486 



NATURE 



[August io, 19 i6 



in solving-' the extraordinary problem of Papilio 

 dardanus, then known as nierope, with its train 

 of mimetic females. His sound conclusions were 

 in advance of their time, and were received with 

 incredulity, and indeed ridicule, by entomologists 

 of that day ; but he lived to see them confirmed by 

 breeding- experiments and universally accepted. The 

 last lime the present writer saw him, a few weeks 

 before his death, he found that a new observation 

 on Papilio dardanus was the one subject that 

 restored for a moment his failing- powers and 

 broug-ht back his oM enthusiasm. 



Trimen's greatest work is his fine monograph 

 in two volumes on the butterflies of South Africa, 

 the expansion of a smaller book he wrote when a 

 young- man. This fine work is a model not only 

 for its hig-h scientific value, but also for a literary 

 grace which was characteristic of all its author's 

 writings. 



Roland Trimen was full of humour and a delight- 

 ful companion, and inspired the warm affection of 

 a wide circle of friends. By his death the world 

 has lost the last of the six naturalists who created 

 the modern study of insect bionomics — Darwin, 

 Bates, Fritz Miiller, Wallace, Meldola, and 

 Trimen. E. B. P. 



NOTES. 



The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has 

 elected Sir Norman Lockyer a foreign honorary 

 member. 



It is announced that the Daylight Saving Bill has 

 been rejected by the New Zealand House of Repre- 

 sentatives. 



We announced in our issue of March i6 last that 

 an Association for the Advancement of Applied Optics 

 had been formed in the city of Rochester, N.Y. We 

 now learn of the recent formation of a national society 

 called the Optical Society of America, of which the 

 association at Rochester referred to by us is a section. 

 It is proposed to hold annual meetings, and that the 

 society shall serve as the parent organisation for local 

 sections holding frequent meetings. It is intended 

 to cover all branches of optics, theoretical and experi- 

 mental : pure optics, lenses and optical instruments, 

 optical glass and refractometry, colorimetry, vision, 

 photometry, illumination, radiometry, polarimetric 

 analysis, photography and similar related subjects; and 

 to begin the publication of an international optical 

 journal in January next. The officers of the society 

 for the year are : — President, Dr. P. G. Nutting ; 

 vice-president, Dr. G. E. Hale ; treasurer, Mr. A. 

 Lomb ; secretary, Dr. F. E. Ross. The executive 

 council consists of the above-named officers and Dr. 

 F. E. Wright. Dr. C. E. K. Mees, Mr. N. Macbeth, 

 and Prof. J. P. C. Southall. 



The fifth Brazilian Geographical Congress will be 

 held at Bahia on September 7-16. There will be twelve 

 sections, devoted respectively to the following subjects : 

 Mathematical Geography (astronomical ' geography, 

 topography, geodesy) ; Physical Geography (aerology, 

 oceanography, geomorphology) ; Physical Geography 

 (hydrography, potamology, limnology) ; Vulcanology 

 and Seismology ; Climatology and Medical Geography ; 

 Biogeography (phytogeography and zoogeography) ; 

 Human Geography ; Political and Social Geography ; 

 Economic and Commercial Geography, including 

 Agricultural Geography; Military and Historical Geo- 



NO. 2441, VOL. 97] 



graphy; Teaching of Geography, Rules and Nomen- 

 clature ; Regional Monographs. Papers intended for 

 presentation must not have appeared elsewhere, must 

 be typewritten, and reach the Secretary of the Organis- 

 ing Committee not later than August 30. 



We learn from the Museu^ns Journal for August 

 that the present Lord Avebury has handed to the 

 British Museum authorities, for retention in the 

 national collection or distribution among provincial 

 museums, certain portions of the late Lord Avebury 's 

 collection of prehistoric and ethnographical specimens 

 from various parts of the world, use of which was 

 made in the writing of " Prehistoric Times." The gift 

 includes a fine series from the early Iron age cemetery 

 at Hallstatt, Upper Austria, which will be kept in the 

 British Museum, but many of the stone implements 

 are available for distribution, and a list of them is 

 given in the journal. Applications for specimens 

 should be made to Sir Hercules Read at the British 

 Museum. 



As already announced, Sir William Henry Power, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., medical officer of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board from igoo to 1908, died on July 28 last, 

 after a lingering illness. Greatly distinguished as an 

 epidemiologist and administrator, his services to 

 hygienic science and practice had extended over a 

 period of more than forty years. Owing to a retiring 

 disposition and a dislike for gatherings of a social nature, 

 he was comparatively little known outside official 

 circles. Nevertheless, during his long connection with 

 the Local Government Board he planned and directed 

 a large part of the work of the Medical Department, 

 and numerous reports dealing with matters concerning 

 the public health issued during that period were either 

 written by him or owed much to his editorial criticism 

 and supervision. His was a charming personality, 

 which endeared him to all his colleagues, many of whom 

 benefited to no small extent from his Idndly help and 

 encouragement, always so readily accorded. He was 

 the first (in 1878) to direct attention to the dissemina- 

 tion of diphtheria, and later of scarlet fever, through 

 the consumption of milk ; while his classical work on 

 the spread of smallpox from hospitals in which cases 

 of that disease were under treatment formed the basis 

 of legislative action resulting in the removal of small- 

 pox hospitals out of the metropolitan area. While 

 medical officer to the Local Government Board he also 

 served on the General Council of Medical Education, 

 and the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, of which 

 he afterwards became chairman. He was also ap- 

 pointed a member of the Royal Commission on Sewage 

 Disposal. He received the C.B. in 1902, and the 

 K.C.B. in 1908 on retirement from his official post. 

 He was elected F.R.S. in 1895, and was awarded the 

 Buchanan medal of the Royal Society in 1907. It is 

 not too much to say that no man in this country has 

 done more than Sir William Power to advance the 

 cause of scientific hygiene. 



The many friends and scientific associates of Prof. 

 W. A. Herdman and Mrs. Herdman will sympathise 

 deeply with them in the great grief they are at jiresent 

 suffering through the death in action of their only son, 

 George Andrew Herdman. The young officer was 

 educated at Clifton College, and was a scholar of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered Clifton Col- 

 lege with a mathematical scholarship, was head of his 

 house at Clifton, came out top of the school in physics 

 and chemistry, and won an entrance scholarship at 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, in December, 1913. He 

 early showed a wide and keen interest in scientific 

 problems, and in 19 14 went out to Australia 

 with the British Association. On returning, 

 he immediatelv volunteered for active service, and 



