February 28, 19 18] 



NATURE 



509 



verse effect on the harvesting of the crops the exten- 

 sion of the period in September is far more perturbing 

 •than the earlier beginning, although both are pre- 

 judicial to the farmer and his work." 



Mr. Thomas Tyrer, who died suddenly on February 

 20, at seventy-five years of age, received his early 

 chemical training under Hoffmann at the Royal Col- 

 lege of Chemistry. In 1862 he was employed as works 

 cliemist by Messrs. May and Baker, manufacturers of 

 fine chemicals, of Battersea, and later became manag- 

 ing director of the firm. For the past eighteen years 

 be controlled the works bearing his name at Stratford, 



■ iblished in 1844, where a number of fine chemicals 

 1 pharmaceutical preparations are manufactured. 

 . Tyrer was very intimately associated with the 

 iety of Chemical Industry since its foundation in 



M. He was a member of the original Publication 

 Committee, on which he served continuously until his 

 death, for many years hon. secretary of the Lon- 

 don Section, and president for the session 1897-98, 

 as well as having been chairman of the London Section, 

 and serving on the council during the greater part of 

 the existence of the society. Since 1907 he had been 

 hon. treasurer of the society, a position which he 

 filled with great ability. His devotion to the society 

 throughout was very notable, and he spent a large 

 amount of time m furthering its interests. In recogni- 

 tion of his services to the society and to chemical 

 industry, the society's medal was presented to him in 

 19 10. Mr. Tyrer served on the governing board, and 

 also on the executive, of the National Physical Labora- 

 tory, and he was a member of the council of the Asso- 

 ciation of British Chemical Manufacturers. For many 

 years, too, he took a very active part in the efforts to 

 secure relief from the duty on alcohol for use in arts 

 and manufactures, which eventually resulted in con- 

 siderable concessions being obtained from the Inland 

 Revenue. He was keenly interested in the Chemical 

 Section of the London Chamber of Commerce, of 

 which he was chairman at one time, and took an active 

 part in the work of the Alcohol Motor Transport Coun- 

 cil. It may also be mentioned that he was one of the 

 first members of the old London School Board. Mr. 

 Tyrer was a man of remarkable personality and great 

 energy; he was widely known in chemical, industrial, 

 and pharmaceutical circles, and will be greatly missed. 



Dr. .C. D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington, has been elected corre- 

 spondant of the Paris Academy of Sciences in the sec- 

 tion of mineralogy in succession to Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, who has been elected foreign associate. 



Dr. Frank Schlesinger, director of the Allegheny 

 Observatory-, has been appointed aeronautical engineer 

 in the U.S!^ Signal Corps. He will have charge of the 

 instruments that go on aeroplanes, and will form the 

 connecting link between the corps and the National 

 Research Council. During his temporary absence from 

 the observatory Dr. Frank C. Jordan will be in 

 charge. 



The work hitherto done by the Economy Section of 

 the Ministry of Food has now been allotted to four new 

 branches of the Ministrv, as follows :— (i) Public Ser- 

 vices Food Consumption Branch : Director, Major G. 

 Henderson ; (2) National Kitchens Branch : Director, 

 Mr. C. F. Spencer; (3) Public Catering Branch : Direc- 

 tor, Mr. A. Towle ; (4) Educational Branch : Director, 

 Prof. E. H. Starling. The co-ordination and control 

 of the policv of these Departments will be exercised by 

 a Board to be called the Food Survey Board, of which 

 Lt.-Col. A. G. Weigall will be chairman. 

 NO. 2522, VOL. 100] 



We record with regret the death, on February 23, 

 of Lord- Brassey, in his eighty-third year. Lord 

 Brassey was best known, perhaps, for his voyages in 

 the Sunheam. In 1879 he was president of the Royal 

 Statistical Society, and in 1893-95 president of the 

 Institution of Naval Architects. He was the founder 

 and first editor of the Navcd Annual, and the author 

 of several works on social economics. 



We regret to see, in the Chemical Trade Journal, 

 the announcement of the death, from injuries caused in 

 a cycling accident, of Prof. E. A. Letts, professor of 

 chemistry in the Queen's University, Belfast. He was 

 a fellow of the College of Surgeons and of the Royal 

 Sanitary Institute. In 1876 he was appointed the first 

 professor of chemistry in University College, Bristol. 

 Among his numerous writings are "The Pollution of 

 Estuaries and Tidal Waters " and " Some Fundamental 

 Problems in Chemistry." 



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

 of Mr. C. E. Faxon, who had been assistant director 

 of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Mass., since 

 1882.* Mr. Faxon was best known as a botanical artist. 

 He was selected by the Smithsonian Institution to 

 make the drawings for Sargent's " Silva of North 

 America." He had also illustrated Sargent's '''Forest 

 Flora of Japan " and " Manual of the Trees of North 

 America," Eaton's "Ferns of North American Garden 

 and Forest," and many other botanical publications. 



Mr. C. R. Dodge, who for ten years was in charge 

 of the museum of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

 died recently in his seventy-first year. In 1890 that 

 department appointed him as its special agent to con- 

 duct important fibre investigations. He was the author 

 of twenty special reports on that subject, and also of a 

 " Dictionary. of the Fibre Plants of the World." Mr. 

 Dodge represented the United States at the Paris 

 Exposition of 1900 as director of its agricultural com- 

 mission. He was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 



The annual general meeting of the Institute of 

 Metals is to be held on March 13 and 14 in the rooms 

 of the Chemical Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, 

 W.I. On the first day, when the meeting begins at 

 8 p.m., the president-designate. Prof. H. C. H. Car- 

 penter, will be inducted into the chair, and the presi- 

 dential address will be delivered. On March 14, be- 

 ginning at 4 p.m., several technical communications 

 will be submitted and discussed. 



The Engineer for February 22 announces the death 

 of three well-known members of the Institution of 

 Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland : Mr. W. Cut- 

 hill, who was late works manager of the Blochairn 

 Works of the Steel -Company of Scotland; Mr, J. 

 Kennedy, who for forty years was superintending 

 engineer with the firm of R. MacAndrew and Co., and 

 was a founder and chairman of both the Glengall 

 Ironworks and the British Arc Welding Co. ; and Mr. 

 J. A. McKie, who founded the firm of McKie and 

 Baxter, engineers and shipbuilders, of Copland Works, 

 Govan. 



The officers and council of the Physical Society of 

 London for the ensuing session are to be as follows : — 

 President. Prof. C. H. Lees; Vice-Presidents (in addi- 

 tion to those who have filled the office of president), 

 Prof. J. W. Nicholson, Prof. O. W. Richardson, Dr. 

 S. W. J. .Smith, and Dr. E. W. Sumpner ; Secre- 

 taries, Prof. W. Eccles, Citv and Guilds Technical 

 College, Leonard Street, E.C.2, and Dr. H. Stanley 

 .Mien, King's College, London, W.C.2; Foreign 

 Secretary, Sir R. T. Glazebrook ; Treasurer, Mr. 



