888 

is the theory of viscosity. This forms the subject of 
two papers in the Aéti dei Lincei, xxxii. (1) 1, 2, by Dr. 
Umberto Cisotti, also communicated by Prof. Levi 
Civita, the first dealing with motion in canals and the 
second with damped waves. 
The object of the present article has been to direct 
NATURE 
[JUNE 30, 1923 
attention to papers published elsewhere than in the 
technical journals and periodicals, such as those of the 
Royal Aeronautical Society, the Aeronautical Research 
Committee, or the Institution of Aeronautical Engin- 
eers, all of which are replete with results of other 
important and valuable investigations. 


Obituary. 
Canon W. W. Fow ter. 
ANON WILLIAM WEEKES FOWLER, Vicar of 
Earley, Reading, died on Sunday, June 3, at 
seventy-four years of age. He was suddenly taken ill 
in the vestry before the service, and died soon after 
service began. Having always been a man of untiring 
energy, we feel sure that he would have preferred to 
die in harness rather than to have endured: any long 
illness. 
Canon Fowler was the son of the Rev. Hugh Fowler, 
Vicar of Barnwood, Glos, and was born in January 
1849. He was educated at Rugby, where he gained 
a scholarship for Jesus College, Oxford. He took a 
first in Classical Moderations, and a third in Lit. Hum, : 
he was ordained, and became a house master at Repton 
in 1873. In 1880 he was elected head-master of 
Lincoln School, where he remained for more than 
twenty years. Bishop King appointed him Canon 
of Welton Brinkhall in Lincoln Cathedral. He 
was Rector of Rotherfield Peppard, Oxon, in 1g901— 
1904. In 1905 he became Vicar of Earley, in the 
gift of the Vicar of Sonning. In 1907 he was 
president of the Head-masters’ Association, and for 
many years was an energetic member of the Reading 
Guardians. 
Canon Fowler was best known in scientific circles 
as an entomologist, being a sub-editor of the Ento- 
mologists’ Monthly Magazine from 1885 until the day 
of his death. He was secretary of the Entomological 
Society of London in 1886-1896, president in 1901 
and 1902, and vice-president in 1903. He was a 
member of the Science Committee of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, and in 1906-1907 was a vice- 
president of the Linnean Society. 
Besides writing numerous notes and articles on 
Coleoptera, Heteroptera, etc.,in the scientific magazines, 
Canon Fowler’s chief works were the volumes on 
Coleoptera for the “ Fauna of British India,” including 
the General Introduction, the Cicindelide and 
Paussidz, published in r912 ; the volumes on Hemiptera- 
Homoptera, with W. L. Distant, in the ‘ Biologia 
Centrali- Americana,” published in 1887-1909; a 
“Catalogue of British Coleoptera,’ with Dr. Sharp 
in 1893, and with Rev. A. Matthews in 1883; the 
“Coleoptera of the British Isles” in five volumes, 
published in 1887-1891, and a sixth supplementary 
volume, with Mr. H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe, published 
in 1913. He also published a number of text-books 
on the classics, etc., for use in schools. 
Canon Fowler was a very broad-minded man, 
generous and unselfish, and was much beloved by 
all who knew him. He was always ready to help 
younger men with advice and entomological specimens, 
etc., and his death leaves a blank in the ranks of the 
older entomologists which will not easily be filled. 
Horace DONISTHORPE. 
NO. 2800, VOL..II1] 

Dr. Hans GOLDSCHMIDT. 
THE inventor of the Goldschmidt thermite process, 
Dr. Hans Goldschmidt, died after a short illness on 
May 21, in Baden-Baden, 
Hans Goldschmidt was born on January 18, 186r, 
in Berlin, where his father, in 1847, founded the 
chemical works of Th. Goldschmidt, of which he was 
the director until his death in 1873. Hans Gold- 
schmidt studied chemistry at Leipzig, Berlin, Stras- 
bourg and Heidelberg, where he graduated in 1886 
under Robert Bunsen. After this he continued his 
studies in electro-chemistry and travelled in foreign 
countries; this widened his views on economic 
questions. In the year 1888 he entered, as a partner, 
the works of his father, in which his brother, Karl 
Goldschmidt, had taken the lead since 1882. 
Goldschmidt’s first technical achievement was the 
invention of an electro-chemical process for recovering 
the tin from white iron waste, which has found wide 
application in many countries. His name became 
famous in the year 1894, when he succeeded in reducing 
oxides by combustion with powdered aluminium, and 
by the tremendous heat of this reaction, metals of 
a high melting-point, such as chromium, vanadium, 
molybdenum, tungsten, and their alloys with iron 
and other metals, melt and can be produced in a pure 
state. As a by-product, corundum is formed, which 
can be technically utilised for grinding purposes. 
The thermite process found an even larger applica- 
tion by the use of mixtures of alummium meta: with 
iron oxide for welding together the ends of rails of 
tramways and for repairing broken machinery, especi- 
ally of ships. Hans Goldschmidt also discovered a 
process for avoiding the formation of holes in iron 
castings and for improving steel castings by the 
addition of aluminium. 
Hans Goldschmidt was one of the founders of the 
Bunsen Society for Applied Physical Chemistry, and 
was for many years its president. He was awarded the 
Elliot-Cresson-medal of the Franklin Institute. His 
high scientific standing and good nature will ensure’ 
for him a place in the history of technical chemistry 
and in the memories of his numerous friends both in 
and out of Germany. 

WE regret to announce the following deaths: __ 
Prof. Heinrich Boruttau, a director of the Fried- 
richshain Hospital, Berlin, whose work was especially 
concerned with the relations of physics to medicine. 
He also worked on physiological chemistry and 
problems of nutrition. He died on May 15, aged 
fifty-four. . 
Dr. W. d’E. Emery, formerly director of laboratories 7 
and lecturer on pathology and bacteriology to King’s 
College Hospital, on June 19. 
Mr, E. J. Steegmann, for many years secretary 
to the Royal Commission on Human and Bovine 
Tuberculosis, on June 8, aged fifty-five. 

