Sciences. Grace Chisholm Young. 



NOTES. 



Sir George Greenhill reminds us, in connection 

 with the correspondence on unusual , rainbows in 

 Nature of August 30 and September 6, that letters 

 upon this subject appeared in Nature of January 23 

 and February 6, 1890 (vol. xli., pp. 271 and 316). In 

 the issue of the former date Lord Kelvin sent a letter, 

 with a diagram, showing a rainbow caused by reflec- 

 tion, and this was followed on February 6 by an illus- 

 trated description of eight rainbows seen at one time 

 by Dr. Percival Frost. Lord Kelvin, in sending this 

 letter, said: — "The theory of the rainbows produced 

 by the sun itself directly, and by the image of the sun 

 reflected from still water, is given in Prof. Tait's book 

 on ' Light. ' The phenomena seems to have been ob- 

 served by Halley in 1698 (see Nature, vol. x., pp. 437, 

 460, and 483 for interesting correspondence on the 

 subject)." Referring to the observation described in 

 Nature of August 30, Mr. J. H. Grace writes from 

 Cambridge to direct attention- to a note in the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Irish Academy, bearing date 

 November 14, 1826, and written by the Lord Bishop 

 of Down and Connor, where there is a striking 

 coloured diagram which illustrates the point raised 

 by Mr. Low. The Bishop remarks : " It cannot be 

 doubted that the extraordinary, or centre, bow was 

 occasioned by the image of the sun reflected from the 

 surface of the water. The description and the figure 

 answer exactly to this explanation." 



The Tokyo Press publishes the scheme for the in- 

 auguration in that city of a scientific and industrial 

 research laboratory. The principal scope of the insti- 

 tution is to assist in the application of modern methods 

 to the development of Japanese industries. The chief 

 sections of the laboratory will be those devoted to 

 researches in electricity, chemistry, electrochemistry, 

 textiles, and metallurgy. To meet the expenses Par- 

 liament has passed a law authorising the Government 

 to make a grant to the laboratory of two million yen 

 (approximately 2oo,oooL), payable in instalments over 

 ten years at the rate of 200,000 yen per annum. The 

 Imperial Household has alto made a lump sum grant 

 of one million yen (ioo,oooL). At a recent meeting 

 the promoters of the scheme elected a committee the 

 object of which will be the collection of funds inde- 

 pendent of the Government grants. A sum of 2,900,000 

 yen (290,000^.) has already been collected, so that the 

 laboratory will have available funds exceeding five 

 million yen (half a million sterling). These particu- 

 lars are taken from a paragraph in L'Economista 

 d'ltalia for August 30. 



During the last three strenuous years, much has 

 been done to organise chemical industries, and there 

 is every reason to hope that in the difficult period after 



