266 



NATURE 



[May 25, 1916 



broke out, he was engaged on a research at Hook Point, 

 Co. Wexford, leading to a correlation uf the base of 

 the Carboniferous strata with the recognised horizons 

 of the Avonian series in south-western England. He 

 had also just gained, by competition, a post as geo- 

 logist on the Geological Survey of Ireland, and he 

 completed the Civil Service qualifying examination 

 when actually in military training. During his ser- 

 vice he devised an important method for increasing 

 the efficiency of the Lewis machine-gun. He was 

 keen and untiring in any duty that he undertook, 

 and would undoubtedly have made his mark among 

 scientific men in Ireland. His loss is especially felt 

 by those who had looked forward to his comradeship 

 in public work. 



The death is announced of Dr. James William 

 White, professor emeritus of surgery at the University 

 of Pennsylvania. Born in 1850, he graduated in 187 1, 

 and then joined the scientific staff of the Hassler 

 Expedition under Agassiz, returning in 1872 after 

 visiting both coasts of South America and the Gala- 

 pagos Archipelago. He then settled in Philadelphia, 

 becoming first resident surgeon at the Eastern Peni- 

 tentiary, and afterwards professor ot genito-urinary 

 surgery, professor of clinical surgery, John Rhea 

 Barton professor of surgery, and, finally, emeritus 

 professor of surgery of the University of Pennsylvania 

 when appointed a trustee of the University. He was 

 the author of many papers and works on surgery, 

 and in former years was an athlete of many parts. 

 On the occasion of its quatercentenary in 1906 the 

 University of Aberdeen conferred on him the honorary 

 degree of LL.D. When the war broke out Dr. White 

 devoted himself with characteristic energy to the cause 

 of the Allies, and published many articles in order 

 to enlighten American public opinion on the origin 

 of the outbreak. He was a well-known visitor to this 

 country, where he formed many friendships. 



There has been a poetic simplicity in the quiet life, 

 just over, of Mr. John Griffiths, Welshman, mathe- 

 matician, and college tutor, for many years past 

 Senior Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. Childhood 

 in a farm-house at Llangendeirne, near Kidwelly ; 

 schooldays at Cowbridge ; half a century of congenial 

 study, research, and not too burdensome teaching in 

 the walls of his college ; ten years of repose in the 

 village where he was born. His modesty was ex- 

 treme, his shunning of company excessive. Happy 

 with a few real friends always close, and with Kid- 

 welly for the Tipperary of his heart, he wanted no 

 outer circle of acquaintances. If he cherished any 

 unsatisfied ambition, it was unexpressed. Fortu- 

 nately he allowed himself to write — impulsively, ner- 

 vouslv, cleverly, but too briefly to do himself justice. 

 He produced a quite early volume on the geometry 

 of the triangle, and some thirty or forty notes and 

 papers for the London Mathematical Society and for 

 journals. Some of these deal with geometry, others 

 with elliptic functions. His pupils, even if many 

 passed from his sight, were lastingly attached to him. 

 Among them were H. W. Lloyd Tanner (deceased), 

 Prof. W. J. Lew'is, and the present registrar of the 

 University of Oxford. 



It is reported from Amsterdam that Prof. Karl 

 Schwarzschild, director of the Astrophysical Observa- 

 tory at Potsdam, has died from illness contracted 

 while on military service. In the early part of the 

 war he was said to have been acting as meteorological ! 

 expert in connection with aeronautics at Namur, but I 

 is now described -as having been an officer in the [ 

 artillery. Prof. Schwarzschild was born at Frankfort . 

 in 1873, and took his doctor's degree at Munich in | 



NO. 2430, VOL. 97] 



1896. He was appointed assistant at the Von Kuffner 

 Observatory at Vienna in 1896, was P.rivatdozent at 

 -Nlunich fron> 1899 to 1901, and became professor of 

 astronomy and director of the observatory at Gottingen 

 in 1902. He succeeded Vogel as director of the great 

 observatory at Potsdam in 1910. Prof. Schwarz- 

 schild 's contributions to astronomy were very numer- 

 ous and covered a wide range of subjects. His 

 mathematical investigations of the pressure of sun- 

 light, in relation to the dimensions of the particles 

 acted upon, are well known in connection with theories 

 of the solar corona and the constitution of comets. 

 He gave much attention to stellar photometry, and 

 developed important practical methods of observation 

 in this connection ; the use of a coarse grating on 

 the object-glass ot a telescope, which has yielded such 

 valuable data for photographic magnitudes, was first 

 adopted by him in 1895. He also attacked, with some 

 success, the problerri of applying the objective-prism to 

 the determination of radial velocities. Prof. Schwarz- 

 schild was a notable contributor to the investigation of 

 stellar motions and the structure of the universe. His 

 name will be especially identified with the "ellipsoidal" 

 hypothesis as an alternative to the hypothesis of two 

 star streams, suggested by Kapteyn. He was elected 

 an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society in 

 1909. By his death astronomy has lost an investigator 

 of untiring industry and marked originality. 



In spite of the elaborate survey of the pagan tribes 

 of the Malay Peninsula, by Messrs. Skeat and Blag- 

 den, much still remains to be done by local workers. 

 In the Journal of the Federated Malay States Museum, 

 vol. vi., part iv., for February last, Mr. J. H. N. 

 Evans, in his account of the aboriginal tribes of Upper 

 Perak, supplies much information interesting to 

 anthropologists. It is generally admitted that the 

 form of the round hut which survives for ritual pur- 

 poses in Roman temples and Christian churches was 

 originally conditioned b}- the form assumed in bending 

 by elastic bamboos or branches. But it is curious to 

 note that among most, if not all, of the aboriginal tribes 

 of the peninsula the spells of the magician are per- 

 formed within a magic circle ; in some cases a round 

 hut of leaves is erected within which the magician 

 ensconces himself ; in others merely a round frame 

 with hangings is used. This points to a very primi- 

 tive ritual use of the round hut. The article contains 

 much other valuable information, and is illustrated 

 by photographs of the ethnical types of the tribes visited 

 by Mr. Evans. 



The sixth memoir issued by the South African Insti- 

 tute for Medical Research is a study of the "Trypano- 

 somes of Sleeping Sickness," by Mr. G. P. Maynard, 

 statistician and clinician to the institute. The author, 

 who has applied Prof. Karl Pearson's method of 

 resolving a compound distribution into two " normal " 

 components to a number of length distributions of 

 trypanosomes, adversel)- criticises several of the con- 

 clusions reached by the Sleeping Sickness Commission 

 of the Royal Society. He holds that the published 

 length distributions afford no valid argument as to the 

 identity or otherwise of T. brucei and the trypanpsome 

 causing disease in man in Nyasaland. Several of Mr. 

 Maynard's conclusions will not pass unchallenged, 

 but his memoir is of great interest, and should 

 be studied by all who wish to master the numerous 

 and perplexing problems suggested by the facts at 

 present known respecting the etiology and epidemio- 

 logy of sleeping sickness. 



The Museums Journal for May contains an excel- 

 lent and detailed account of the Wellcome Historical 

 Medical Museum, originally formed for the benefit of 



