ae | 
s 
“Maren 17, 1923] 










that distemper was introduced into Europe from South 
America in the seventeenth century. There have been 
many researches on the probable cause, and from the 
time of Semmer (1875) down to the present, every 
known type of microbe has been incriminated, many 
authors with great assertiveness having maintained 
that they had found the specific micro-organism. 
Many have believed that Carré came nearest the 
truth with the idea that the causa morbi is an invisible 
icrobe which can traverse bacterial filters. With 
filtrates obtained from nasal secretions he obtained 
lethal effects which were claimed to be identical with 
true distemper, and he regarded the visible bacteria 
found by others as of the nature of secondary invaders, 
which obtained a hold on the tissues as a result of the 
depressing effect of the real filter-passing virus. 
This view is largely accepted without criticism, and 
is said to be the line along which the new committee 
Pror. E. E. BARNARD. 
‘3 may safely be said that the whole astronomical 
world is mourning the death of Edward Emerson 
Barnard, which occurred on February 6, and very 
‘many will feel it as the loss of a personal ‘friend even 
more acutely than as the removal of one of the 
world’s most remarkable observers. 
Prof. Barnard was born at Nashville, Tennessee, on 
December 16, 1857 ; he was left fatherless and destitute 
by the Civil War, and had to go out to work in a 
photographic studio in Nashville at the age of nine, after 
the most meagre opportunities of education. But his 
subsequent career is a remarkable proof of the adage that 
“where there is a will there is a way.” He worked 
most faithfully for his employers, and at the same time 
devoted his evenings to private study ; it was not till 
the age of nineteen that his attention was directed 
to astronomy by perusal of Dr. Dick’s “ Practical 
Astronomer.” The next year he had saved enough 
to buy a 5-inch telescope, with which in 1881 and 1882 
he discovered the first two of his large family of Comets. 
In 1883 Prof. ‘Barnard obtained a fellowship in 
astronomy at Vanderbilt University, which gave him 
the opportunity for perfecting his education and the 
use of a 6-inch equatorial, with which he did useful 
work on comets, nebulz, and double stars. 
In 1888 Prof. Barnard went to the Lick Observatory, 
where he had the advantages of a giant telescope and 
a splendid climate. Three years later he made the 
sensational discovery of the fifth satellite of Jupiter, 
the first addition to the retinue of that satellite since 
the days of Galileo. In 1889 he had observed an 
eclipse of Japetus by Saturn and the ring which gave 
important information on the transparency of different 
parts of the crépe ring. He was also doing very useful 
photographic work, photographing the Galaxy and the 
‘tails of comets with the Willard lens. 
diffused nebulosity ; in particular, he discovered a huge 
nebula with many wisps that wandered over the greater 
part of Orion, the former “ great nebula” of which 
: NO. 2785, VOL. ur] _ 
These photo- | 
graphs showed interesting detail, in particular the— 
shattered tail of Brooks’s Comet of 1893. He demon- | 
Strated the value of a lantern lens for depicting faint — 

NATURE 
367 
It may be pointed out, however, that 

will work. 
-Carré’s work, which is not given in any great detail, 
has been adversely criticised by Galli-Valerio, and 
especially by Kreganow, who worked under the direc- 
‘tion of Frosch, himself a known and successful worker 
on the filter-passer of foot-and-mouth disease. Filter- 
passers have been suggested or proved for a number of 
pathological conditions, notably the mosaic disease of 
‘tobacco plants, foot-and-mouth disease, Cape horse 
‘sickness, 
' These filter-passers have much in common. 
highly infectious, invisible, filterable,and non-cultivable. 
fowl plague, molluscum contagiosum, etc. 
They are 
The causes probably constitute a new group of living 
things, which, if discovered in the case of distemper, 
may throw a flood of light on many unknown causes of 
disease in man, and it is for this reason that the work 
now being undertaken on distemper will be watched 
with unusual interest. WB: 
Obituary. 
was but a pigmy compared withit. Besides discovering 
)very many new comets, he was frequently first in the 
field in detecting periodic ones on their return; for 
example, Pons-Winnecke in April 1921, the position of 
}which had only been roughly predicted. In 1896 he 
left the Lick Observatory for the Yerkes Observatory, 
but the change involved no real break in his work. 
Prof. Barnard took up a new and fruitful line of 
work in recent years, making a minute study of the 
‘light changes of all the Nove that have appeared in 
modern times. Many of them had become excessively 
faint and difficult objects, but he was able to prove 
that some of them were still varying in a more or 
less regular manner. 
Mention should also be made of Barnard’s discovery 
of the star of largest known proper motion ; this was 
no mere accident, but a well-earned fruit Of careful 
study of numerous photographs. 
Prof. Barnard was both a fellow and an associate of 
the Royal Astronomical Society, and was awarded its 
gold medal in February 1897. 
It is pleasant to record that Prof. M. Wolf named 
two of his minor planet discoveries Barnardiana and 
Rhoda after Barnard and his late wife. It is a testimony 
to the universal sentiments of affection and esteem - 
that were felt towards them. 
A. C. D. CRoMMELIN. 
Pror. J. RADCLIFFE. 
Pror. JosepH Rapciirre, head of the department 
“of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering in the Muni- 
cipal College of Technology, Manchester, died on 
February 16 at his residence in Crumpsall after a brief 
illness, at the age of sixty-six years. 
A native of Rochdale, Prof. Radcliffe was forced by 
circumstances to commence to earn his own living at a 
very early age, but managed to attend evening classes 
with such success that he was one of the first scholar- 
ship students sent by the Rochdale Pioneers’ Co-operat- 
ive Society to the then Owens College at Manchester. 
After serving an engineering apprenticeship in Roch- 
dale, he passed into the Waterworks department, where 
he gained a special experience, which led to his later 
