462 



NATURE 



[June 10, 1920 



sex-determination in the gamete, a discovery of 

 astonishing novelty at that time, though now so 

 famihar to us all that we have forgotten how hard 

 it was to achieve. Being greatly struck with 

 Wilson's cytological proof that many male insects 

 are heterozygous for sex, and having himself 

 proved that in Abraxas the female is in this con- 

 dition, Doncaster devised a scheme in which both 

 sexes are thus represented, dominance being 

 attributed to the female gamete ; but he after- 

 wards accepted a simplifying emendation in which 

 the male is taken to be homozygous. After this, 

 finding a curious strain in which half the females 

 produce daughters almost exclusively, Doncaster 

 showed that these females generally had only 

 fifty-five chromosomes instead of the normal fifty- 

 six. By reasoning analogous to that afterwards 

 used by Bridges in his famous paper on " non- 

 disjunction," he attempted a cytological interpreta- 

 tion, though, as he admitted, the solution was 

 imperfect, and the case is still mysterious. 



Progress was also made with the paradox of 

 tortoiseshell cats, known by fanciers to be .almost 

 exclusively females. Doncaster proved that tor- 

 toiseshell is the female heterozygote of orange and 

 black, the corresponding male beiing orange ; and 

 in the course of wide inquiries he discovered the 

 new fact that the rare tortoiseshell tom is often 

 sterile. In his last paper he conjectured, not with- 

 out probability, that, in view of Lillie's extra- 

 ordinary discovery as to the free-martins of cattle, 

 fhese males may owe their peculiarities to the 

 intra-uterine influence of other embryos. Most of 

 these subjects are discussed in his text-book, 

 "The Determination of Sex," 1914. Just before 

 his death Doncaster published an admirable " In- 

 troduction to the Study of Cytology," in which he 

 declared himself with reservation a convert to the 

 views of Morgan — a judgment which, from so 

 critical an observer, must carry great weight. 



His death will be cruelly felt. At a time 

 when cytology is becoming a subject of primary 

 importance, the loss first of R. P. Gregory and 

 now of Doncaster leaves us bereft indeed. 



Doncaster was one of the clearest-headed men 

 I have known, and, being full of both enthusiasm 

 and knowledge, he taught extraordinarily well. 

 In Cambridge he served in various capacities, and 

 was for four years in the University of Birming- 

 ham. As Prof. Herdman has written, his death 

 is " nothing less than a calamity to Liverpool 

 University." Doncaster was slight in figure and 

 of a nervous temperament, feeling and thinking 

 of everything with intensity, though nevertheless 

 a fluent speaker. He came of a Quaker family, 

 being the son of Samuel Doncaster, manufacturer, 

 of Sheffield, in whose beautiful garden he 

 developed his love of plants. Educated at the 

 Friends' School at Leighton Park, Reading, he 

 went up as a scholar to King's College, Cam- 

 bridge, of which he afterwards became a fellow. 

 He married in 1908 Dora, daughter of Walter 

 Priestman, of Birmingham, and leaves three 

 children. 



NO. 2641, VOL. 105] 



We did not speak of such matters, but it was 

 known to his friends that Doncaster had religious 

 instincts strongly developed. The years of the 

 war were to him more hateful even than to most 

 thoughtful men. He held the Friends' attitude of 

 the unlawfulness of war, but, feeling that alterna- 

 tive service was a duty, he gave up his researches 

 and qualified as a bacteriologist, working in the 

 I St Eastern Hospital, Cambridge, and afterwards 

 in the Friends' Ambulance Unit at Dunkirk. 



W. Bateson. 



Mr. John W. Hyatt, of Newark, New Jersey, 

 whose death is reported at the age of eighty-two, 

 was the inventor of celluloid. He was a printer 

 by trade, and was using collodion in the course 

 of his work when he accidentally overturned a 

 bottle, and the idea of celluloid came to him from 

 watching the collodion solidify. He took out 250 

 patents in all, a large majority of which had an 

 important bearing on manufactures. They in- 

 cluded a billiard-ball composition, a roller bearing, 

 a system of purifying water for domestic use, a 

 sewing machine capable of sewing fifty rows of 

 lock-stitches at once, a machine for extracting 

 juice from sugar cane, and a new method of solidi- 

 fying American hardwoods. In 1914 Mr. Hyatt 

 was awarded the Perkin medal of the New York 

 Society of Chemical Industry. 



We much regret to see the announcement in 

 the Times that Prof. Augusto Righi, For. Mem. 

 R.S., died suddenly at Bologna on June 8 at 

 seventy years of age. 



Notes. 



The list of honours conferred in celebration of the 

 King's Birthday includes the following names of men 

 associated with scientific work : — Irish Privy Coun- 

 cillor : Mr. H. T. Barrie, Vice-President, Irish Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. K.C.B.: Sir A. W. Watson, 

 president of the Institute -of Actuaries. C.B.: Mr. 

 A. W. Flux, Assistant Secretary, Board of Trade. 

 Baronet: Mr. P. J. Mackie, who financed the Mackie 

 Anthropological Expedition to Uganda and other 

 expeditions- Knights: Prof. F. W. Andrewes, F.R.S., 

 pathologist at St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Capt. D. 

 Wilson-Barker, captain-superintendent of the training- 

 ship Worcester, and .past-president of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society; Dr. J. C. Beattie, Principal 

 of the University of the Cape of Good Hope ; Mr. 

 W. B. M. Bird, founder of the Salters' Institute of 

 Industrial Chemistry; Dr. H. H. Hayden, Director 

 of the Geological Survey of India ; and Prof. J. B. 

 Henderson, professor of applied mechanics. Royal 

 Naval College, Greenwich. CLE.: Mr. C. M. 

 Hutchinson, Imperial Agricultural Bacteriologist, and 

 Mr. R. S. Pearson, Forest Economist, Research Insti- 

 tute, Dehra Dun. K.B.E. : Dr. J. Dundas-Grant, 

 eminent aural specialist; Dr. J. C. Stamp, distin- 

 guished economist; and Col. W. Taylor, ex-president 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Com- 

 panions of the Imperial Service Order: Mr. R. B. 



