3IO 



NATURE 



[December 20, 1917 



It has been announced that a sum of money amount- 

 ing to about 250,000/- has been bequeathed by the late 

 Mr. G. F. Melville, advocate, Edinburgh, to be devoted 

 to "the care and cure of cancer"; the benefits of the 

 bequest do not, however, accrue until the death of cer- 

 tain beneficiaries under the will. The trust is to be 

 administered by the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, 

 the Deputy-Keeper of the Signet, and the Master of 

 the Merchant Company, and it is understood that the 

 trustees have considerable discretionary powers in the 

 choice of the methods by which the object of the 

 testator may be best attained. No doubt the questions 

 of provision, both for research work and for the care 

 of patients, will be considered. In Edinburgh at pre- 

 sent the treatment of cancer patients is carried on in 

 the general hospitals, an arrangement which has the 

 obvious advantage of not attaching a stigma to the 

 sufferer from malignant disease, but as the hospital 

 accommodation In the city has not increased with the 

 population an addition to the available resources for 

 treatment would be advantageous. On the research 

 side, though isolated investigations, such as those of 

 Russell on cancer bodies, have been carried out in 

 Edinburgh, no organised attack has been made on the 

 problems of cancer. . In the summer of 1914, however, 

 a scheme was being prepared for the erection, under 

 the joint auspices of the University and of the. Royal 

 College of Physicians and the Royal College of Sur- 

 geons, of an .extensive research institute in medicine as 

 a memorial of Lister's connection with the Edinburgh 

 School. This project the war has interfered with, but 

 the promoters are definitely committed to carry it 

 through whenever circumstances permit. It was part 

 of the original plan that special provision should be 

 made for research . on cancer, so that the authorities 

 of the Medical School have been quite alive to the 

 necessity for initiating work on the subject. 



Dr. G. p. Girdwood, emeritus professor of chem- 

 istry, McGill University, Montreal, died on October 2, 

 in his eighty-fifth year. We are indebted to the 

 British Medical Journal for the following particulars of 

 his career. Dr. Girdwood was the son of Dr. G. F. 

 Girdwood, and was born In London on October 22, 

 1832 ; he was educated at a private school, and later 

 at University College and St. George's Hospital. He 

 settled in practice in Montreal in 1864, and in the 

 following year, took the degrees of M.D., CM. at 

 McGill University. In 1869 Dr. Girdwood was ap- 

 pointed lecturer in practical chemistry In the faculty 

 of medicine, • McGill University ; in 1872 he became 

 professor of practical chemistry, and two years later 

 professor of chemistry. When he retired from this 

 chair in 1902 he was named emeritus professor of 

 chemistry. He occupied a number of other important 

 positions, among them the presidency of the Rontgen 

 Society of America and the vice-presidency of the 

 Canadian Branch of the Society of Chemical Industry. 

 He was also one of the original fellows of the Royal 

 Society of Canada. " Dr. Girdwood will be remem- 

 bered as a conspicuous figure among the scientific men 

 of Canada during the last quarter of the nineteenth 

 century — ^an example of the all-round man of science 

 that will become rarer In this age of specialisation ; 

 for, though fundamentally a chemist, he had 'a sound 

 knowledge of medicine, surgery, medical jurisprudence, 

 botany, physics, and microscopical technique, includ- 

 ing photomicrography. The Rodgers and Girdwood 

 method of detecting strychnine was devised by Dr. 

 Girdwood and Dr. Rodgers, of London, and it was Dr. 

 Girdwood also who first applied reagents for the detec- 

 tion of forgeries, counterfeits, and the identification of 

 handwriting. He was one of the first to apply the 

 stereoscopic principles to X-ray prints." 

 NO. 2512, VOL. 100] 



We regret to learn from the Memorias do Instituto 

 Oswaldo Cruz (vol. viii., fasc. ii.) of the death of the 

 distinguished director of the institute, Dr. Oswaldo 

 Gongalves Cruz. After completing his course as a 

 student of medicine in Brazil, Dr. Cruz worked for 

 some time in the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Soon 

 after his return to Brazil the Government decided to 

 take measures for the improvement of the health of 

 Rio de Janeiro, especially In regard to yellow fever, 

 and In 1903 Dr. Cruz was appointed head of the public 

 health department, with full powers to take all neces- 

 sary measures. He prosecuted the campaign against 

 yellow fever with scientific method and with the 

 utmost vigour, instituting for this purpose "mosquito 

 brigades " and allied services, comprising about 2000 

 men. The breeding places of Stegomyia calopus, the 

 carrier of yellow fever, were abolished or screened, all 

 infected persons were Isolated, and in about three years 

 yellow fever was stamped out in Rio. Dr. Cruz also 

 devoted careful attention to measures for the suppres- 

 sion of smallpox and the plague with such success that 

 by 1909 smallpox had almost disappeared in Rio, and 

 there has been no case of plague for five or six years. 

 In 1901 Dr. Cruz was appointed director of an insti- 

 tute for work on serum therapy ; he soon enlarged the 

 scope of the work so as to Include other branches of 

 experimental medicine, together with pathology and 

 parasitology, and about ten years ago the present insti- 

 tute was built and named In his honour. He was a 

 man of great activity and stimulating personality, and 

 brought together a band of workers who have made 

 his institute famous as a centre of researches of a 

 high order. Dr. Cruz will be held In honoured re- 

 membrance for his powerful support of all phases of 

 medical research in Brazil, and for his Inestimable 

 services in the cause of public health in Rio. 



At the annual meeting of the Yorkshire Geological 

 Society held at Leeds on December 12, Mr. T. Shep- 

 pard read a paper on " Martin Simpson and his Work." 

 Simpson was born in iSoo and died In 1892. He spent 

 most of his life in the Whitby district, and for more 

 than half a century had charge of the valuable geo- 

 logical collections in the Whitby Museum, though for a 

 short period he was the curator of the Yorkshire Geo- 

 logical Society's collection. He was one of the first 

 workers among the Llassic rocks of Yorkshire, and 

 considering the early date of his researches, the enor- 

 mous amount of Information he accumulated Is re- 

 markable, and his methods of research had a surpris- 

 ingly modern air. He was the author of a number 

 of geological memoirs, most of which are now exceed- 

 ingly scarce. Mr. Sheppard exhibited a complete series 

 of these works, which he had collected, the most im- 

 portant being a memoir on the "Ammonites of the 

 Yorkshire Lias," which was published In 1843, and 

 long ago was said to be so rare that only one copy 

 existed. Another work, published when Simpson was 

 eighty-four years of age, is "The Fossils of the York- 

 shire Lias," in which no fewer than 743 species were 

 enumerated and^ described. SimJDSon measured with a 

 foot-rule the thickness of the beds in the cliffs north 

 and south of Whitby, taking special note of the speci- 

 mens peculiar to each bed — a very early example of 

 zonal collecting. 



The next meeting of the Faraday Society will be held 

 on January 14 in the rooms of the Royal Society of 

 Arts at 5.30 p.m., when a general discussion on the 

 setting of cements and plasters will be opened by Dr. 

 C. H. Desch. 



We regret to note that Engineering for December 14 

 records the death on December 9 of Mr. Wm. M. Urie. 

 Mr. Urie was born in- 1850, and after a varied engineer- 

 ing career at home and on the Continent, became 



