4io 



NATURE 



[January 23, 1919 



The Republic of Brazil has lost one of its most 

 enlightened benefactors by the death of Dr. Rodrigues 

 Alves, aged sevent) years. Dr. Alves was burn at 

 San Paulo, and devoted his life to the public service, 

 lie appreciated fully the necessity of applying the dis- 

 coveries of science to the welfare of a community 

 living in the tropics, and when In- was President of 

 Brazil from 1902 until hjoo Ik- so improved the sani- 

 tary condition of the ports that yellow fever was 

 banished from them ami the) became comparatively 

 healthy. Those especially who remember Rio de 

 Janeiro at the end of last century, and also know its 

 present condition, cm realise the importance of Dr. 

 Alves's reforms. To promote an adequate circulation 

 of air, he caused a wide thoroughfare to bo ml 

 through the densest part of the old city. Swamps and 

 waste ground, particularly on the margin of the bay, 

 were transformed into dry promenades and fine 

 gardens. Main drainage was attended to, and a sani- 

 tary service was established to undertake, among 

 other duties, the pouring of oil on stagnant water. 

 The intellectual life of the people was also fostered by 

 the building of a national library and a national art 

 gallerv. Dr. Alves was elected, for a second time as 

 President last year, but failing health, unfortunately, 

 compelled him to resign soon after this unique com- 

 pliment had been paid to him by his grateful country. 



We regret to notice the announcement of the death 

 on January 13, in his seventy-fifth year, of Dr. W. 

 Marshall Watts, who was well known for his valu- 

 able contributions to the literature of spectroscopy. 

 Or. Watts was educated at Owens College, Man- 

 chester, where he studied under Sir Henry Roscoe, 

 and he afterwards worked for some time in Bunsen's 

 laboratory at Heidelberg. For thirty-three years he 

 was science master at Giggleswick Grammar School, 

 and after spending the early years of his retirement 

 near London he removed to Southend, where he died. 

 It was doubtless his association with Roscoe and 

 Bunsen during the early development of spectrum 

 analysts which led Dr. Watts to devote himself to the 

 advancement of this subject. He made_ several 

 original investigations, especially in connection with 

 the spectra of compounds of carbon, but he will be 

 best remembered for his " Index of Spectra," which 

 first appeared modestly as a single volume, and has 

 since been supplemented from time to time by a large 

 number of appendices. The selection and arrange- 

 ment of the data for these publications were made 

 with excellent judgment, and the tables have greatly- 

 facilitated the work of investigators in this branch of 

 science. Dr. Watts will also be gratefully remem- 

 bered by manv workers for the kindness with which 

 he was always ready to place his special knowledge 

 at their disposal. In recognition of his services to 

 scientific investigation he was awarded a Civil List 

 pension three years ago. 



We regret to notice the death of Prof. Gustave 

 Bouchardat, which occurred recently in Paris. Prof. 

 Bouchardat was formerly professor of hydrology and 

 mineralogy in the Paris School of Pharmacy, and 

 retired from this position some six years ago. His 

 name has long been associated with the literature of 

 synthetic rubber, a paper of his on this subject having 

 appeared fin the Comptes rendus) so long ago as 1S75. 

 Camphor and borneol were some of the chief matters 

 to which he had devoted attention, especially as regards 

 tin synthetic borneols and isoborneois. The action of 

 acids on various terpenes was also a subject which he 

 investigated. Prof. Bouchardat was born in 1842, and 

 bad been connected with the School of Pharmacy for 

 about forty years. 



NO. 2569, VOL. I02] 



Bl the death, at the age of seventy-four, of Sir 

 Gooroo Dass Banerjee, India has lost one of the most 

 distinguished and universally respected Bengalis of 

 OUl day. After a distinguished career at the President 

 1 1 N. ge, Calcutta, Sir Gooroo Banerjee became a Vakil 

 of the Calcutta High Court, and took an active share 

 in the liusiiicss of tin- lily municipality. After holding 

 a seat in the local legislature, he was raised to the 

 High Court Bench, where he established his reputation 

 as a sound lawyer. He was a member of the council 

 of the Calcutta University, of which he acted as Vice- 

 Chancellor, and he served on Lord Curzon's Univer- 

 sity Commission, to the report of which he contri- 

 buted a characteristically independent note of dissent. 

 He was a learned investigator of Hindu mathematics 

 and Indian law and sociology — subjects dealt with in 

 a long series of books. He combined plain living with 

 high thinking to an exceptional degree. Sir Got 

 Banerjee has left four sons, all of whom hold high 

 positions in the public life of Bengal. 



The death is announced of Mr. W. P. G. Graham 

 at the age of fifty-seven. Mr. Graham entered the 

 Royal Army Medical Corps in 1887, joined the Egyp- 

 tian Army in 1890, served in the Tokar campaign of 

 1891, and in 1896 volunteered his services during the 

 serious outbreak of cholera, after the cessation of 

 which he accepted a post in the Egyptian Civil Ser- 

 vice. In 1902 Mr. Graham was selected to reorganise 

 the municipality of Alexandria, and for two yi at - 

 acted as administrator of that city. He then returned 

 to Cairo, and was Director-General of Public Health 

 in Egypt from 1907 to 1914, during which period he 

 installed a water supply for Cairo and did much for 

 the health of the country. Mr. Graham retired from 

 the Egyptian Civil Service in 1914, and became an 

 inspector of the Home Office under the Vivisection 

 Act. In 1915 he took out Lady Wimborne's hospital 

 to Serbia, with which he worked for some months. 

 He was then sent by the War Office to Egypt, but an 

 accident necessitated his return home after a short 

 time, and he resumed his work under the Home 

 Office. 



The cultivation of fungi by termites in their nests 

 to serve as food for their young and for the queen 

 is well known, and good accounts of the nests and 

 their fungi have been given by Mr. T. Petch in the 

 Annals of the Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, in [906 

 and 1913. A further paper on the fungi of termite- 

 nests has now appeared in the Philippine Journal of 

 Science (vol. xiii., sect. C, No. 4, 1918) by Mr. 

 W. H. Brown. Mr. Brown's account is illustrated by 

 two good plates showing the termite nests, the combs 

 composed of small balls closely packed together and 

 made apparently from the excrement of the termites, 

 and the fungi growing on them. The fungi appear to 

 be the same as those found in Ceylon and in the 

 East generally, and are a conidial form, Aegerita 

 duthci, which covers the combs thickly; a Xylaria, 

 probably Xylaria nigripes, which grows out from the 

 comb and forms a regular tomentum ; and an Agaric, 

 Collybia albuniinosa. The wide distribution of these 

 three fungi in termite nests is remarkable. 



Tut', establishment of a French " Kew Gardens" is 

 the lext of a leading article in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 of January 4. The famous Jardin des Plantes at 

 Paris has now become enclosed by the growth of the 

 citv, and a new site of 1500 acres is proposed in the 

 park of Versailles between the Trianon and the Forest 

 of Marly. The new garden would consist of about 

 too acres, devoted to botanical collections, and would 

 in the first place include those subjects which are 



