April 9, 1908J 



NATURE 



539 



the study of trees much more intelligible and in- 

 teresting when the meaning of structure and form is 

 clearly and simply described to the student, as in the 

 present work. 



After this excellently written and beautifully illus- 

 trated introduction, the author takes up the gymno- 

 sperms. He does not attempt to deal with every 

 known species, but certainly there are few which are 

 likely to be met with in various pinetums, parks, and 

 forests in this country which have not been dealt with. 

 The life-history of each is clearly and well described 

 and illustrated by photographs. As Prof. Groom 

 states in his preface, " Particular trees have been 

 selected for more detailed discussion, so as to serve 

 as types by which to demonstrate certain structural 

 features or general phenomena observable in tree- 

 life." The study of the conifers appeals to a vast 

 number of people, and a distinct gap in the existing 

 literature has been filled by this work. No doubt 

 other books give descriptions of the different species, 

 but these are too condensed and technical to be of 

 any use to the general reader. The broad-leaved 

 trees are similarly dealt with in an interesting and 

 masterly manner. Analytical tables and diagnosis of 

 families have been added. These, together with the 

 numerous illustrations and the special mention of dis- 

 tinctive features which is prefixed to the account of 

 e%'ery tree described, will certainly ensure facility and 

 accuracy in identifying the different knds of trees 

 with which the reader is likely to come in contact. 



The author is to be congratulated upon the produc- 

 tion of a work which should certainly be in the 

 possession of all those interested directly or indirectly 

 in trees and their growth. \. W. B. 



T>R. JAMES BELL, C.B.. F.R.S. 



WE regret to have to announce the death, on 

 March 31, in his eighty-fourth year, of Dr. 

 James Bell, formerly principal of the Somerset House 

 laboratory. Dr. Bell was a native of County 

 .\rmagh, and entering the Inland Revenue Service 

 became, when a comparatively young man, an assist- 

 ant in the chemical department of Somerset House, 

 then under the charge of Mr. George Phillips. This 

 department, the forerunner of the present Govern- 

 ment I^aboratory, was the outcome of the Tobacco 

 .'Vet of 1842, and was created with the object of 

 supplementing the provisions of that Act in suppress- 

 ing the adulteration of tobacco. For his chemical 

 ■education Dr. Bell was mainly indebted to the late 

 Prof. Williamson. Indeed, in the early davs of the 

 Somerset House laboratory a close association existed 

 between it and University College, and a number 

 of the first assistants were trained in theoretical and 

 practical chemistry in the Gower Street laboratories, 

 and some of them, like Duffy, Kay and Railton, were 

 encouraged by Dr. Williamson, then in the full vigour 

 of his scientific activity, to try their prentice hands at 

 original investigation. In the first years of its ex- 

 istence the laboratory, the staff of which consisted 

 solely of Mr. Phillips himself, was almost exclu- 

 sively engaged on the objects for which it was 

 founded, but as its utility became more and more 

 apparent its operations were gradually extended, and 

 eventually embraced the examination of practically 

 every excisable article. The laboratory at this 

 period was also largely concerned with inquiries as 

 to the brewing values of various materials, and on 

 the methods of determining original gravities, and 

 on the denaturing of spirits of wine so as to permit 

 its use for manufacturing purposes without danger 



NO. 2006, VOL. yyl 



to the revenue — all of which work found its applica- 

 tion in subsequent Acts of Parliament. 



On the death of Mr. Kay, Mr. Bell became deputy 

 principal, and he continued in that office until the 

 retirement of Mr. Phillips in 1874, when he succeeded 

 to the principalship, holding that position until his 

 resignation in 1894. During the fifty years of its 

 existence the operations of the laboratory had greatly 

 extended, and it had contracted associations with 

 practically every Government department which had 

 need of chemical advice and assistance, in addition 

 to the large extension of its work connected with 

 Revenue matters. Much of this development took 

 place during Dr. Bell's principalship. But to the 

 public at large Dr. Bell's tenure of the office was 

 mainly signalised by the association of the Somerset 

 House laboratory with what' is in reality one of the 

 least important of its many duties, viz. the Food and 

 Drugs Acts. This popular misapprehension of the 

 proper functions of the laboratory is no doubt due to 

 occasional newspaper references to the fact that a 

 disputed case of analysis of some food-stuff, drink 

 or drug has been referred by magistrates to the 

 Commissioners of Inland Revenue for the opinion of 

 their chemical adviser's. As a matter of history, this 

 connection of the Somerset House laboratory with 

 the Food and Drugs Acts occurred at the very time 

 that Dr. Bell succeeded to the principalship, as a 

 result of a report of a Select Committee of the House 

 of Commons on the working of the Act of 1872, and 

 this circumstance caused the laboratory to be known 

 to the public at large to a much greater extent than 

 formerly. 



The new responsibility thus thrown on Dr. Bell 

 involved a very considerable increase of work on the 

 department, not so much in actual analysis of re- 

 ferred samples as in investigations into the methods 

 of food analysis in general and in the establishment 

 of standards of quality. Thirty years ago the 

 methods of food analysis were, for the most part, in 

 a very unsatisfactory condition. The great teachers 

 of chemical analysis, Berzelius, Rose, Wohler, 

 Thomson, Bunsen, Fresenius, and the men traineti 

 in their schools, were mainly concerned in the dis- 

 covery and elaboration of the methods of mineral 

 analysis, and very little attention had been paid to 

 processes for the systematic examination of food 

 with a view to the determination of its quality or to 

 the detection of adulteration. The first Food and 

 Drugs Act was largely ineffective owing to this cir- 

 cumstance. When the office of a public analyst was 

 first created, practically each analyst had to devise 

 his own methods, and at the outset no uniformity 

 or agreement was possible. The condition of things 

 to which this gave rise, with the consequent frequent 

 instances of injustice, was indeed the cause of the 

 appointment of the Select Committee above referred to. 



As regards methods of analysis. Dr. Bell^ as the 

 referee eventually appointed under the Act of 1875, 

 was in no better position than other analysts who 

 held office under the .-Vet, and he at once turned all 

 the force and ability of his laboratory to the elabora- 

 tion of the methods for the examination of such 

 articles of food and drink as experience showed most 

 frequently came within the purview of the Act. In 

 this work he was assisted by some of the most com- 

 petent analysts the laboratory ever possessed, notably 

 Mr. George Lewin, .the late Mr. Harkness, the 

 late Mr. John Holmes, and Mr. Cameron, each of 

 whom did yeoman service in getting together the 

 material embodied in the work by which Dr. Bell is 

 best known, viz. his "Chemistry of Foods." It 

 was mainly in recognition of the service thus ren- 

 dered to the community that Dr. Bell was elected into 



