October 21, 1897] 



NATURE 



593 



determination to act upon them, Roy, as a pathologist, ! 

 had the firm belief that the future science of pathology j 

 was most surely and most quickly to be reached along ; 

 the same lines of advance as physiology has followed 

 with signal success, especially since Ludwig and Bernard. I 

 The inferences to be drawn from the mere anatomical j 

 study of structural changes induced by morbid processes 

 he considered to be practically exhausted. Indeed, he 

 thought much time had been wasted in pushing such 

 observations into confines of hair-splitting minuteness 

 and detail. It would be, however, wrong to suppose he 

 took little interest in microscopy. On the contrary, new 

 methods of staining tissues, and colouring bacteria, and 

 of following appearances of phagocytosis appealed to 

 him strongly and immediately, and he was early to 

 follow them. It was rather that the laborious unravelling 

 of an individual autopsy by prolonged histological search 

 and anatomical induction seemed to him unfruitful labour, 

 and he gave little time to it. He turned to physical and, 

 especially, to mechanical methods. His ingenuity in 

 devising and his manual skill in the using of mechanical 

 apparatus was, as Kuhne wrote, quite "extraordinary." 

 Indeed, it was to a certain extent harmful to the quality 

 of his work. It limited the scope with which he 

 undertook and the depth to which he pursued a subject. 

 It continually tempted him to wander from investi- 

 gations toward which he had already accomplished the 

 |)reliminaries, to open fresh ground in some other direc- 

 tion. A plan usual with him in his own work was to 

 set before himself the obtaining of some particular 

 measurement, e.g. the volume of an organ under certain 

 conditions ; the more difficult the experiment, the more 

 attraction had it for him ; he devised appropriate 

 apparatus, tried it, altered it, made it successful, obtained 

 a certain number of complete experiments, and then 

 moved to another problem often not cognate with that 

 previously taken up. The accuracy and rapidity with 

 which he dissected were surprising, and for dexterity as 

 an operator in the laboratory he had no rival, in this 

 country. His scientific papers were all written ih a brief, 

 simple and direct style, without repetition of statement, 

 and usually without even any final recapitulation. Pro- 

 tocols of experiments were almost always excluded from 

 them. 



As a teacher his career commenced with his advent to 

 Cambridge. His lectures were marked by striking and 

 suggestive thoughts. The matter of them suffered some- 

 what from the rapid manner of their delivery. He 

 cherished an intention to publish a volume of lectures 

 on the pathology of the circulation; many of his lectures 

 on this subject were brilliantly original. He did not 

 illustrate his lectures by any experiments performed in 

 the lecture hour. In the ordinary students who attended 

 his classes simply for examination purposes he took 

 curiously little interest; whether they passed or failed, 

 attended or did not attend, seemed to go unnoted by 

 him. To those who came to him to pursue research, 

 even of the most unambitious kind, he was a different 

 man. These he treated almost at once as personal 

 friends, and he attached them to him by many ties of 

 kindness and respect. In regard to their work, he was 

 always absolutely sympathetic, equally so in failure and 

 in success. In facing difficulties with them in the 

 experiments they might have in hand, he encouraged 

 with an und'aunted cheerfulness of manner, and gave 

 time and thought completely unstintingly in their com- 

 panionship. He had been heard to confess an ambition 

 to create a school of work in his laboratory somewhat 

 on the lines of that formed in Ludwig's laboratory at 

 Leipzig. Had his original strength been maintained, 

 the results that his life had already produced are earnest, 

 we think, that his ambition would not have been un- 

 fulfilled. As it is, his contributions to the study of the 

 mechanisms concerned with the circulation of the blood 



NO. 1460, VOL. 56] 



can of themselves assure to him a lasting place in the 

 esteem of all biologists. 



Prof. Roy was buried at Cambridge on Friday, the gtb 

 inst. The first portion of the burial service was held in 

 the chapel of Trinity College, and was attended by many 

 office-bearers of the University and other members of 

 the Senate. The chief mourners were Mr. James Roy,, 

 of Arbroath (brother), Mr. Edmund Paget, Mr. M^yrick 

 Paget, Dr. and Mrs. Hans Gadow, Prof. J. }. Thomson, 

 Prof. Sherrington, Prof. Kanthack, Dr. Lazarus- Barlow,. 

 Mr. Cobbett, Sir. Graham Kerr, and Miss Kingsley (niece 

 of the late Charles Kingsley). The clergy officiating in 

 the chapel were the Master of Trinity (Dr. H. Montagu 

 Butler), the Senior Dean (Rev. A. H. F. Boughey), and 

 the Rev. L. Borissow (Precentor). The interment took 

 place at the Mill Road Cemetery, where the Rev. Dr. 

 Thomson, of Oxford, officiated. The proceedings at 

 Trinity were attended by the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Hill),, 

 the Master of Sidney, the Master of Christ's, the Presi- 

 dent of Queens', Prof. Allbutt, Prof. Macalister, Prof, 

 Bradbur}', Prof. Forsyth, Prof. Newton, Prof. Cowell,. 

 Prof. Mayor, Prof. Ewing, Prof. Stanton, Dr. Gaskell,. 

 Dr. L. Humphry, Dr. Jackson, Dr. Ruhemann, Dr, 

 William Hunter, Dr. Griffith, Dr. Cunningham, Dr, 

 Langley, and Dr. Postgate. 



NOTES. 



At the annual general meeting of the London Mathematica? 

 Society, which will be held on Noveml^r ii, the foUowinfj 

 names will be proposed for election on the Council of the 

 ensuing session : — President, Prof. Elliott, F. R.S. ; Vice-Presi- 

 dents, Major MacMahon, R.A., P".R.S., Dr. Hobson, F.R.S. ; 

 Treasurer, Dr. J. Larmor, F. R.S. ; Hon. Secretaries, R, 

 Tucker, A. E. H. Love, F.R.S. Other members: Lieut. - 

 Colonel Cunningham, R.E., Dr. Glaisher, F.R.S, Prof. Hili 

 F.R.S., Prof. Hudson, M. Jenkins, A. B. Kempe, F.R.S., F. 

 S. MacAulay, D. B. Mair, G. B. Mathews, F.R.S., W. D, 

 Niven, C.B., F.R.S. 



Sir Peter Le Page Renouf, the eminent Egyptologist, and 

 for several years keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities- 

 at the British Museum, died last week, at the age of seventy 

 five. 



Dr. Victor Horslev, F.R.S., has been returned at the 

 head of the poll in the recent election for a direct representative 

 on the General Medical Council. 



The Queen has conferred upon Dr. IL Hicks, F. R.S.^. 

 president of the Geological Society, the Jubilee medal in 

 commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of her Majesty's- 

 reign. 



Reuter's Agency reports that the Imperial Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society is fitting out an expedition to Abyssinia for 

 the purposes of anthropological research. The expedition^ 

 which will be under the leadership of M. Dmitrieff, will start 

 during the present autumn. 



The death is announced of Mr. James Heywood, who took 

 an active part in the movement for the abolition of theological 

 tests at universities. Mr. Heywood was elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society as long ago as 1839; he was also a Fellow 

 of the Geological Society, and published several works on 

 geological subjects. 



We regret to announce the deaths of Mr. William Scott, 

 Director of the Royal Gardens and Forests, Mauritius ; Dr. 

 F. W. Barry, senior medical inspector to the Local Govern- 

 ment Board ; Dr. Iljalmar Heiberg, professor of pathological 

 anatomy in the University of Christiania ; Dr. Hermann 



