October 9, 1919] 



NATURE 



117 



The Secretary of the Department of Scientific and 

 Industrial Researcfi informs us that a British Asso- 

 ciation of Research for the Cocoa, Chocolate, Sugar, 

 Confectionery, and Jam Trades has been formed in 

 accordance with the Government scheme for the en- 

 couragement of industrial research. The secretary is 

 Mr. R. M. Leonard, the Manufacturing Confectioners' 

 Alliance, Ltd., 9 Queen Street Place, E.C.4. 



.A COMMITTEE has been formed to raise a fund by 

 public subscription for the purpose of establishing a 

 memorial to perpetuate the memory of the eminent 

 services, particularly in the fields of economics and 

 science, rendered to Tasmania by the late Mr. R. M 

 Johnston, for manv years Government Statistician and 

 Registrar-General of that State. Subscriptions are 

 now invited, and should be sent to Mr. T. .\. Tabart, 

 jun., honorary treasurer. Cathedral Chambers, Murray 

 Street. Flobart, or Mr. Clive Lord, honorary secretary, 

 c/o Museum, Macquarie Street, Hobart. 



By the untimely death of Prof. F. J. Haverfield, 

 Camden professor of ancient history, the L'nivcrsity 

 of O.xford has lost a valued member and the first 

 living authority on Roman Britain. Early in life 

 Prof. Haverfield devoted him.self to this, his special 

 subject, and his reputation caused Mommsen to en- 

 trust to him that portion of the "Corpus InscrTp- 

 tionum " which dealt with Great Britain. Not only 

 was he a master of the literature of the Romano- 

 British period, but he gave much assistance to excava- 

 tions at Silchester. Caerwent, and the Roman Wall. 

 He was an admirably stimulating lecturer, and was 

 interested in town-planning in ancient times, on 

 which he wrote a valuable book. Late in life he 

 devoted himself to the question of university finance. 

 It may be said that the Camden chair was never 

 more worthily held by a scholar and practical archaeo- 

 logist. It is a matter of deep regret that ill-health 

 prevented Prof. Haverfield from preparing the 

 authoritative work on Roman Britain which he had 

 planned, and alone could have accomplished. 



With the mathematician Philip Edward Bertrand 

 Jourdain there died on October i a truly remarkable 

 character. Jourdain lived only thirty-nine years, but 

 the amount and value of the work that he accom- 

 plished, considering the disabilities under which he 

 laboured, are almost incredible. He was weakly from 

 infancy, and as a child developed symptoms of the 

 progressive paralytic condition known as Friedreich's 

 ataxia. In spite of his unsteady gait and constflTit 

 ill-health, he early showed great mathematical and 

 mechanical capacity. He went up to Cambridge in 

 i8g8, then already a cripple. During his course at 

 Cambridge he spent some time in CJermany and 

 became a fluent and scholarly linguist, speaking and 

 reading several European languages. In 1904, though 

 now physically quite incapacitated, he was awarded 

 the -Mien mathematical scholarship for research, and 

 throughout the remainder of his short career his main 

 activities were directed to the prosecution of mathe- 

 matical investigations. His most important work was 

 the discovery of certain series of infinite numbers. 

 Working with Russell and Whitehead, he showed that 

 certain arithmetical processes could be applied to 

 them, and thus he obtained new and interesting 

 results. He continued on this line of research, and 

 even a few days before his death, of the imminence 

 of which he was fully aware, he succeeded in demon- 

 strating the existence of a previously unsuspected 

 series of infinites. His very last work was the dis- 

 covery of a formula for the w-ell-ordering of any aggre- 

 gate. Notes of this work are now-, we understand, in 

 the hands of Prof. Low. Jourdain contributed exten- 



NO. 2606, VOL. 104] 



sive mathematical articles to the last edition of the 

 " Encyclopa;dia Britannica." He founded and edited 

 the International Journal of Ethics. He was for some 

 years the English editor, and since the death of Carus 

 in 1918 the chief editor, of the Monist. He also made 

 a number of translations of scientific works for the 

 Open Court Publishing Co. Jourdain took the liveliest 

 interest in the movement for encouraging the history 

 of science. He was a contributor to Isis, and at the 

 time of his death he had in preparation an article 

 for the " Studies in the History and Method of 

 Science " which it is hoped he may have left in a 

 state ready for publication. 



In Man for September Col. de Guerin, of Guernsey, 

 expresses the opinion that the megaliths in that island 

 may be much more recent than they were hitherto 

 supposed to be. This view is based on the important 

 discovery of traces of a rudely sculptured human 

 figure on a capstone of the great chamber of the 

 dolmen of Dehus. The relationship of this figure to 

 similar anthropomorphic sculptures in Guernsey and 

 France is obvious, and as these latter, according to 

 Dechellete and others, date at earliest from late in 

 the Neolithic, at the verge of the /Eneolithic period, 

 the dolmen of D^hus must be of this age or later. 

 This is confirmed by the discovery in 1847 of a copper 

 knife-dagger in the great chamber of this dolmen. 

 Col. de Gu($rin fixes also the statue Menhir at the 

 Cdtel Guernsey in the first Bronze age. He lays 

 special stress on Ihe evidence of a still earlier sea- 

 borne trade with Brittany in the numerous celts of 

 jadeite and other foreign rocks found in the island. 



In the nineteenth volume of Natural History 

 (Nos. 4-5, April-May, 1919) Mr. I. M. Clarke 

 describes, with numerous excellent photographs, the 

 new Gasp^ bird sanctuaries established by the 

 Canadian Government on Perce Rock and Bona- 

 venture Island, off the Gasp6 Peninsula, and, further 

 out in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bird Rocks of 

 the Magdalen Islands. The efforts of ornithologists 

 for bird-protection have at last proved successful with 

 the support of the Hon. Honor^ Mercier, Minister 

 of Colonisation, Mines, and Fisheries for the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec. In another article on the same 

 subject Mr. A. M. Bailey describes the Hawaian 

 Island Reservation, which was established in 1909 by 

 Executive Order as a sanctuary for the millions of 

 sea-birds and waders which return there annually 

 to raise their young or to rest while migrating. For 

 this and other generous measures to preserve bird- 

 life, science is indebted to the late Theodore Roose- 

 velt. 



Natural History (vol. xix., Nos. 4-5, April-May, 

 19 19) publishes a series of articles on zoological 

 sculpture in art and architecture. Mr. S. B. P. Trow- 

 bridge, dealing with architecture, beginning with the 

 palasolithic horse frieze at Cap-Blanc and the horse 

 painting from .Altamira, reproduces photographs of 

 the bas-reliefs of Assyria in the British Museum and 

 the Rostra at Rome. In regard to modern art, he 

 accounts for the comparative failure of modern 

 attempts on the ground that " in the art of sculpture, 

 as in all art, there must be sincerity and truth, 

 accuracy in delineation and fidelity in modelling, and 

 the suppression of every detail unnecessary to 

 expression." This idea is pui sued in Mr. C. R. 

 Knight's account of the work of contemporary 

 .American artists dealing with animal life. The black 

 rhinoceros and .African buffalo by Mr. J. L. Clark 

 have some impressive vigour ; but the zoological 

 statuary at Washington, described by Mr. R. W. 

 Shufeldt, .shows little dignity or power of expression. 



