January 16, 1919] 



NATURE 



39i 



l\ a letter to the Times of January n Dr. W. J. 

 Fenton, dean of the Charing Ini-s Hospital Medical 

 School, •Units attention to tin- .requirements of medical 

 ch He points out that medical research should 

 not be separated from medical education; that the 

 clinician should be familiar with the work of the 



ratory; anil that the research worker should not 

 In- cut off from the clinical aspects <>f medical problems. 

 From this ii follows that the ideal position for medical 

 rch work is at the medical schools associated with 

 the great teaching hospitals, and Dr. Fenton would 

 have the senior student and the newly qualified man 

 undertake some of the more elementary problems of 

 research, not only for the sake of the advancement ol 

 knowledge, but also for the invaluable scientific train- 

 ing th lined. Kim arch should demand the 

 whole time of a specially selected body of men, who 

 should be adequately remunerated, and funds should be 

 provided by the State for this and for equipment and 

 Practical results must not be impatiently 

 demanded, nor should research be exclusively directed 

 towards special objects. It cannot be too strongly 

 ■ mphasised that neither medical research nor medical 

 ition can by any means be rendered self-sup- 



ing. Any system of grants-in-aid — which may be 

 the best method of State assistance — must be contem- 

 plated on a much wider and more generous scale than 

 has been the case hitherto. 



•/.\ has further decreased in London, and 

 has almost ceased to be epidemic. The Registrar- 

 General's return for the week ending January 4 shows 

 that the deaths only numbered sixty-five, which is 

 fewer than in any week since that ending October 5, 

 1918. Deaths from influenza for the week ending 

 January 4 were only 5 per cent, of the deaths from 

 all causes, whilst in the weeks ending November 2 

 and iluv were 57 per cent, of the total deaths. 

 Sixty-two per cent, of the influenza deaths given 

 in the latest return were between the ages of 

 twenty and sixty-five. The deaths from the epidemic 

 in the ninety-six great towns of England and Wales 

 numbered 441, and were also similarly fewer than in 

 any week since that ending October 5 last. The 

 Times of January 10 gives an account of the epidemic 

 in Italy from its correspondent at Rome. "The deputy 

 Signor Monti-Guarnieri has addressed an interrogation 

 to the Government concerning the measures to be 

 taken in view of the recrudescence of the influenza 

 mic. The deputy asserts that the epidemic has 

 killnl 800,000 people." The Times correspondent is 

 of opinion that the estimate is an exaggeration. "This 

 i- the third wave of the epidemic. During the first wave 

 the cases were slight, but during the second in October 

 and November thev were very severe. A lull came 

 half-way through November, but lately the number of 

 cases has increased again, though the type seems, less 

 .... Everyone will assure you that the deaths 

 from influenza are more numerous than from the 

 war." The correspondent adds : " I hear from one 

 village, which lost sixty-two soldiers in the war, that 

 the deaths there from influenza are nearly 150." 



The representative in the third generation of a great 



family of botanists, M. Anne Casimir Pyramus De 



folle, died on October 3, 191S, at Geneva, where 



be- was born in 1S36, and where the greater part of 



iad been spent. Casimir De Candolle was a 



botanist, and made valuable additions to the 



sum of botanical knowledge, though his work was not 



of such fundamental importance as that of his father, 



VIphonse, and grandfather, Augustin. He contributed 



i latest lumes (part xvi., 1864-6(1) to the 



•■malic work initiated by Augustin P. De 



Candolle, the " Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni 



68, vol. 102] 



Vegetabilis," namely, that dealing with the families 

 Piperaceae, Juglandeae, and Myricaceae, and was asso- 

 ciated with Alphonse De Candolle in the issue of the 

 series of monographs (1878-96), " Monographiae 

 Phanerogamarum," which was to supplement the 

 "Prodromus"; to the first volume (1878) Casimir con- 

 tributed a monograph of the Meliaccae. He also 

 wrote numerous taxonomic papers, mainly dealing 

 with the Piperaceaj and Meliaceae, and though, per- 

 haps, best known as a systematist, he was keenly 

 interested in the morphological and physiological sides 

 of botany. Almost his earliest paper was a study of 

 iln morphology and taxonomy of the Juglandeae, and 

 in 1868 he published a "Theorie de la feuille," in 

 which he interpreted the leaf as a flattened branch; 

 and this was followed at intervals by other papers on 

 leaf-structure and function and on phyllotaxy. 

 Casimir De Candolle had many friends among the 

 older systematists in this country, and workers were 

 always sure of a kindly welcome to the De Candollean 

 herbarium in Geneva. Among his numerous honours 

 he counted the foreign fellowship of our Linnean 

 Society and an honorary doctorate of Aberdeen 

 University. 



We regret to see the report that Sir William Peter- 

 son, Principal of McGill University, Montreal, was 

 stricken with paralysis a few days ago while address- 

 ing a meeting. 



Dr. Edgar T. Wherry, Bureau of Chemistry, 

 Washington, D.C., has assumed the duties of editor- 

 in-chief of the American Mineralogist, in succession 

 to Mr. Wallace Goold Levison, who has retired. 



The second lecture of the series arranged by the 

 Industrial Reconstruction Council will be held in the 

 Saddlers' Hall, Cheapside, E.C.2, on Wednesday, 

 January 22. The chair will be taken at 4.30 by Lord 

 Balfour of Burleigh, and a lecture on " Industrial 

 Reconstruction in Government Departments " will be 

 delivered by his Honour Judge Edward Parry. Ap- 

 plications for tickets should be made to the Secretary, 

 I.R.C., 2 and 4 Tudor Street, E.C.4. 



The council of the Geological Society has this year 

 made the following awards : — Wollaston medal, Sir 

 Aubrey Strahan (Director of H.M. Geological Survey); 

 Murcriison medal, Miss Gertrude L. Elles (Newnham 

 College, Cambridge); Lyell medal, Dr. W. F. Hume 

 (Director of the Geological Survey of Egypt) ; Bigsby 

 medal, Sir Douglas Mawson; Wollaston fund. Dr. 

 Alexander Logie Du Toit (Geological Survey of South 

 Africa); Murchison fund, Mrs. Eleanor M. Reid; and 

 Lyell fund, Mr. John Pringle (Geological Survey of 

 England and Wales) and Dr. Stanley Smith (Univer- 

 sity College, Aberystwyth). 



With No. 655, published on January 1, the 

 Geological Magazine enters, we may hope, on a still 

 wider field of service. In succession to the Geologist, 

 which appeared from 185S to 1864, this journal has 

 been the recognised medium for the publication and 

 discussion of research in a science that appeals 

 specially to workers in our islands. Some of the con- 

 tributions to its pages, such as Prof. C. Lapworth's 

 papers on "The Secret of the Highlands," have pro- 

 foundly affected geological interpretation. Work ap- 

 pearing elsewhere has received review and criticism 

 from a staff of specially qualified writers, and the 

 veteran editor, Dr. Henry Woodward, has infused 

 into a large correspondence his unfailing personal 

 . harm. After fifty-five vears of devotion to the maga- 

 zine, he has obtained the help of Mr. R. H. Rastall 

 ub-fiditor, and the choice is a guarantee that the 



