March 22, 1900J 



NATURE 



497 



extraction, and may have been prehistorically connected, 

 but the Chitrali calls himself Kho, and speaks "Khowar," 

 and his language (ordinarily known as Chitrdli) would 

 not be understood in Wakhan. The Tajik (the original 

 Persian stock) of Turkestan and the Oxus does not derive 

 his designation from tdj, " a crown," but from Tazi, a word 

 which means " Arabic " — -or " of Arab extraction," and 

 which is more intelligible as applied by the pure bred 

 Persian to the Tajik races of Baluchistan (where there 

 has ever been much Arab admixture of blood) than to 

 the people of the Oxus or of the Kabul basin. It practi- 

 cally means "half breed," and may be recognised again 

 in the word Tazi, which Mr. Cobbold applies to the dogs 

 which he brought with him from the highlands. 



That the Hindu Kush may ultimately mark the geo- 

 graphical boundary between Russian and British spheres 

 of interest in Asia, or even that Chinese Turkestan (or 

 the New Dominion) may ultimately become as much a 

 Russian province as Bokhara (and it certainly is a fact 

 that Russian influence is already predominant in Kashgar), 

 is an eventuality which many politicians have contem- 

 plated for years past. But it strikes no terror into the 

 hearts of those who look upon a definite and final under- 

 standing with Russia as the best guarantee for peace and 

 for the advancement of civilisation in Asia. Nor need 

 we as yet concern ourselves with such a consummation 

 as would be involved by the Cossacks gazing down on 

 Kabul from their bar4acks "on the heights of the 

 Kohistan." 



Apart from his political views, Mr. Cobbold's book is 

 instructive as well as interesting. He tells us much that 

 is new about districts which are not within the reach of 

 every traveller, and his chapter on the trade of Inner- 

 most Asia is specially worth study. T. H. H. 



DR. WILLIAM MARCET, F.R.S. 

 A LL who are interested in medicine and the cognate 

 •^*- sciences learnt with great regret of the death of Dr. 

 William Marcet, which occurred on March 4, at Luxor, at 

 the ripe age of seventy-two years. Dr. Marcet up till 

 last summer continued to take that keen interest in 

 matters scientific which had characterised him all his life, 

 and it was only with a pronounced failure in his health 

 that he discontinued active physiological research. His 

 active scientific life in London was longer than the 

 average, and exceeded half a century ; and this, perhaps, 

 accounts for his many friends, and also for the fact that 

 he was brought into contact with successive generations 

 of physiological workers. His ample means rendered 

 time of less consequence to him than to many of his col- 

 leagues, and this good fortune was utilised by him to 

 the full, in that his researches were for the most part 

 directed to themes of a time-consuming nature, and also 

 to those requiring for their adequate prosecution some- 

 what elaborate and expensive methods. 



With the exception of his contributions to meteorology, 

 his work was almost entirely directed to the chemical 

 side of physiology and pathology ; his additions to the 

 literature of clinical medicine were relatively small ; and 

 although he was for some time on the stafif of the West- 

 minster and Brompton Hospitals, as a physician, he was 

 by the present generation hardly known. 



The first sphere of his chemico-physiological labours was 

 a somewhat una^sthetic one— viz. the human faices. In 

 185 1 he published "Some observations on the fatty matters 

 of human excrements in disease." In 1856 his first work 

 upon dietetics appeared, entitled " The composition of 

 food and how it is adulterated, with practical directions 

 for its analysis." This book was one of the earliest 

 systematic contributions to this subject, and must have 

 been the expression of considerable labour and research. 

 Dr. Marcet next directed his attention to the physio- 

 NO. 1586, VOL. 61] 



logical and pathological properties of alcohol, and pub- 

 lished two monographs upon the^subject. His "Chronic 

 alcoholic intoxication " includes a synoptical table of cases. 

 In 1864 he made some observations upon a colloid acid, 

 a normal constituent of human urine, and in the same year 

 published a short essay upon the brine of salt meat and on 

 the distribution of albumen through the muscular tissue. 

 His dietetic researches extended, in 1867, to a descrip- 

 tion of a method for peptonising meat, and the employ- 

 ment of the formed product in diseases of the stomach. 



Dr. Marcet, in this country, was one of the earliest 

 workers with the laryngoscope, and wrote, in 1869, 

 "Clinical notes on diseases of the larynx, investigated 

 and treated with the assistance of the laryngoscope." 

 In 1869 he published the results of some observations 

 he made upon the temperature of the human body during 

 climbing. 



Dr. Marcet's two contributions to meteorology and 

 climatology were a monograph on the weather at Cannes 

 during the season 1875-76, which appeared in 1877, and 

 a book of some four hundred pages on the " Principal 

 Southern and Swiss health resorts," which was published 

 in 1883. Although this book cannot be regarded as a 

 systematic treatise on climatology, it is most readable, 

 and contains a mass of useful hygienic information con- 

 cerning the Riviera, Canary Islands, Madeira, Egypt, &c. 

 Even a discussion of the cause of the green colour of 

 Marennes oysters is to be found in it. 



In spite of the somewhat extensive bibliography given 

 above, it is nevertheless as a worker on respiration that 

 the subject of this notice was, and will be, chiefly known. 

 Years of researches upon this subject, both in London 

 and at high altitudes, resulted in the appearance in 1897 

 of Dr. Marcet's "Contribution to the history of the 

 respiration of man." The book consists essentially of 

 the subject-matter of the Croonian Lectures which were 

 delivered by Dr. Marcet before the Royal College of 

 Physicians in 1895. As this book was fully reviewed in 

 these columns at the time of its appearance, no further 

 mention need be made of it here. Not only will physiology 

 miss Dr. Marcet as a worker, but working physiologists 

 will miss him as a personality ; he was constantly to be 

 seen at meetings of the Physiological Society, and kept 

 up his interest in all the branches of that science which 

 has extended so enormously the field of its knowledge 

 since he joined the ranks of its workers. 



F. W. TUNNICLIFFE. " 



SIR MICHAEL FOSTER AND HIS PUPILS. 

 VXTE have been asked to publish the following letter, 



»* addressed to Sir Michael Foster on the occasion 

 of his entering Parliament. His biological friends at 

 Cambridge have done well in expressing their loyalty to- 

 wards Sir Michael, to whom the University owes so much. 

 The signatures might doubtless have been indefinitely 

 multiplied had the opportunity of adding their names 

 been given to Sir Michael Foster's friends and pupils 

 scattered over many lands. This, however, was not 

 attempted, the letter not being circulated beyond the 

 group of old pupils and friends, in Cambridge, with whom 

 it originated. 



To Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., M.P. 



Dear Sir Michael,— We, a few of your Cambridge friends, 

 take the opportunity given by your entering Parliament to express 

 our loyalty, respect, and cordial friendship towards you. 



Though we regret anything which takes you from among us, 

 yet we cannot but rejoice that the cau.se of learning has gained 

 so strong an advocate in Parliament. 



The work you have done in Cambridge during the last thirty 

 years seems to us of unique value. You have taught us to recog- 

 nise what is worth learning, and you have taught us how to 

 learn. If we, in Cambridge, now value and seek after the 



