AuvcustT 31, 1899] 
NATURE 
425 
gases. And when he had perfected his methods, no im- 
provements as regards accuracy were forthcoming. Other 
quicker and, perhaps, more handy processes have since 
come into vogue; but it was Bunsen who taught men 
how to handle and to separate and measure gaseous 
substances. 
Next take his researches in chemical analytical 
methodss There we find again that all he touches he 
adorns. Whether in the delicate and complicated silicate 
analyses, in blow-pipe work and flame reactions, in 
volumetric methods, in separations of closely allied 
metals, such as antimony and arsenic, or those of the 
cerite earths, we see the same master’s touch. Then 
his physico-chemical researches, his ice-calorimeter, his 
photo-chemical investigations, about which I am able to 
speak with special authority ; his methods of ascertaining 
the specific gravity of gases by their rates of diffusion, 
and many other distinct lines of research, all well known 
and recognised as classic, exhibit the same wonderful 
power. 
About his more popularly-known discoveries it is not 
necessary here to speak, save to say that the Bunsen 
battery and the Bunsen burner have rendered his name 
a household word all the world over, whilst his application 
of spectrum analysis to the investigation of terrestrial 
matter has done more than all the investigations of past 
time to increase our knowledge of the chemical composi- 
tion of the earth’s crust. 
But this experimental work, great and important as it is, 
is not the greatest or most important work which he ac- 
complished. It is asa teacher and as an example that the 
name of Bunsen is and will be chiefly honoured and re- 
membered. It is only those who have had the benefit of 
working under and with him who can fully understand the 
feelings of affection and respect with which they regard 
his memory. To those who had the privilege of his 
intimacy, of whom I can happily lay claim to be one, his 
friendship will remain as an abiding source of gratification. 
As an investigator he was great,as a teacher he was 
greater, as a man and a friend he was greatest. 
HENRY E. ROSCOE, 
NOTES. 
THE Royal Society has received through Mr. Chamberlain 
the following memorandum by the Governor of the Straits 
Settlements :-— 
The Government of the Straits Settlements desires to invite 
the attention of Radcliffe’s travelling Fellows, and of holders of 
scholarships for medical and physical research, to the study of 
the tropical disease called Beri-beri. This disease caused in the 
hospitals of the Colony 730 deaths in 1896 and 692 in 1897. 
This Government will be glad to assist any scholar who desires 
to engage in the scientific investigation of this disease in the 
Colony by providing him with furnished quarters, rent free, by 
giving him free access to all the hospitals and facilities for study- 
ing the cases therein, by defraying the cost of his passage to the 
Colony, and in any way which may be agreed upon hereafter 
between the scholar and the undersigned. 
By Command of the Governor, 
J. A. SWETTENHAM, 
Colonial Secretary, S.S. 
Colonial Secretary’s Office, 
Singapore, July 20, 
It may be added that Dr. Hamilton Wright, late of Montreal, 
has recently been appointed pathologist to the Straits Settle- 
ments. He will be provided with an adequate laboratory, on 
the furnishing of which he is now engaged. The opportunities 
for pathological research will therefore be extremely good. 
THE eighteenth annual Congress of the Sanitary Institute 
was opened at Southampton on Tuesday, when about seventeen 
NO. 1557, VOL. 60] 
hundred delegates attended. Sir William Preece, K.C.B., the 
president, delivered his inaugural address, in which he dealt 
with the principles underlying practical applications of sanitary 
engineering, 
Mr. A. H. MILng, hon. secretary of the Liverpool School o1 
Tropical Diseases, informs us that in response to a request from 
Major Ross that workers should be sent out to join him at 
Sierra Leone, the school is despatching, as an assistant to him, 
Dr. R. Fielding Ould, of the Liverpool School of Pathology, 
who has had special experience in private bacteriological 
research. It isto be hoped that the Government will take the 
matter in hand, and will help the work of the expedition. 
WE learn from Scéezce that Dr. A. B. Meyer, Director of the 
Dresden Museums, is now in the United States on a commis- 
sion from the Saxon Government to inspect American museums 
before the new buildings are erected at Dresden. He is accom- 
panied by Prof. P. Wallot, who is one of the international 
commission of architects selected to decide on the plans of the 
University of California in accordance with Mrs, Hearst’s 
arrangements. 
A Reuter telegram from Potsdam states that the new observ- 
atory and the great refractor, recently erected at the Astro- 
physical Observatory there, were inaugurated on Saturday, 
August 26, in the presence of the German Emperor. 
Our photographic readers may be reminded that all entries 
for the Royal Photographic Society’s forty-fourth annual exhi- 
bition, to be held at the Gallery of the Royal Society of Painters 
in Water Colours from September 25 to November 11, close on 
Wednesday, September 6, at 9 p.m. 
THE Allahabad Peoneer Maz? states that an Austrian scientific 
party will visit India towards the latter end of October to 
observe the display of Leonid meteors which will take place in 
November. Two observation stations are to be fixed at Delhi, 
some five miles apart, telephonic communication being main- 
tained under arrangements made by the Telegraph Department. 
Dr. A. CANCANT, formerly assistant at the geodynamic 
observatory at Rocca di Papa, has been selected to succeed Dr. 
G. Agamennone as assistant in the central office of meteorology 
and geodynamics at Rome. Dr. Cancani is well known to 
seismologists for his work in connection with the velocity of 
earthquake-waves, and for the improvements which he has 
made in the pendulums designed for recording the undulations 
from distant earthquakes. 
REFERENCE has already been made to the fact that the 
section of the tree under which Dr. Livingstone’s heart was 
buried, containing the inscription carved by his followers, has 
been obtained for preservation in the Royal Geographical 
Society’s collection of relics. The Avitish Central Africa 
Gazette, published at Zomba, gives the following particulars of 
the journey to obtain the section:—Mr. Codrington, Deputy 
Administrator for the British South Africa Chartered Company 
north of the Zambesi, left Fort Jameson (Mpezeni’s) on April 24, 
and reached Chitambo on May 9. From the present village of 
Chitambo he travelled with Chitambo ten miles E.S.E., three 
miles to the Msumba river or swamp, and then seven miles to 
the Luwe river. These streams flow into the Lulimula river, 
and that into the Luapula. Chitambo states that his father was 
interred under the A/fundu tree close to the spot where 
Livingstone’s heart was buried. The following measurements 
were taken of the tree: Round base, 13 feet 5 inches ; round 
bottom of inscription, 10 feet 1 inch; round top of inscription, 
10 feet ; height of bottom of inscription from ground, 4 feet 
5 inches, The bark was cut off by Livingstone’s men in order 
