July 2&, 1910] 



NATURE 



115 



he proceeded to Tobago — the dependency of the larger 

 island — and here prosecuted his work under very 

 adverse climatic conditions, with the result that on 

 returning to Trinidad he was prostrated with a severe 

 attack of malaria. After some four weeks' illness 

 complications ensued, and he passed away on Sunday, 

 Julv 17, from septic pneumonia following an opera- 

 tion. 



John Bennett Carruthers, born in 1869, was the 

 yountjer son of Mr. William Carruthers, F.R.S., until 

 recentlv the keeper of the Botanical Department of 

 the British Museum. He was educated at Dulwich 

 College, the Royal School of Mines, and Griefswald 

 Universitv, Prussia. During- this period appeared his 

 first botanical contribution, "The Cystocarps of .Some 

 Species of Callophyllis and Rhodymenia " (Journal 

 Linn. Soc, xxix., 77-S6), and "The Canker of the 

 Larch" (Journal Roy. Agr. Soc, 1891, Ser. iii., 

 vol. ii.). .\ period as demonstrator in biology at the 

 Roval Veterinary College, London, was followed by 

 his appointment as professor of botany at Downton 

 College, Wilts. Soon, however, he transferred his 

 energies to the tropics, where his chief work was 

 done. 



In 1S98 Carruthers went out under the joint 

 auspices of the Cevlon Government and the Planters' 

 Association to investigate a disease of cacao-trees. 

 He proved successful, not only in ascertaining the 

 cause of the disease, but in the frequently more diffi- 

 cult task of finding an effective remedy practicable 

 under estate conditions. His successful work was 

 recognised bv his appointment in 1900 as mixologist 

 to the Government of Ceylon and assistant director 

 of the Roval Botanic Gardens. 



In these days, when we regard a mycologist as 

 necessary to any ■well-equipped agricultural depart- 

 ment, it may come to many as a surprise that 

 Carruthers's appointment, only ten years ago, was the 

 first of its kind. He worked in Ceylon for five years, 

 and in 1905 took up the directorship of the newly- 

 formed Department of .\griculture for the Federated 

 Malav States. Here he remained until he was Invited 

 to fill the Trinidad position, where it was expected that 

 his special knowledge of cacao rubber and plant sani- 

 tation would prov£ of great value. These hopes have 

 unfortunately been frustrated by his untimely death, 

 but in the short space of time which intervened he 

 initiated several important projects, and so recently 

 as May contributed two papers to the Brussels Inter- 

 national Congress on Tropical Agriculture and 

 Colonial Development, whilst an account of rubber in 

 Trinidad appears in the last issue of the Trinidad 

 Agricuttural Bulletin, of which he was joint editor. 



Carruthers possessed the happy gift of "getting on 

 well " with people, and officials and planters in many 

 parts of the world, the members of the Roval .Societv 

 of Edinliurgh, the Linnean Societv, the Association of 

 Economic Biologists, the West India Committee, and 

 a wide circle of friends unite in regretting his loss. 



NOTES. 



Sir E. Ray Lankester has been elected a foreign 

 associate of the Paris Academy of Science? in succession to 

 the late Prof. Robert Koch. 



The following men of science have been elected foreign 

 members of the Royal Society : — Dr. Svante Arrhenius, 

 Dr. Jean Baptiste Edouard Bornet, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Prof. 

 Vito Volterra, and Dr. August Weismann. 



A Reuter telegram from Wellington states that a new 

 crater is in eruption near the dormant geyser of Waimangu 

 (Rotorua), and is ejecting mud and pieces of rock. Its 

 proximity to the volcano of Tarawera renders the outbreak 

 significant. 



NO. 2126, VOL. 84] 



-Mr. JOHN Ramseottom has been appointed an assistant 

 in the Department of Botany, British Museum. Mr. 

 Ramsbottom was lately exhibitioner of Emmanuel College, 

 Cambridge, and Robert Piatt biological research scholar, 

 A'ictoria L'niversity, Manchester. He will devote himself 

 to the fungi. 



In the course of a reply to a question asked in the 

 ffouse of Commons on Monday with reference to the 

 •Advisory Committee on Aerial .Navigation, Mr. .Asquith 

 said that a further report of the committee will be laid 

 before Parliament within a few days. Captain Murray 

 Sueter, R.N., representing the .Admiralty, and Mr. Mervyn 

 O 'Gorman, superintendent of the Balloon Factory, have 

 been appointed additional members of the committee. The 

 total appro.vimate cost of the committee to the present date 

 is 10,000/. 



The property in the centre of the Cheddar Cliffs, on 

 which the quarry occurs that has caused much disfigure- 

 ment to the gorge, has been purchased by the National 

 Trust. Certain existing contracts, which expire in 1912, 

 will be performed exclusively from the loose stone lying 

 fallen in the quarry. No further blasting will take place. 

 The National Trust hopes that bj' the purchase of this 

 property the cliffs have been secured from all danger of 

 further spoliation. The immediate and pressing danger to 

 the finest part of the gorge arising from the vibration 

 caused bj' blasting has now been stopped. 



According to a communication from Mr. J. T. Jenkins, 

 published in the Field of July 23, there is reason to believe 

 that the fur-seals on the Pribilov and other islands of the 

 North Pacific are in imminent danger, if not of extermina- 

 tion, at all events of being so reduced in numbers as to 

 be no longer of anj' commercial value. It will be remem- 

 bered that the Anglo-American Commission of 1896 

 insisted upon the repression of pelagic sealing, and it was 

 eventually agreed that, while this was to be absolutely pro- 

 hibited to .Americans, it would be permitted to British 

 subjects only outside a sixty-mile limit from the Pribilovs. 

 The Japanese were, however, no party to the arbitration 

 by which this was arranged at Paris, and their vessels 

 have for the last few years been actively engaged in 

 pelagic sealing around the Pribilovs immediately outside 

 the three-mile limit. In 1907 Canadians had fifteen vessels 

 engaged in pelagic sealing, which took 5240 skins, while 

 in 1908 there were eight vessels, which secured 4452 skins. 

 On the other hand, the Japanese had thirty-six vessels in 

 1907 and thirty-eight in 1908, of which the respective takes 

 were 9000 and 13,197. If the latter rate of killing be 

 continued — especially when it is recalled that the great 

 majority of seals killed in the open sea are females — it 

 will not be many years before the herds will be practically 

 annihilated. The case is one where international action 

 is urgently demanded, and that at an early date. 



An article upon the character of King Edward VII. in 

 the current number of the Quarterly Review gives much 

 interesting information upon the early life and training of 

 the late King. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort 

 appear to have considered the minutest details of the 

 physical, intellectual, and moral training of their son, who 

 was to become our King. The German blood and upbring- 

 ing of the Prince Consort led him to attach great import- 

 ance to thoroughness of educational training, while letters 

 and notes "record the Queen's anxious solicitude that no 

 boyish longing for excitement should interfere with the 

 Prince's ' adherence to and perseverance in the plan both 

 of studies and life ' laid down by his father." Every hour 



