NATURE 



[September 5, 1918 



money account of the United Kingdom with the view 

 of placing them on a decimal basis, and whether, if 

 an alteration of the present system is recommended, 

 it is desirable to adopt with or without modification 

 the proposals embodied in the Bill recently introduced 

 into the House of Lords by Lord Southwark or some 

 other scheme, and in the latter alternative to make 

 specific recommendations for consideration by Par- 

 liament." The members of the Commission are : — 

 Lord Emmott, Lord Southwark, Lord Faber, Lend 

 Ashton of Hyde, Lord Leverhirlme, Sir R. V. Va 

 Smith, Bart., Sir L Larmor, Sir G. Crovdon Marks, 

 Sir A. W. Watson, Mr. J. W. Ca'wston, Mr. 

 S. Armitage Smith, Mr. C. Godfrey, Mr. J. Bell, 

 Mr. J. Burn, Mr. H. Cox, Mr. G. Hayhurst, Mr. 

 T. McKenna, Mr. G. Marks, Mr. f, F. Mason, Mr. 

 A. Smith, Mr. G. M. Smith, and Mr. G. C. Vyle. 



Although a rein forced-concrete barge of 400 tons 

 has been in use on the cross-Channel service for some 

 ' months, the vessel launched on August 24 at Lake 

 Shipyard, near Poole, is the first 1000-ton reinforced- 

 concrete sea-going barge completed in the United 

 Kingdom, and forms one of a fleet of similar vessels 

 at present in course of construction at Admiralty ex- 

 tension shipyards in different parts of England, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland. From an illustrated article in 

 Engineering for August 30 we learn that there are 

 now eight 1000-ton barges on the slips at the Lake 

 yard, which was laid out to suit this ckiss of v. ork 

 by Mr. Anthony G. Lyster, of Sir John Wolfe Barry 

 and Partners. When finally completed, the slipways 

 will provide accommodation for the simultaneous 

 building of sixteen vessels ranging up to 2500 tons 

 dead-weight carrying capacity. The vessels under con- 

 struction were designed by Mr. E. O. Williams, the 

 hull in every case having a double bottom and double 

 sides. It is interesting to know that the experience 

 gained in the building of this pioneer vessel has 

 already resulted in the introduction of various im- 

 proved methods of procedure. The vessel was con- 

 structed to the classification of the British Corpora- 

 tion for the Survey and Registration of Shipping. 



The death is announced of Prof. Henry Shaler 

 Williams, of Cornell University, U.S.A. Prof. Wil- 

 liams was born at Ithaca, N.Y., on March 6, 1847, 

 and graduated at Yale in 186S. His early inclina- 

 tions were towards biology, and his first paper, in 

 1872, made a comparison between the muscles of the 

 chelonian and human shoulder-girdles. Soon, how- 

 ever, he turned to the study of fossils, with special 

 reference to their use in stratigraphical geology, and 

 in 1879 he was appointed professor of palaeontology in 

 Cornell University. In 1886 he became professor of 

 both geology and palaeontology in the same univei 

 and in 1892 he succeeded James D. Dana as Silliman 

 professor at Yale. In 1902 he returned to Cornell, 

 and in 1912 he retired from active service, with a 

 pension under the Carnegie Foundation. Prof. Wil- 

 liams devoted his attention chiefly to the invertebrate 

 fossils found in the Devonian formations of the 

 eastern part of North America, and published an im- 

 portant series of memoirs on the correlation of these 

 rocks and faunas in the Bulletin of the United States 

 Geological Survey. At the same time he detailed the 

 results of his researches, especially on brachiopods, in 

 other papers, and in 1895 he produced a rriost useful 

 and original handbook entitled " Geological Biology, 

 an Introduction to the Geological History of Organ- 

 isms." He was among the pioneers in the modern 

 methods of studying fossils, and most industriously 

 tested their value in the sphere which lie made his 

 own. 



NO. 2549, VOL'. I02] 



The death of Dr. Robert Saundby on August 28, 

 at the age of sixty-eight, leaves a^ gap in the ranks 

 of contemporary leaders of British medicine. From 

 his first appointment as pathologist at the Birming- 

 ham General Hospital in 1876 until his retirement 

 from the University chair of physic in 1917, when he 

 became emeritus professor, Dr. Saundby devoted him- 

 self to medical problems in their scientific aspects, 

 especially in regard to abnormal states of the urine 

 in renal disease and diabetes, and to disorders of 

 the stomach and digestive, system. His works on 

 "Renal and Urinary Diseases" (fourth edition, 1900) 

 and on " Diseases of the Digestive System " (second 

 edition, 1^07) embody the scientific knowledge and 

 clinical experience of a physician who pursued in the 

 laboratory the studies begun in the wards of a large 

 hospital, and was well acquainted with the writings 

 of other workers in the same domain. Besides these 

 monographs, Dr. Saundby made considerable con- 

 tributions to medical literature in the form of articles 

 and scholarly addresses. The scientific attitude of 

 his mind was strongly reflected in his clinical work 

 and in his lifelong interest in research. To the last 

 he was receptive of new ideas, and hjs readiness to 

 test such new methods or findings within his province 

 as attracted his critical faculty kept him continuously 

 abreast of his times. But Dr. Saundby was more 

 than a clinician, and his books on "Medical Ethics" 

 (second edition, 1907) and on " Old Age : Its Care 

 and Treatment" (1913), as well as the distinguished 

 positions to which he was elected by his fellows, bear 

 witness to his strong personality, sound judgment, 

 and versatility. Throughout his career as a consult- 

 ing physician in busy practice Dr. Saundby's energy 

 and public spirit were further displayed in other fields 

 of professional interest. He was a strenuous sup- 

 porter of the British Medical Association, holding the 

 office of chairman of the council and becoming presi- 

 dent of the association in 1911. He was also a 

 member of the General Medical Council, and at the 

 Royal College of Physicians he was Harveian orator 

 in 1917, lecturing on the congenial theme of "Harvey's 

 Work Considered in Relation to Scientific Know- 

 ledge and University Education in his Time." 



Considerable interest was taken last week in the 

 demonstrations of " reading by ear " at the British 

 Scientific Products Exhibition. The original construc- 

 tion of Dr. Fournier d'Albe's " type-reading opto- 

 phone " was described in Nature for September 3, 

 19 1 4. This construction has recently been modified 

 by replacing the Nernst lamp by a small drawn-wire 

 lamp, and by arranging the whole apparatus in such a 

 manner that any ordinary book or newspaper can be 

 inserted and read without cutting it up into pages or 

 columns. The demonstrations consisted in taking an 

 ordinary book of clear type, opening it at random or 

 at a page chosen by the audience, and asking the 

 blind pupil to read a few words or lines on that page. 

 By a curious coincidence the first words thus read 

 were " in the light." • The reader, a girl of nineteen 

 blind from early infancy, was the first blind person 

 to read by ear. She read an unknown page of print 

 without assistance after twenty lessons of one hour 

 each, spent in learning the alphabet and in decipher- 

 ing words of gradually increasing length. The only 

 letters which offered any real difficulty were c, o, p, 

 and q. ' The Roman alphabet is less suitable for 

 optophone reading than either the Gothic or the 

 Russian alphabet, and it might easily be re-designed 

 so as to increase its legibility. But even as types are 

 now, they are sufficiently legible to make all the litera- 

 ture printed clearly in them freely accessible to the 

 blind through Dr. Fournier d'Albe's very ingenious 



