May 31, 1917] 



NATURE 



267 



transport, and would appear to be well adapted 

 in every way for the purpose. 



The enterprise, when fully developed, is 

 estimated to cost 500,000!.^ but, for obvious 

 reasons, only a very limited development is pos- 

 sible at present. With the large acreage at its 

 disposal, some of the difficulties which have beset 

 earlier enterprises are obviously greatly reduced. 

 The scheme also presents other features which 

 inspire confidence in its ultimate success, and the 

 progress of this important national experiment 

 will be watched on all sides with the greatest 

 interest. C. C. 



SIR A. R. BINNIE. 



A GREAT engineer, Sir Alexander Richard- 

 son Binnie, born in London in i8;j9, died 

 on May 18 at the age of seventy-eight. He 

 joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1865, 

 and in 1905 became its president. He was a 

 member of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers, the Geological Society, and other 

 societies, and contributed to their Transactions 

 several valuable papers. Always interested in 

 historical studies, he sketched in an address to 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers the progress of 

 science and engineering during the eighteenth 

 and nineteenth centuries. 



Sir Alexander served a pupilage to Mr. T. W. 

 Flanagan and John F. La Trobe Bateman, and 

 was at first engaged on railway construction in 

 Wales. After a short period of practice in 

 London he went in 1868 to India, and as execu- 

 tive engineer in the Department of Public Works 

 was engaged in coal exploration, on railways, 

 and in carrying out schemes of water-supply. 

 His most important work in India was the con- 

 struction of a reservoir for the supply of the 

 city of Nagpur. In 1875, when in England on 

 furlough, he was consulted by the Bradford Cor- 

 poration with regard to difficulties which had 

 arisen in the water-supply of that city. He 

 became the water engineer of Bradford, a posi- 

 tion he retained for fifteen years. From 1890 

 to 190 1 he was the chief engineer to the London 

 County Council, and greatly assisted in the re- 

 forming activities of that time. He completed the 

 sewage works at . Barking and Crossness, 

 and directed the construction of the Blackwall 

 Tunnel, the Barking Road Bridge, and the High- 

 gate Archway. In 1897 he was knighted. 

 During this period he studied a scheme for the 

 supply of water to London from North Wales. 

 He surveyed a watershed in the valleys of the 

 Wye and Usk capable of discharging 415 million 

 gallons daily after allowing for losses. The 

 water was to be brought to London by two con- 

 duits, 150 to 170 miles in length. The scheme 

 was very carefully worked out, but its cost was 

 deemed prohibitive, and London was content 

 with a supply from less pure sources nearer at 

 hand. 



When in India Sir Alexander investigated 

 questions of rainfall, evaporation, and flow off 

 NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



the ground, as to which for tropical countries 

 there was not much information at that time. 

 He was specially interested in tracing a connec- 

 tion between sun-spot periods and the fluctua- 

 tions of rainfall. 



Sir Alexander had great kindliness and 

 courtesy and was greatljf respected by all who 

 knew him. He was an excellent witness before 

 Parliamentary Committees and in the law courts, 

 where his great knowledge, clear statement of 

 his case, and obvious honesty gave weight to his 

 evidence. 



NOTES. 



The memory of the late Prof. Raphael Meldola is 

 cherished with affection by workers in many scientific 

 fields. It is to be hoped that a worthy memorial will 

 eventually be established as a national tribute to his 

 work and influence, but it is thought that the present 

 is not an appropriate time for a public appeal with 

 this object in view. Moved, however, by a desire to 

 preserve a permanent impression of his features, some of 

 Meldola 's friends are arranging to present his portrait 

 to the Royal Society and to the institute of Chemistry, 

 and subscriptions varj-ing from halt a guinea to ten 

 pounds have already been contributed by those who 

 have heard of this intention. There are doubtless 

 others who will welcome the opportunity of taking 

 part in this modest expression of esteem, for Meldola 

 was known to students of widely different branches of 

 s<;ience, and it is feared that some of them mav have 

 been overlooked when the invitation to subscribe to 

 the memorial was sent out. We are glad to assist in 

 repairing any such inadvertent omission by directing 

 attention to the Meldola Portrait Fund, for which an 

 account has been opened at Messrs. Barclay and Co.'s 

 Bank, Oxford, Banbury Road Branch. ' In these 

 columns it is unnecessary to dwell upon Meldola's 

 scientific achievements, the breadth of his intellectual 

 sympathy, or the patriotic zeal with which he wore 

 himself out in his country's service — his friends knew 

 these qualities fully, and it is they who wish to show 

 appreciation of them by the presentation of his por- 

 trait to the two societies mentioned, both of which 

 will gladly welcome this memorial of him. Mr. Solo- 

 mon J. Solomon, R.A., has consented to paint the 

 portraits, and has, entered into the scheme in a most 

 generous spirit. Contributions for the fund should 

 be sent to Prof. E. B. Poulton, Wykeham House. 

 Oxford. 



Dr. Jorgen Brxjnchorst, Norwegian Minister in 

 Rome, who died in that city on May 20, was in his 

 early days a botanist. Born at Bergen on August 10, 

 1862, he was assistant to the professor of botanv at 

 Tubingen, and took the degree of Ph.D. at Heidel- 

 berg in 1885. He studied chiefly the physiolog^y and 

 diseases of roots, and published several papers on those 

 subjects from 1884 to 1888. Appointed conservator of 

 Bergen Museum in 1886, he soon took part in com- 

 munal life by publishing a practical book on the 

 diseases of the economic plants of Norway (1887). 

 The age of D. C. Danielssen threw much administra- 

 tive work on Brunchorst, who was first the museum's 

 secretary, and succeeded to the post of director in 

 1901. it was he who took the lead in all public lec- 

 tures to students and to the public, the editing of the 

 popular periodical Naturen, the planning of the 

 Botanic Garden, and the establishment of the Bio- 

 logical Station. Further than this, he strongly sup- 

 ported co-operation with the other northern nations 

 and with this countr}- in the fisheries investigation of 



