April 3, 1902] 



NA TURE 



515 



tion of Minikoi, of which a map is given. Although at 

 one point the land is gaining on the la.ooon, in others 

 it is gradually diminishing, and the author prophesies 

 that in course of time the sea will make a clean sweep 

 of some parts of the atoll. 



Much attention is devoted to the mode of formation 

 of a coral conglomerate found in Minikoi and elsewhere 

 at the base of the outer beach. From the presence 

 of this conglomerate and other evidence, the author 

 concludes that an elevation of at least 24 feet must be 

 admitted to have taken place in Minikoi, and this during 

 the time that it has e.xisted as an atoll. "The presence 

 of conglomerate masses," he adds, " I can only regard 

 as indicating the existence of former land in any position 

 where they now occur. The land there must have at 

 one time e.xtended round the whole island with only a 

 single break, perhaps to the north, with lower parts here 

 and there, where boat-channels across the reef now 

 exist." Minikoi was indeed once apparently very like 

 some of the low coral-islands of the Maldive group in 

 the Indian Ocean and the EUice group in the Pacific. 

 For the final chapters on ;\Iinikoi we must await another 

 fasciculus of the work. 



The groups of the Minikoi fauna included in this fasci- 

 culus comprise the Hymenoptera, by Mr. P. Cameron ; 

 the land crustaceans, by Mr. L. A. Borradaile ; and the 

 nemertean worms, by Mr. R. C. Punnett. Among the 

 second of these perhaps the most generally interesting 

 group are the land hermit-crabs of the genus Ccenobita. 

 Like the great cocoanut crab [Birgus latro), these crabs 

 have forsaken the sea for a life on land, although (unlike 

 the former) they still retain the habit of sheltering the 

 abdomen within a shell or some such covering. In the 

 case of a specimen of which the figure is here reproduced, 

 the abdomen is encased in the broken shell of a cocoa- 

 nut. Among the nemertean worms, a genus hitherto 

 known only from Amboina has been met with again at 

 Minikoi. R- f-. 



PROF. MAXWELL SIMPSON, F.R.S. 



MAXWELL SIMPSON, ninth and youngest child of 

 the late Thomas Simpson, was born at Beech Hill, 

 CO. Arm.agh, Ireland, on March 15, 1S15. Educated at 

 a private school in Newry, he thence proceeded to 

 Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his Arts degree, 

 and subsequently entered the School of Medicine. In 

 1847 he graduated as Bachelor of Medicine in Trinity 

 College ; but already he had been strongly attracted to- 

 wards the study of chemistry, and instead of settling 

 down to the practice of physic, he now became associated, 

 as lecturer in chemistry, with the medical school of 

 Park Street, Dublin. This school had been established 

 about 1824 by a number of physicians and surgeons, and 

 had included among its teachers James Apjohn, sub- 

 sequently professor of chemistry in the University of 

 Dublin. From Park Street he was transferred to the 

 Peter Street School of Medicine, where he remained for 

 a few years. 



Inspired, however, by a profound love for science, the 

 limitations incidental to such a post grew irksome to 

 him ; the desire to secure adequate outlet for his intel- 

 lectual energies, to prosecute his own inquiries, and to 

 enjoy the communion of fellow-workers intensified with 

 time, until finally, casting aside all material considera- 

 tions, he relinquished his teaching and proceeded to the 

 Continent, where, associated with some of the most 

 eminent chemists of the day, he was free to breathe the 

 congenial atmosphere of research. 



Plunging with characteristic energy and enthusiasm 

 into work, he soon became productive. In 185 1 he studied 

 with Kolbe at Marburg, then under Bunsen at Heidel- 

 berg, conducting in the laboratory of the latter an investi- 



NO. 1692, VOL. 65] 



gation on which his first original paper was based ; this 

 communication, " On two new Methods for the Deter- 

 mination of Nitrogen in Organic and Inorganic Com- 

 pounds," published in the Journal of the Chemical 

 .Society (vi. 289) and in the Annalcn der Chemie iind 

 I'hannacie (xcv. 63), foreshadowed the accuracy and 

 thoroughness which were to mark his later work. 



Moving next to Paris, and entering the laboratory of 

 Wurtz, his attention naturally became centred on organic 

 chemistry, and here his capacity for work was quickly 

 manifested ; commencing with a paper on the " Action 

 du Brome sur ITodure d'AIdehydcne," read before the 

 Academie des Sciences on March i, 1858, one memoir 

 followed another in rapid succession. In April he madfr 

 a communication "Sur une Base nouvelle obtenue par 

 Taction de TAmmoniaque sur le Tribromure d'AUyle," 

 another on the same subject in .August, and a third in 

 November on the " .Action du Chlorure d''.'\cetyle sur 

 I'Aldehyde" ; these he followed up by two papers {Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, ix. 725 and x. 1 14) " On the Action of .^cids on 

 Glycol." On April 25, 1S61, Prof Frankland communi- 

 cated, on his behalf, to the Royal Society the first of two- 

 important papers "On the Synthesis of Succinic and 

 Pyrotartaric Acids," in which he showed that the former, 

 built up from ethylene, through the dibromide and cor- 

 responding cyanide, is identical with common succinic 

 acid ; the latter, from propylene bromide, with the pyro- 

 tartaric acid got by distilling natural tartaric acid — thereby 

 establishing the chemical constitution of both. This ex- 

 cellent piece of work met with due recognition, and in 

 1862 Maxwell Simpson was admitted a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. 



Two other communications appeared {Proc. Roy. Soc, 

 xi. 590 and xii. 278) " On the Action of Chloride of Iodine 

 on Iodide of Ethylene and Propylene Gas," and, almost 

 concurrently with these, two more, now classical, " On 

 the Synthesis of Tribasic Acids " {ihid. xii. 236, and 

 Joiini. Chem. Soc, 2, iii. 331) ; here it was shown that 

 from allyl tribromide, a corresponding tricyanide can be 

 obtained, which by saponification yields a salt of tricarb- 

 allylic acid — this substance is an immediate derivative 

 of glycerine, and " bears the same relation to citric acid 

 that succinic bears to malic acid." 



It is not possible within these limits of space adequately 

 to notice Simpson's work or its bearing. Of his further 

 papers may be mentioned : " On the Acids that may be 

 derived from the Cyanides of the Oxy-radicals of the Di- 

 andTri-atomic Alcohols"; " On the direct Transformation 

 of Iodide of Allyle into Iodide of Propyle" ; "On the 

 Action of Chloride of Iodine upon Organic Substances " ;. 

 " On the Formation of Di-iodacetone " ; " On the Forma- 

 tion of Succinic Acid from the Chloride of Ethylidene"; 

 " On a new Compound formed by the direct union of 

 .Aldehyde and Anhydrous Prussic Acid" (with Dr. 

 Gautier) ; " On the direct Transformation of Chlor-iodide 

 of Ethylene into Glycol" ; "On some new Derivatives of 

 Acetone"; "On the Brom-iodides " ; "On the Deter- 

 mination of Urea by means of Hypobromite of Soda"' 

 (with Mr. C. O'Keeffe), and a paper {Proc. Roy. Soc, 

 xxvii. 120) "On compounds of Silver Iodide with Alkyl 

 Iodides." Of the above work, that described m the paper 

 on aldehydes and hydrocyanic acid is especially impor- 

 tant, leading, as it did, to the synthetical production of 

 one of the forms of lactic acid. 



In 1872, Maxwell Simpson was appointed to the chair 

 of chemistry in Queen's College, Cork, an office which 

 he resigned after nineteen years of service. 



His power was by no means confined to the research 

 laboratory ; as a lecturer he possessed in a high degree 

 that gift of luminous exposition which is the product of 

 quick and accurate memory, clear intelligence and ready 

 command of language. Simple and unaffected, genial of 

 manner, though strong in the courage of his convictions ; 

 direct and original in thought and speech, Simpson's. 



