February 6, 1902 J 



NATURE 



the commissioners themselves, it will be seen that 

 the answers were not found, partly because the data 

 to hand were insufficient and partly because the 

 problem of plague in India is of far greater com- 

 plexity than we were led to expect, and because there 

 were too many unexpected difficulties encountered by 

 the Commission. 



If one reads some of the self-sufficient conclusions 

 of some modern writers on plague (including the 

 above-mentioned reports of the foreign commissions), 

 one is met by the apparent simplicity and seemingly 

 satisfactory solution of the problem concerning the 

 etiology, epidemiology, prophylaxis, treatment, &c., of 

 plague ; and yet here we have a commission, consist- 

 ing of a number of the most able and highly quali- 

 fied experts, examining, experimenting, criticising and 

 discussing, and at the end of their labours they 

 either fail to give a specific answer to the specific 

 questions asked, or they are able to do so only in a 

 fragmentary manner and under certain restrictions. 

 The commissioners have not been able to trace when, 

 whence and how plague came into Bombay ; the com- 

 missioners are not able to state the manner in which 

 plague was imported and how it spread in many locali- 

 ties in India ; the commissioners are not able either 

 to condemn or to recommend the use for therapeutic 

 purposes of either Lustig's serum or Yersin's serum ; 

 and the commissioners express a not markedly de- 

 cided, although on the whole a favourable, opinion 

 about HafFkine's plague prophylactic. Although de- 

 finite answers by the Commission to the four specific 

 questions could not be given, many valuable opinions 

 and facts concerning plague in India have been placed 

 on record. 



In the first place, the Commission distinguished 

 the mild (or ambulating) form of true bubonic plague 

 from the severe form, the former as " pestis minor," 

 the latter as "pestis major." This is a timely and 

 important statement, because recently some " plague 

 experts " have tried to raise some febrile disease 

 associated with glandular swelling, but which, accord- 

 ing to their own showing, is not plague, that is to 

 say, is not caused by the Bacillus pestis, to the posi- 

 tion of " pestis minor," thereby creating and fostering 

 misunderstanding. 



Another important point is the confirmation by 

 the Commission concerning the great importance of 

 "locality" in the dissemination of plague (vol. v. p. 

 loi). "The universal experience of plague in India 

 proves . . . that houses into which the infection of 

 plague has been imported, whether by man or by 

 rats, are infective, this infectivity being so marked 

 that many of the officers who have had most experi- 

 ence of the disease have come to the conclusion that 

 the principal source of infection is ... to be found 

 in the houses into which the infection of plague has 

 been introduced." 



Unfortunately, the Commission did not find sufficient 

 data to explain the nature of this factor. Equally un- 

 satisfactory results attended the discussion as to the 

 importance of rats in the dissemination of plague amongst 

 human beings. But as regards the reality of the danger 

 of clothes and personal effects of plague-infected persons 

 in transmitting plague to new "localities,'' the Com- 

 mission is very emphatic. 



Not the least valuable part of the report consists in the 

 indication of the nature of further work required for eluci- 

 dating many of the points at present unsolved. Amongst 

 these is the encouragement of further experimental work 

 in the more accurate study of the blood of animals which 

 furnish curative serum, and the importance of such work 

 in obtaining a uniform strength and accurate standard of 

 HafiT^ine's plague prophylactic. 



E. Klein. 



A. IV. BENNETT. 



ALFRED WILLIAM BENNETT, M.A., B.Sc, 

 -'"*- F.L.S., the well-known lecturer on botany at St. 

 Thomas's Hospital, and for many years a prominent 

 figure in botanical circles, died suddenly from heart 

 disease on January 23. Born at Clapham in 1833, Mr. 

 Bennett took the degree of B.A. (Lond.) in 1854, and 

 afterwards spent ten years in business as a publisher. 

 During this period he employed photography in the 

 illustration of books, and was one of the first, if not the 

 first, to do so. Shortly after taking his M.A. degree he 

 had the misfortune to fall from a horse, an accident that 

 somewhat seriously affected his health throughout his 

 subsequent life. When the publication of Nature 

 was commenced, Mr. Bennett was appointed as the 

 first sub-editor, and he occupied that postion for 

 several years. He received the appointment of lecturer 

 on botany at St. Thomas's Hospital nearly thirty years 

 ago. Botanical students will remember Mr. Bennett as 

 the translator of the third edition of Sachs's classical 

 " Lehrbuch der Botanik" and of Thome's Lehrbuch. 

 His enthusiastic study of the flora of the Swiss Alps 

 found expression in some important works for the use of 

 students of Alpine botany. His translation of Dalla- 

 Torre's "Tourist's Guide to the Flora of the Alps" was 

 issued in 1886, and previously he edited Seboth's "Alpine 

 Plants Painted from Nature," a work in four volumes. 

 His useful " Flora of the Alps,'' in two octavo volumes, 

 accompanied by 120 coloured plates, appeared in 1897. 

 He devoted much attention to the Cryptogams, as wit- 

 nessed by the excellent "Handbook of Cryptogamic 

 Botany," a work executed in conjunction with Mr. George 

 Murray and published in 1889. With regard to the 

 systematic study of the Phanerogams, Mr. Bennett con- 

 fined his labours chiefly to the Polygalaceae, which he 

 monographed for the " Flora of British India" and the 

 " Flora Brasiliensis," dealing with the order also in some 

 important papers contributed to the Journal of Botany. 

 In the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers 

 he appears as the sole author of forty-six papers, many 

 of which are based on his observations respecting the 

 fertilisation of flowers. Elected a fellow of the Linnean 

 Society in 1868, he served for some years on the council 

 of that society, and was one of the vice-presidents for 



1891-92. He was also a fellow of the Royal Micro- 

 scopical Society, of which he was a vice-president in 



1899-1900, and the editor of its Journal since 1897. 



S. A. S. 



NOTES. 



An influential committee has been formed with the object of 

 establishing a memorial tower and meteorological station in 

 honour of Dr. J. P. Joule, F.R.S., at • Sale, Cheshire, where he 

 lived from 1872 down to the time of his death in 1889. Sir 

 W. H. Bailey has offered to the Sale District Council an auto- 

 matic recording meteorological and public clock made from 

 designs which are the result of his investigations and inquiries 

 with regard to similar instruments in this country and abroad. 

 The instrument will be unique in its details ; will indicate the 

 time as a public clock on large dials, produce automatic graphic 

 records of the various changes of temperature and the fluctua- 

 tions of atmospheric pressure, and also changes of the wind 

 and the rainfall of the district. In addition to this gift, which 

 will cost about 250/., Mr. F. Armstrong has offered to the 

 Council a set of instruments to equip a meteorological station, 

 and the only condition attached to these gifts is that they shall 

 be suitably housed. Designs for a building to be called "The 

 Joule Memorial Tower," to contain the recording and other 

 instruments, have been prepared, and the Council is willing to 



NO. 1684, VOL. 65] 



