July 17, 1919] 



NATURE 



389 



the first aircraft to journey from the Old World 

 to the New and back again, and we extend our 

 heartiest congratulations to Major Scott and his 

 crew on the unqualified success of their remark- 

 able flight. 



On July II — the eve of his seventieth birthday — 

 Sir William Osier, Regius professor of medicine in 

 the University of Oxford, was presented with a col- 

 lection of essays contributed by representative members 

 of the profession on both sides' of the Atlantic — 

 physicians, surgeons, physiologists, anatomists, patho- 

 logists, and historians — to the number of one hundred 

 and fifty. The presentation was made before a large 

 audience at the house of the Royal Society of Medicine 

 by Sir Clifford Allbutt, Regius professor of physic in 

 the University of Cambridge, who said that though 

 the last years had been a time of war and desolation, 

 vet through the clamour and destruction Sir William 

 Osier's voice among the voices in the serener air of 

 faith and truth had not failed; nor had he grown 

 weary in labouring for the sufferings of others. In 

 Sir William Osier was to be seen the fruitfulness of 

 the marriage of science and letters and the long in- 

 heritance of a culture which, amid the manifold^ forms 

 of life, had survived to inspire and adorn a civilisa- 

 tion which so lately had narrowly escaped the fury 

 of the barbarian. .Sir William Osier, in reply, said 

 that two circumstances deepened the pride he felt at 

 this demonstration of affection by his colleagues on 

 both sides of the Adantic; one, that amid so much 

 mental and physical tribulation his friends should have 

 had the courage to undertake this heavy two-vplume 

 task, and the other that this honour was received at 

 the hands of his brother Regius professor, a friend 

 of more than forty years. He had deeply appreciated 

 the loval support of the large circle of men with whom 

 his contact had been through the written word, the 

 general practitioners of the English-speaking world. 

 A vote of thanks to Sir Clifford Allbutt, moved by 

 Sir D'Arcy Power and seconded by Sir Donald Mac- 

 Alister, was carried by acclamation. The volumes 

 have not yet been issued to the subscribers, and sub- 

 scriptions mav still be sent to the English publishers, 

 H. K. Lewis'and Co., 136 Gower Street, W.C.i. 



By the death of Sir John Brunner on July i the 

 world has lost, not only a great industrial leader, 

 but also a man famed for his wide sympathy with, 

 and his practical support of, national schemes for the 

 improvement of the conditions of labour, no less than 

 for the development of scientific education and re- 

 search. It is no small thing in this country that a 

 man of wealth should endow the university of his 

 native city with three professorial chairs in physical 

 chemistry, in economic science, and in Egyptology. 

 Born at Everton in 1842, Sir John Brunner was 

 trained in the Unitarian school which his father, son 

 of a Protestant minister at Zurich, had opened in 

 Liverpool. At fifteen he began his business career in 

 a shipping office, and at twenty entered the chemical 

 works of Messrs. Hutchinson and Earle at Widnes. 

 Here he began that association with Dr. Ludwig 

 Mond which was destined to revolutionise the alljali 

 industry. Convinced of the economic advantages of 

 the Solvay system, the two joined forces and started 

 making soda by the ammonia-soda process in 1873 at 

 Winnington, Cheshire. How "Brunner, Mond's " 

 overcame its first difficulties owing to the business 

 capacitv and the chemical genius of the partners, and 

 how the firm absorbed neighbouring works at Lostock- 

 Gralam, Middlewich, and Sandbach, which, adding 

 their output to that of their ever-growing parent at 

 NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 



I Winnington, gradually made it the largest in the 

 I world, makes one of the romances of industrial 

 I science. If before the war Sir John Brunner preached 

 reduction of armaments at home and a friendly under- 

 ! standing with Germany abroad — and his critics have 

 I not failed to remind the world of the fact — it is fair 

 j to record that in the war no firm was in a finer posi- 

 tion to turn its magnificent resources to the supply of 

 high explosives, and no firm made a more wonderful 

 or more successful effort to do so than the firm 

 founded by Sir John Brunner. 



The Civil List pensions granted during the year 

 ended March 31 last, under the provisions of the 

 Civil List Act, 19 10, includes the following : — Mrs. 

 Edith Harrison, in consideration of the services 

 rendered by her late husband. Col. W. S. Harrison, 

 in connection with inoculation against enteric and 

 typhoid fevers, 50L ; Mrs. Cash, in view of the con- 

 tributions of her late husband, George Cash, to the 

 study of Scottish topography, 50/. ; Mr. William Cole, 

 in vie^ of his contributions to the study of natural 

 history and to scientific education, 50Z. ; Mrs. R. O. 

 Cunningham, in view of the services of her late hus- 

 band. Prof. Cunningham, as naturalist on board 

 H.M.S. Nassau during the survey of the Straits of 

 Magellan and the west coast of Patagonia, and as 

 professor of natural history in Queen's College, Bel- 

 fast, 50L ; Mr. Benjamin Harrison, in view of his 

 devotion to scientific work (in addition to his pension 

 of 26I. a year), 25L ; Mrs. E. A. Mettam, in view of 

 the distinction of her late husband, Prof. A. E. 

 Mettam, as professor of pathology and bacteriology, 

 and of his contributions to veterinary science, 75I. ; 

 Miss Helen Tichborne, in view of the late Prof. Tich- 

 borne's scientific discoveries in chemistry and pharma- 

 cology, 60I. ; Miss Eliza Standerwick Gregory, in view 

 of her eminent services to botanical science, 60I. ; and 

 Lady Eleanor Charlotte Turner, in view of her late 

 husband. Sir George Turner's services in the in- 

 vestigation and prevention of rinderpest, and in con- 

 sideration of his death through contracting leprosy in 

 the public service, 50L 



The Ministry of Ways and Communications Bill 

 was read a third time in the House of Commons on 

 July 10. Sir Eric Geddes, the Minister-Designate, 

 announced the names of the prospective heads of 

 departments as follows : — Civil Engineering : Sir 

 Alexander Gibb, Civil Engineer-in-Chief, Admiralty, 

 1918. Mechanical Engineering : Lt.-Col. L. Simpson, 

 R.E., Chief Mechanical Engineer in Charge of Rail- 

 way Equipment and Rolling-stock of the British 

 Armies in France. Consultant Mechanical Engineer: 

 Sir John Aspinall, president of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers. Traffic Department: Sir Philip Nash, 

 K.C.M.G. Finance and Statistics: Sir J. George 

 Beharrell. Development Department: Rear-Admiral 

 Sir Charles Martin de Bartolome, K.C.M.G. Public 

 Safety and Labour: Sir William Marwood, K.C.B., 

 Joint Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade. 

 Roads Department: Brig.-Gen. Sir Henry P. May- 

 bury, K.C.M.G. Secretarial and Legal: Sir R. 

 Francis Dunnell, K.C.B. 



Capt. H. J. Page has taken up the appointment of 

 research chemist and head of the chemical department 

 of the Research Station and School of Horticulture of 

 the Roval Horticultural Society at Wisley, Surrey, on 

 his release from militarv service. Capt. Page is an 

 185 1 Exhibition research scholar of University Col- 

 lege, London, and was formerly on the staff there. 



The Joint Committee of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries and the Road Board appointed^ to con- 

 sider the question of alleged damage to fisheries from 



