540 



NATURE 



[October 27, 1910 



effect the establishment of a truly scientific Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in the island, with himself as its 

 head. In connection with this enterprise, he had 

 occasion to visit various Eastern establishments, 

 among them that organised by the United States 

 Government in the Philippines. While in Manila, he 

 contracted a severe illness the effects of which he was 

 unable to shake off on his return to Buitenzorg, and 

 some time thereafter he was compelled temporarily to 

 relinquish his charge. .\ sojourn of some months in 

 the mountains of Java effected so much improvement 

 in health that he was able to return to duty. But 

 again his health R'ave wav, and a little over a year 

 ago he was reluctantly compelled to retire from the 

 post he had filled with so much distinction for nearly 

 thirtv years. Under medical advice, he spent the 

 winter in Egypt, and in spring went to live at Saint 

 Raphael, near Cannes. 



His retirement was a source of immixed regret to 

 his colleagues in Java, because of the loss of his 

 hand from the helm. To his many friends in Europe, 

 however, the necessitv did not present quite the same 

 aspect ; these looked forward to the double pleasure of 

 renewed personal intercourse with Treub, and to that 

 increased scientific activitv for which his release from 

 heavv official duties promised him opportunities. 



This was not to be, and botanists throusjhout the 

 world now mourn the loss of one of the ornaments 

 of their science. To those who had the privile."'e of 

 his personal friendship the blow is greater still. Thev 

 have lost in Treub a brilliant, stimulating, and svm- 

 pathetic collencue, one whose width of culture and 

 charm of manner rendered intercourse with him a 

 continual pleasure. Above all, they have lost a kind 

 and constant friend. 



DR. SIDNEY RINGER. 



ITiE career of Dr. Sidney Ringer, which came to a 

 close recently at Lastingham, Yorkshire, is a fine 

 refutation of the common statement that the cares 

 of medical practice do not permit of active scientific 

 research in these days. Engaged in a large and suc- 

 cessful consulting practice, and in teaching in a large 

 medical school, he vet found time for much work 

 in the advancement of pure science. His interests in 

 medicine lav largelv in therapeutics, in which his 

 text-book remains authoritative, and his experimental 

 researches appear to have arisen from the desire to 

 put therapeutics upon a more secure foundation by 

 investigatine the effects of drugs on the animal organ- 

 ism. From 1870 to 1880 he published a number of 

 papers dealing with the effect of various alkaloids and 

 other drugs on animals, and these were continued at 

 intervals in his later vears. Many of these have been 

 confirmed by later workers, and have taken their place 

 ipi literature along with the work of the other founders 

 of the modern pharmacological school. Among other 

 subjects taken up at this time, the mutual antas'onism 

 exhibited bv some of the alkaloids appears to have 

 interested him in particular, and his experience with 

 these probably influenced his later investigations. 



From about 1880 Ringer struck out on a line of his 

 own in his in vesti elation of the inorganic salts of the 

 blood and other tissues. At this time practically 

 nothing was known of the biological significance of 

 these, and their presence in the tissues was discounted 

 in the physiolofjy of the time. His investigations were 

 so complete that the laboured investigations of a mul- 

 titude of foreign observers in recent years have added 

 little of fundamental importance. The essential 

 feature which Ringer demonstrated was that while 

 each of the salts induces abnormal conditions when 

 applied alone to the tissues, each of them is necessary 



NO. 2139, VOL. 84] 



for normal function ; living matter requires inorganic- 

 salts, but these must be presented in certain propor- 

 tions. 



In particular, the special rule played by limr 

 salts in the economy of the tissues was first demon- 

 strated by Ringer, and its antagonism to .sodium and 

 potassium was developed in a number of papers in 

 the Journal of Physiology. The sodium and potass- 

 ium in the body fluids has to be counteracted bv 

 lime, and such " balanced " solutions, when formed 

 artificially, are harmless to living tissues, as he 

 showed in a number of instances. The solution of 

 salts introduced by him, and universally known bv 

 his name, is to-day to be found in every biological 

 laboratory, and its use has led to developments in 

 many fields of research. The work on which its com- 

 position is based has often received too little attention. 

 This may be accounted for by the time at which it 

 appeared : Ringer's work was done before the modern 

 views of diffusion and dissociation of salts in solution 

 found their wav into biology. .\nd the investigators 

 who aporoached the study of the biological relations 

 of the salts from the side of the new physico-chemistrv 

 appear to have overlooked the work of those who had 

 investi'T'ated the subject without the aid of the newer 

 methods. Quite recently, however, some amends have 

 been made in this respect, and it is now recognised 

 that the pioneer in this work had reached in essentials 

 the same nosition twenty years ago as has now been 

 attained generally. 



From i8'i5 onwards. Ringer ceased active work 

 in research, but his interest was unabated. 

 Two years ago he might have been seen 

 in his old nlace in the physiological laboratory at 

 University College investigating some point which 

 had attracted his attention. One cannot help regret- 

 ting that he could not devote himself wholly to experi- 

 mental research, in which he showed outstanding 

 powers: but, on the other hand, his clinical work 

 could ill have been spared bv medicine. Few in these 

 modern times have been able to combine sucli insight 

 in the biological aspect of medicine with an equal 

 eminence in practice. C. 



NOTES. 



On Wednesday, October 19, Sir William Ramsay con- 

 ducted Mr. Francis Fox, chairman (who first suggested 

 the utilisation of the Trenwith Mine pitchblende), and 

 the other directors of the British Radium Corporation over 

 their works at Limehouse. From the ore, which comes 

 from the Trenwith Mine at -St. Ives, 550 milligrams of 

 radium as bromide have already been extracted, as well as 

 the uranium which it accompanies, practically without 

 loss. In an account which appeared in the Times of 

 October 20, the reporter is in error in stating that Cornish 

 pitchblende is richer in radium than. the Austrian ore; on 

 the contrary, the constancy of the ratio between uranium 

 and radium has been repeatedly confirmed. From inspec- 

 tion of the Trenwith Mine, there appears good reason to 

 hope that the present supply will be maintained, if not 

 exceeded. The productive capacity of the works at Lime- 

 house is about 100 milligrams a week. 



.\ Reutkr message from Stockholm states that tlfis 

 year's Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to 

 Prof. Albrecht Kossel, professor of physiology in the 

 University of Heidelberg. Each prize will amount on this 

 occasion to 7734'- 



It is proposed to hold in Paris next sprint; an inter- 

 national exhibition concerned with agriculture, oyster- 

 culture, and fisheries. The organising committee has its 

 office at 161 rue Montmartre, Paris. 



