I02 



NATURE 



[March 24, 1910 



more particularly on the contrast presented by the large 

 grants that had been made by Government to other 

 Antarctic expeditions, and the entire lack of recognition, so 

 far, of the work of proved value that had been done by 

 Dr. Bruce. 



Prof. J. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S., professor of zoology in 

 the University of Edinburgh, then commented on the zoo- 

 logical value of Dr. Bruce 's expeditions, which had been 

 the means of adding dozens of new species to scientific 

 knowledge, and on that account gave his cordial support 

 to the carrying out of this second Scottish Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition. In an eloquent speech Prof. D'Arcy W. Thomp- 

 son, C.B., of the Scottish Fishery Board, professor of 

 zoology in University College, Dundee, expressed warm 

 appreciation of the work that Dr. Bruce had already done 

 in his previous expeditions. Mr. Chisholm, lecturer on 

 geography, Edinburgh University, recommended Dr. Bruce 's 

 plans to the support of the meeting, among other grounds, 

 on account of the fact that Dr. Bruce had shown his 

 qualifications as a leader by the attachment and devotion 

 which he inspired in his followers, and this point was 

 immediately enforced by Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown, 

 lecturer on geography in the University of Sheffield, who 

 had accompanied him in expedition after expedition. 



At the close of the meeting', on the motion of Mr. 

 W. G. Burn-Murdoch, a resolution asking the meet- 

 ing, as a representative Scottish gathering, to express 

 their hearty desire to have Dr. Bruce 's plans carried 

 out, was unanimously approved. It should be added 

 that, while the opinion that it was the duty of the 

 Government to contribute to the publication of the 

 results of the Scotia expedition was very freely ex- 

 pressed at the meeting, the appeal for funds to carr}' 

 out the present projected expedition is not made, in 

 the first instance at least, to the Government, but to 

 " the enthusiasm and patriotism of Scots at home and 

 abroad." 



PROF. J. CAMPBELL BROWN. 

 A S recorded with regret last week, Prof. James 

 ■^^ Campbell Brown, professor of general chemistry 

 at the University of Liverpool, died very suddenly 

 from heart failure on Monday, March 14. Prof. 

 Campbell Brown, who was the son of the late Mr. 

 George Brown, a chemical manufacturer with a busi- 

 ness in London, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1843. 

 He studied at the University of Aberdeen, and after- 

 wards at the Royal College of Chemistry and the 

 Royal School of Mines, London. He was a D.Sc. of 

 London University, and LL.D. (honoris causa) of the 

 University of Aberdeen. His connection with Liver- 

 pool began in 1867, when he was appointed lecturer in 

 chemistry and toxicology at the Royal Infirmary 

 School of Medicine. He became public analyst for 

 Liverpool in 1872, for Cheshire and the Isle of Man 

 in 1873, and for Lancashire in 1875. In 1877, being 

 then chairman of the Royal Infirmary School of Medi- 

 cine, he took a prominent part in the movement for 

 the foundation of a university college in Liverpool, 

 and from 1878 to 1884 was one of the secretaries of 

 the special committee which afterwards became the 

 council of the new college. Prof. Campbell Brown 

 may, therefore, rightly be said to have been one of the 

 prominent founders of the present University of 

 Liverpool. In 1881 he was .appointed to the chair of 

 chemistry endowed by Mr. Grant, of Rock Ferry. 

 When death overtook him he was still the active occu- 

 pant of this chair. 



For more than forty years Prof. Campbell Brown 

 exercised an important and beneficial influence on 

 higher education, and especially higher scientific 

 education, in this country. In Liverpool in 

 particular he developed a flourishing department of 

 chemistry, and was very successful in enlisting the 

 NO. 2108, VOL. 83] 



sympathy and obtaining the aid of the chemical 

 manufacturers of Lancashire and Cheshire. As a 

 public analyst of experience and repute he did much 

 for the improvement of our methods of suppressing^ 

 the falsification and adulteration of foods and drugs. 



In 1874 he published a report on the chemistry of 

 tea cultivation in India, and made important recom- 

 mendations which proved of great value to that in- 

 dustry. 



He contributed a very considerable number of 

 papers to the scientific journals, and was awarded two 

 gold medals by the Franco-British Exhibition. In 

 this connection his excellent work on the latent 

 heats of evaporation of liquids deserves special men- 

 tion. Quite recently he contributed a paper to the 

 Chemical Society dealing with double and triple ferri- 

 cyanides. 



In 1908 he was elected a vice-president of the 

 Chemical Society. A man of genial, kindly, and 

 unselfish nature, his heart was entirely in the work 

 to which his life was devoted. He lived to see his 

 labours crowned with a well-deserved success. The 

 University of Liverpool owes him a debt of gratitude 

 which few can appraise, and it stands to-day a 

 memorial of his wisdom and foresight, his marvellous 

 power of organisation, and his profound belief in the 

 value of the investigation and dissemination of know- 

 ledge and truth. F. G. D. 



NOTES. 



Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., has been nominated 

 " Membre d'Honneur "^honorary member — of the 

 Chemical Society of France. 



Sir Thomas Barlow, F.R.S., has been elected president 

 of the Royal College of Physicians, London, in succession 

 to Sir Richard D. Powell. 



The Aldred lecture of the Royal Society of Arts will be 

 delivered by Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., on Wednesday, 

 May 4. The title of the lecture is " Halley and his 

 Comet. " 



The death is announced, in his seventy-second year, of 

 Dr. Otto Hermes, founder of the Berlin Aquarium. Dr. 

 Hermes was appointed director of the aquarium in 187 1, 

 and was known by his writings on zoological subjects. 



Among the latest developments of Germany's airship 

 movement we notice the fund raised by Prince Henry of 

 Prussia for the building of a dock at Hamburg capable of 

 housing at least two Zeppelins. Of the 50,000/. required, 

 20,oooL was raised almost immediately. 



A YOUNG horn of Cervus megaceros has been dug up 

 recently from a depth of 2 or 3 feet below the surface of 

 Martin Mere, near Southport, in Lancashire. It is the 

 property of the Rev. Mr. Bulpit of that town, by whom 

 the specimen has been submitted for determination to the 

 director of the Liverpool Museums. 



The following awards of the Royal medals and other 

 honours have been made by the council of the Royal Geo- J 

 graphical Society : — Royal gold medals : founder's medal, | 

 Colonel H. H. Godwin Austen, C.M.G., F.R.S. ; patron's 

 medal, Dr. W. S. Bruce; Murchison grant. Dr. Carl 

 Skottsberg ; Gill memorial, Mr. D. Carruthers, for his 

 journey in north central Arabia ; Cuthbert Peek grant, 

 Lieut. C. E. Fishbourne, R.E. ; Back bequest, Mr. H. 

 Vischer. A special medal has been awarded to Rear- 

 Admiral Peary for his attainment of the North Pole. 



