370 



NATURE 



[January io, 191 8 



The death is announced, in his seventy-sixth year, 

 of Dr. W. L. Purves, consulting aural surgeon, Guy's 

 Hospital, consulting ophthalmic and aural surgeon, 

 Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, and aural 

 surgeon to the Royal Normal College and Academy 

 of Music for the Blind. 



At the scientific meeting of the Royal Dublin 

 Society held on December 19 last. Lord Rathdonnell, 

 president, in the chair, the Boyle medal of the society 

 was presented to Prof. J. A. xMcClelland, F.R.S., in 

 recognition of his distinguished work in many branches 

 of science, especially with those dealing with ionisa- 

 tion, and the more recently discovered forms of radia- 

 tion associated pre-eminently with radio-activity. 



The death occurred on December 30, at the age of 

 sixty-four years, of Sir William H. Lindley. To those 

 who knew of the service Sir William rendered to the 

 Royal Commission on Canals and Inland Navigation by 

 the compilation of an exhaustive report on the waterways 

 of France, Belgium, Germany, and Holland, published 

 in vol. vi.'of the Commission Bluebooks, the announce- 

 ment of the knighthood, conferred upon him in 191 1, 

 came as no surprise. But to the general public his repu- 

 tation was not so familiar, and this is scarcely sur- 

 prising, seeing that the sphere of his professional 

 activities lay almost entirely on the Continent, particu- 

 larly in Germany and Austria-Hungary, where he suc- 

 ceeded to his father's position and influence. Sir William 

 began his career in 1870, as resident engineer on the 

 Budapest waterworks, and, three years later, took up 

 the post of engineer to the city of Frankfort-on-Main, 

 where, for more than twenty years, he administered 

 the works of the municipality and' port. During his 

 lifetime he had associations with the towns of Elber- 

 feld, Homburg, Mannheim, Wurzburg, Cracow, 

 Prague, Warsaw, Bukharest, and Baku, in connection 

 with various electricity, waterworks, and sewerage 

 undertakings. But for certain adverse circumstances 

 Petrograd would have been added to the list, for, as 

 recently as 1912, he was appointed engineer-in-chief of 

 a new municipal water-supply and drainage scheme 

 for the Russian capital ; the project, however, did not 

 mature. His reputation among German engineers was 

 deservedly high, and he discharged presidential func- 

 tions on several Commissions. He had been a mem- 

 ber of the Institution of Civil Engineers since 1878. 



The following minute, adopted by the board of trus- 

 tees of the New York Memorial Hospital, is published 

 in Science : — Dr. Richard Weil, Major in the Medical 

 Reserve Corps, U.S.A., died while on active duty at 

 Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga., November 19, 1917. By 

 his death the Memorial Hospital loses one of the most 

 highly trained and successful workers of its medical 

 staff, and American cancer research one of its recog- 

 nised leaders. Since 1906 Dr. Weil had been an active 

 member of the staff of the Huntington Fund, 

 and throughout this period of eleven years he was con- 

 stantly engaged in the problems of cancer research. His 

 contributions in the field of the serology of cancer and 

 in the general problems of immunity gained for him an 

 international reputation. He was one of the founders 

 of the American Association for Cancer Research, and 

 largely through his efforts was founded the Journal 

 of Cancer Research, of which he was editor-in-chief. 

 At the reorganisation of the Memorial Hospital in 1913, 

 Dr. Weil assumed the position of assistant director of 

 cancer research and attending physician to the hospital, 

 and in this capacity he laboured energetically to estab- 

 lish an efficient organisation of the routine and re- 

 search work of the hospital. In 1915 he resigned the 

 position of assistant director upon his appointment as 

 professor of experimental medicine in Cornell Univer- 



NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



sity, but he continued without interruption his experi- 

 mental work in cancer. Upon the declaration of war 

 he was among the first to offer his services to the 

 Government, and spent the summer at Fort Benjamin 

 Harrison in the Medical Officers Training Corps. 

 Quite recently he was detailed to take charge of a large 

 military hospital at Camp Wheeler, Macon, Ga., and 

 here in the performance of strenuous military service 

 he fell a victim to pneumonia. During his brief but 

 brilliant career he attained eminence as a devoted 

 laboratory worker, a skilful experimenter, a broadly 

 trained clinician, and a forceful writer, while his un- 

 timely death places his name among the first on his 

 country's honour roll in the great war. 



A REPORT containing the results of Dr. Benjamin 

 Moore's researches on "The Causation and Prevention 

 of Trinitrotoluene Poisoning " has just been issued by 

 the Medical Research Committee (Special Report 

 Series No. 11). It is shown that the only important 

 avenue of entrance into the body is through the skin. 

 The amount taken in as vapour or as dust is innocu- 

 ous. The first noticeable indications of poisoning are 

 those due to deficient oxygen supply, especially blueness 

 of the skin and lips. This results from the action of 

 the poison in decreasing the capacity of haemoglobin 

 to take up oxygen, a well-known effect on the respira- 

 tory process produced by nitro- and amino-benzene 

 derivatives in general. Trinitrotoluene is said to con- 

 vert haemoglobin into its NO derivative, together with 

 met-haemoglobin. Various results follow from the de- 

 ficiency of oxygen supply to the organs, but whether 

 the degeneration of the liver and the consequent 

 jaundice are secondarv, as Dr. Moore holds, or whether 

 the poison acts directly on the liver cells, is at present a 

 matter of dispute. The same may be said for the anaemia. 

 But the practical point is that the cyanosis is the sign 

 to be looked for. Individuals differ in the property of 

 their skins to absorb the poison, and it is recommended 

 that all those showing susceptibility should be rigor- 

 ously excluded from the work. A further preventive 

 is covering the arms and hands with a casein varnish. 

 Gloves are useless. The poison is reduced in the 

 body, probablv by the liver, to the hydroxylamino^deriva- 

 tive, and eliminated in the urine, conjugated with 

 glucuronic acid. It is important, therefore, that the 

 diet should include substances which afford a supply 

 of this acid — namely, fresh vegetables and fruit. 



Engineering, in i^s leading article for Januarv 4, 

 deals with standard aero-engine production, which in 

 this country is in a state of chaos. More than forty 

 different types of aero-engines are now being manu- 

 factured in Britain, and about as many firms are 

 engaged in their manufacture. The labour absorbed 

 in the extravagant multiplication of tools, jigs, gauges, 

 drawings, and patterns, regrettable though it is, does 

 not end the burden on the Air Service through this 

 variety of designs. The effect, for instance, pn the 

 stocks of spares may easily be imagined ; the engines 

 are so different in construction that aerodromes at the 

 front not only require separate spares for the several 

 types that are used there, but also have to keep, for 

 purposes of overhaul, separate ^angs of mechanics 

 versed in their individual peculiarities. The Produc- 

 tion Department that now serves the Air Council in the 

 Ministry of Munitions is well placed for obtaining im- 

 provement in the rate of manufacture, but the particu- 

 lars that have been published of its constitution do not 

 satisfv engineers that it is in a position to use its 

 advantage. So far as is known, the department does 

 not include men on its staff who would be accepted 

 bv en.rtineers generally as able to speak with the neces- 

 sary first-hand knowledge and authority on either the 

 design of internal-combustion engines or the methods 



