!26 



NA TURE 



[August 4, 1904 



Geneva; Prof. Engler, Berlin; Prof. Errara, Brussels; 

 Prof. Eriksson, Stockholm; Prof Fujii, Tokio ; Mile. 

 Goldflus; Prof. Klebs, Halle; Dr. Lotsy, Leyden ; Prof. 

 Macfarlane, Philadelphia; Dr. Overton, Wiirzburg ; 

 Prof. Pierce, Stanford University, California ; Prof. 

 Reinke, Kiel ; Prof. Schroter, Zurich ; Dr. Schoute, 

 Wageningen ; Prof, de Toni, Modena ; Prof. Vochting, 

 Tubingen ; Mme. Weber van Bosse, Amsterdam ; Prof. 

 Zacharias, Hamburg. 



Mr. Francis Darwin's presidential address will deal 

 with the statolith theory of geotropism, being a dis- 

 cussion of the recent work on the means by which plants 

 " perceive " the force of gravity. The semi-popular 

 lecture, which in recent years has become one of the 

 features of the section, will be given on Monday after- 

 noon, at 2.30 p.m., by Dr. D. H. Scott. Prof. H. Mar- 

 shall Ward and Prof. Jakob Eriksson, of Stockholm, 

 will discuss their recent important researches on the bi- 

 ology of the fungi, especially the Uredineae. The struc- 

 ture of the Cyanophyceee will be dealt with by Prof. 

 Zacharias, of Hamburg, Prof. Chodat, of Geneva, and 

 others. Dr. J. P. Lxjtsy, of Leyden, has promised to give 

 an account of the virgin woods of Java, and Prof. S. H. 

 Vines will read a paper on the proteases of plants. Dr. 

 F. F. Blackman will give an account, illustrated by ex- 

 periments, of his important researches on assimilation 

 and respiration ; Prof. A. G. Tansley will give an 

 address on some problems of ecology, followed by 

 papers on various aspects of ecological botany by Prof. 

 Engler, of Berlin, Dr. W. G. Smith, and Messrs. T. W. 

 Woodhead and F. T. Lewis. Papers will be contributed 

 to this section also by Profs. Czapek, Vochting, G. 

 Pierce, C. E. Bertrand, Dr. Margaret Stopes, Miss 

 Sibille Ford, Prof. Hartog, Dr. VV. G. Lang, E. A. 

 Newell Arber, J. Parkin, Dr. A. Reginald BuUer, 

 Alfred P. Maudslay, Harold A. Wager, G. Barger and 

 others. 



For the first time in the history of the Association 

 there will be a subsection devoted to agriculture, pre- 

 sided over by Dr. W. Somerville. 



The following communications have been promised : — 

 A. D. Hall (Rothamsted Experimental Station), 

 the probable error of agricultural field experi- 

 ments, and analysis of the soil by means of the plant; 

 T. S. Dymond (County Laboratories, Chelmsford), the 

 influence of sulphate as manure upon the yield and 

 feeding value of crops, and the determination of the 

 availability of insoluble phosphate in manures; R. H. 

 Biffen, the improvement of wheats and Mendel's laws; 

 R. H. Elliot, the clover mystery — a probable solution of 

 it; Prof. Middlcton, improvement of clay pastures 

 through the agency of clovers; T. B. Wood and R. A. 

 Berry, chemical composition of root crops. 



Section L. 



The visitors to this section include Dr. Anderssen, 

 Christiania; M. Demolins, La Guichardi^re ; Prof. 

 Dewey, Chicago; Dr. Gallander, Orebro; Miss Laura 

 Drake Gill, Barnard College, Columbia LIniversity, 

 New York; M. A. Gobert, Brussels; M. Hovelaque, 

 Paris; Dr. Hausknecht, Kiel; Miss Hazard, president 

 of Wellesley College, U.S.A. ; Miss Irwin, Dean of Rad- 

 cliffe College, Cambridge, Li.S.A. ; Fraulein Knittel, 

 Breslau ; Prof. Mangold'^ Berlin ; Prof. Munch, Berlin ; 

 Mme. Dick May, "Paris ; Miss Oaklev, Montreal; 

 Director Triiper, Jena; Froken Whitlock, Djursholm, 

 Sweden ; Miss M. A. Willcox, professor at Brvn Mawr, 

 U.S.A. 



One of the chief debates in Section L will be on the 

 subject of school-leaving certificates, with special 

 reference to the scheme proposed by the consultative 

 committee of the Board of Education. Other important 

 subjects selected for discussion are the national and 



NO. 18 14, VOL. 70] 



local provision for the training of teachers, and manual 

 instruction in its broadest sense. Afternoon semi- 

 popular talks will probably be given by A. D. Hall, 

 director of the Lawes .'Agricultural Trust, on the need 

 of scientific method in elementary rural instruction, and 

 by Prof. Armstrong on the research method applied to 

 experimental teaching. 



The above summary is based on the facts supplied by 

 the recorders of the several sections. 



Tickets and programmes of local arrangements may 

 now be obtained on application to the local secretaries, 

 Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 



SIR JOHN SIMON, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



T)V the death of Sir John Simon, which occurred on 

 -L-' July 23, in his eighty-eighth year, this country 

 has lost one of the leaders in sanitary science 

 who with Chadwick and others made the Victorian 

 period a memorable one. Simon commenced the 

 study of medicine in 1833, when he was seventeen 

 years old, and attended both St. Thomas's Hospital 

 and the recently established King's College. Here 

 Jie studied under Joseph Henry Green, the first 

 professor of surgery at the last-named college, and 

 acted as assistant to Todd in preparation for his physi- 

 ological lectures. On the foundation cf King's Col- 

 lege Hospital in 1840, Simon became senior assistant 

 surgeon, being associated with men so well known as 

 Fergusson, Partridge and Bowman. It was in 1848 

 that he turned his attention to that branch of medicine 

 in which his name became famous. The Corporation 

 of the City of London applied to Parliament for powers 

 to improve the sanitary administration of the City, and 

 as the result of the passing of the City Sewers Act he 

 was appointed Medical Officer of Health. About this 

 time the epidemic recurrence of cholera in this and 

 other countries began to attract attention, and in 1S55 

 it was decided to create a Central Board of Health, for 

 the medical officership of which Simon was selected. 

 In 1858 the functions of the Board were transferred to 

 the Privy Council. This position made him adviser 

 to the Government on all sanitary and medical matters, 

 and he continued to act until 1S76, when he resigned 

 his appointment, and on his retirement the decoration 

 of C.B. was conferred on him. On the occasion of 

 Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 he was created a 

 K.C.B. In 1S67 he was appointed a Crown member 

 of the General Medical Council, and took an active part 

 in the work of that body until 1895. 



The effect of Simon's work as Medical Officer of 

 Health was far more than local; his annual reports, 

 which cover the years 1848 to 1855, form a landmark in 

 the history of English sanitation ; they survey the sani- 

 tary condition of the City, review the risks arising 

 from cholera and other infective diseases, detail the 

 evils of overcrowding, and direct attention to a condi- 

 tion of affairs which until then had escaped notice. In 

 1853 he was appointed one of the commissioners to 

 inquire into the outbreak of cholera at Gateshead and 

 Newcastle, and in 1856 submitted a report on the out- 

 breaks of that disease in London in 1848-49 and in 

 1853-54, conclusively demonstrating the dependence of 

 these epidemics on a polluted water supply. In 1857 

 he published a volume entitled " Papers on the History 

 and Practice of Vaccination," which was followed in 

 1858 by the " Report on the Sanitary State of the 

 People of England," which demonstrated for the first 

 time the wide variations which exist in the local 

 incidence of certain diseases and emphasised the 

 need for skilled inquiry. During his term of office 

 under the Privv Council the results of a number of 



