January 2, 1919] 



NATURE 



Man ewe, K.(i., and a Inline entitled 



"Industrial Unity" will 1" the Right 



Hon. G. II. Roberts, M.P., Minister of Labour. 

 Applications for tick ts should be made to the Secre- 



R.< ' . 2 and 4 [udoi S 



At the general meeting of the Scottish Meteoro- 

 logical Society, held on December m, the following 



rs and other members of council were elected for 

 the ensuing twelve months: President: Dr. C. G. 

 Knott. Vice-Presidents: Prof. I. Hudson Beare and 

 Mr. J. Mackaj Bernard. Council: Mr. D. A. 

 ison, Mr. R. Cross, Mr. S. B. Hog, Mr. G. 

 Thomson, Dr. A. Crichton Mitchell, Mr. G. A. 

 Mitchell, Mr. M. M'Calhun Fairgrieve, Prof. R. A. 

 Sampson, and Capt. T. Bedford Franklin. Hon. 

 i M. Wedderburn. Hon. Treasurer : 

 Mr. W. B. Wilson. 



In Helvetica Chimica Acta, No. 4, appears an obitu- 

 ary notice of Prof. R. Nietzki, who for many years 

 I led the chair of chemistry at the University of 

 Bale, and had become noted for his work on the chem- 

 istry of certain groups of dyestuffs. Prof. Nietzki 

 was born in 1M47. and studied pharmacy in his early 

 Later he became an assistant to A. YV. Hof- 

 mann, and in 1876 held a similar position at Leyden, 

 where he began the researches on colouring matters 

 to which much of his life was afterwards devoted. He 

 discovered nitranilic acid, and worked out the methods 

 of preparing quinone and hydroquinone which are 



mployed for making these articles. In [879 Prof. 



the post of research chemist with a 



firm at Biebrich, and signalised his appointment by 



discovery of the dyestuff known as "Biebrich 



Scarlet," of which notable quantities are produced at 



the present time. lie went to BaL in 1SS4, and in 



iation with his students continued his researches 

 until ill-health brought about his retirement in 191 1. 

 The notice of his death, which occurred in September, 

 11117, is contributed bv Prof. Noelting, who includes 

 in it an important summary of Prof. Nietzki's investi- 

 ms on aniline black, the quinones, azo-derivatives, 

 safranines, oxazines, thiazines, and other groups of 

 1 irganic compounds. 



Dr. Charles R.Van Hise, long connected with the 

 I nil. • ■: ilogical Survey, died on Xovrmber 19 



ars. His work, aided bv the 

 liberal system of Government publication at Washing- 

 tun, may be truly described as monumental. In 1883 

 he was called on to examine the iron-ore region of 

 Lake Superior, under I\. D. Irving, and five years 

 1 iter this work came under his control. His impor- 

 tant summary of the grouping of the iron-ores ap- 

 peared in 1897 (21-t Ann. Rep., U.S. Geol. Survey, 

 part 3), accompanied l>y a monograph on "The Mar- 

 quette Iron-bearing District," in which YV. S. Bayley 

 rated. This monograph, No. 28, contains de- 



ions and an admirable series of coloured illus- 

 trations of siliceous handed iron-ores, which are of 

 fundamental importance for comparison with similar 

 rocks throughout the world. Dr. Van Hise extended 

 the petrography of this subject in 1911 in his mono- 

 graph (No. 52) on "The Geology of the Lake 

 Superior Region," in collaboration with C. K. I.eith. 

 We owe to this work the experimental investigation of 

 Leith'- "greenalite," a marine silicate distinct from 

 glauconite, and a close consideration of how far the 

 magnetite in the bedded ore-deposits is a product of 

 reduction from iron carl» nalite, or how far 



it may be ascribed to transfer nee from intrusive basic 

 rocks. Meanwhile, Dr. Van Hise had issued hi- . 

 "Treatise on Metamorphi'sm " (Men. 47, 1904), in 



which he reviewed all the change - undergone by nick- 

 since their first - consolidation. 

 NO. 2566, VOL. I02] 



Such varied subjects .1- the disintegrating action of 

 white ants, the decomposition of silicates, and the 

 How of rocks under pressure, come within the rang. 

 of this comprehensive work. Pre-Cambrian forma- 

 tions naturally attracted much of Dr. Van Hise's atten- 

 tion; but his range of reading was wide, and his 

 - as president of the University of Wisconsin 

 brought his experience as an administrator into a 

 1 1 iui.it ion.il field. 



We regret to announce the death of Mr. |. P. 

 Johnson at Johannesburg from pneumonia, following 

 an attack of influenza, at the early age of thirty- 

 eight. Mr. Johnson was born in London in 1880, ami 

 was educated at Duhvich College and the Royal School 

 "i Mines. In 1902 considerations of health compelled 

 him to emigrate to the Transvaal. On the outbreak of 

 the war he was living in Tasmania, where he intended 

 to settle, but returned to South Africa, where he died 

 on October 18, 1918. At an early age Mr. Johnson was 

 an enthusiastic student of the Pleistocene deposits of 

 England and of stone implements, and several papers 

 Ain- contributed by him to the Proceedings of the 

 Geologists' Association, the Geological Magazine, the 

 Essex Naturalist, and Science Gossip. He was a born 

 hunter, and made many important additions to the 

 Pleistocene faunas of West Wittering and Ilford and 

 the Eocene fauna of Walton-on-the-Naze. In South 

 Africa he found an almost virgin field, and the results 

 of his work were embodied in "The Stone Implements 

 of South Africa" (1907, second edition 1908), "Geo- 

 logical and Archaeological Notes on Orangia " (10,10), 

 'The Prehistoric Period in South Africa" (1910, 

 second edition 1912), and numerous papers published 

 by the Geological Society of South Africa, the South 

 African Association, the British Association, and in the 

 columns of Nature. Mr. Johnson was a member of 

 the council of the Geological Society of South Africa, 

 and was appointed by the South African Government a 

 member of the Commission to report on the petro- 

 glyphs and rock-paintings of South Africa, many of 

 which are reproduced in "The Prehistoric Period in 

 South Africa" (second edition). He was also a keen 

 student of the ethnography of South Africa, and his 

 conclusions are embodied in the same work, of which 

 a third edition was in hand at the time of his death. 

 In his profession as a mining expert Mr. Johnson was 

 greatly respected, and his services were urgently 

 sought for by prospecting syndicates, whilst his works 

 on "The Mineral Industry of Rhodesia" and "The 

 Ore Deposits of South Africa " are standard books. 



The party of American technical journalists 

 recently on a visit to this country as guests of the 

 Government was entertained by the Master and 

 Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Stationers 

 on December 18, together with a gathering of 

 British colleagues. The meeting had been arranged 

 by the Institute of Journalists' Circle of Scientific, 

 Technical, and Trade Journalists, and, in spite of the 

 unavoidably short notice arising from some uncer- 

 tainty regarding the return of the American party 

 after its tour in France, a considerable number of 

 editors of technical papers in London were present. 

 After na and a reception a meeting was held, at 

 which Mr. H. C. Parmelee, Mr. S. O. Dunn, Mr. 

 H. Cole Estep, Mr. H. M. Swetland, and Mr. A. J. 

 Baldwin delivered short addresses on behalf of tin 

 American technical journalists, while Mr. L. Pendred, 

 Prof. R. A. Gregory, and Mr. A. C. Meyjes responded 

 for the British technical Press. It was vi ry 

 pleasant to note, in the addresses of our friend- from 

 thi I nited States, thai thee were entirely at one wiih 

 us in their appreciation of the importance of the 

 duties which the technical Pre-- can perform. Some 



