July 27, 191 1] 



ever his travels brought him in contact with 

 new peoples. 



Owing to his delicate health in childhood and youth, 

 is cut off from outdoor games and sports, but 

 made good use of his time indoors by devotin 

 to a course of wide and solid reading. The effect oi 

 is seen in the numerous and illuminating his- 

 torical and other allusions in his anthropological books 

 and memoirs. 



Abandoning the study of the law, for which he 

 was at first destined, he found a much more cong< 

 studv in medicine. He commenced his medical studies 

 liversity College, London, and completed them 

 at Edinburgh University, where he took his M.D. 

 in 1S53. He was house physician at the Edinburgh 

 Infirmary for fifteen months under the direction of 

 such distinguished physicians as Christison, Simpson, 

 and Syme. 



In 1854 the Crimean War offered him the oppor- 

 tunity of visiting eastern Europe as a member of 

 a civil medical staff sent out by the War Office to 

 supplement the work of the military staff. Here he 

 made good use of spare time to make observations on 

 tin Turks and other Eastern races he came in con- 

 tact with. 



On his return from the Crimea he resolved to spend 

 a winter of study in the Vienna hospitals, and in his 

 journeyings to and from Vienna he collected a great 

 deal of anthropological material in Holland, German}', 

 Austria, Hungary, and Italy. 



In 1S67 he was awarded by* the Council of the 

 Welsh National Eisteddfod a prize of a hundred 

 guineas for the best essay on the origin of the 

 English nation. His essay was afterwards ex- 

 1 into his well-known book, "The Races of 

 Britain." 



In 1S6S Dr. Beddoe was president of the Anthro- 

 ■ical at the same time that Huxley was presi- 

 dent of the older Ethnological Society. The amal- 

 gamation of these two rival societies into a single 

 society, the Anthropological Institute (now the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute), which has done so much to 

 promote the study of anthropology in this country, was 

 due to a great extent to the efforts of Beddoe. He 

 also took an important part in the movement which led 

 to the constitution of anthropology as an independent 

 section at the British Association. 



Dr. Beddoe was president of the Anthropological 

 Institute in 1SS9. In 1890 he delivered the Rhind 

 Lectures on "The Anthropological History of Europe," 

 a work which shows his unique knowledge of the 

 phvsical characters, the migrations, and evolution of 

 the peoples of Europe. In 1905 he delivered the 

 Huxlev lecture of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute, and quite lately he was appointed honorary pro- 

 fessor of anthropology in the Bristol University. 



When we consider that the large amount of anthro- 

 pological research done by Beddoe was carried out 

 during the intervals of leisure in a busy professional 

 life, we cannot help being astonished at the amount 

 of verv valuable work he lias done, nor withhold our 

 admiration for the devotion to science which enabled 

 him to persist in it through so many years. Beddoe 

 1 pioneer in a new line of scientific investigation, 

 and his example has been powerful in stimulating 

 other investigators to carry out similar work. The 

 1 survev of the hair and eye colours of the school 

 children of Germany carried out by Virchow was with- 

 out doubt due to the stimulus of Beddoe's pioneer 

 work, and a great deal of similar work has since 

 been carried out bv other investigators. The name 

 of John Beddoe will always occupy an honourable 

 place in the history of anthropology. 



' NO. 2178, VOL. 87] 



D 



NATURE 117 



DR. H. TIMBRELL BVLb'LRODE. 



R. H. TIMBRELL BULSTRODE, who died 

 suddenly from heart failure on July 22, was 

 one of the senior medical inspectors of the Local 

 Government Board, having been appointed to that 

 office by Mr. Ritchie in 1892. His death was un- 

 expected and will be widely regretted. 



Dr. Bulstrode obtained his medical education at 

 Cambridge University and St. Thomas's Hospital. 

 Since his appointment to the Local Government Board 

 he had, in addition to the more routine work of the 

 medical inspectorate, been engaged under three suc- 

 cessive medical officers in work of a more special 

 nature implying exceptional skill in epidemiological 

 investigation. It is in regard to this work that his 

 high reputation was made. Three of his reports to 

 ilic Local Government Board have been presented to 

 Parliament as command papers. Of the subjects at 

 which he worked, that of the relationship of con- 

 taminated shellfish to the prevalence of illness, and 

 especially to enteric fever, is particularly important. 

 Early in the nineties of last century the attention of 

 the Local Government Board was directed to the pos- 

 sible causation of outbreaks of enteric fever, as well 

 as of cholera, by the consumption of contaminated 

 oysters, and Dr. Bulstrode was commissioned to make 

 a comprehensive investigation into the subject. He 

 visited all the districts in England and Wales in which 

 there were oyster layings, and collected all the known 

 literature on the subject of his inquiry. His report, 

 which was presented to Parliament in 1894, was illus- 

 trated by a series of charts which indicated the posi- 

 tion of all the principal oyster layings in England and 

 Wales, and the positions of sewers in their neighbour- 

 hood. The issue of this report necessarily and pro- 

 perly caused much damage to the trade in oysters as 

 then carried on. Its more permanent effect has been 

 to improve the conditions under which a very large 

 proportion of the total oysters in this country are grown 

 and fattened. 



Dr. Bulstrode's next investigated several deaths and 

 a considerable number of cases of enteric fever which 

 occurred after mayoral banquets at Winchester and 

 Southampton, and clearly traced these to the consump- 

 tion of contaminated oysters. Early in the current 

 year a report by Dr. Bulstrode was presented to Parlia- 

 ment dealing with shellfish other than oysters in rela- 

 tion to disease. This report, which is a comprehen- 

 sive one, brings up to date epidemiology in associa- 

 tion with oysters, and contains a detailed account of 

 the principal shellfish beds of mussels and cockles. 

 Tin- volume, like its predecessor on oysters, is illus- 

 trated bv a valuable series of charts showing the 

 topography of the beds in relation to sewage pollution. 

 Dr. Bulstrode attended many meetings of the Royal 

 Commission on Sewage Disposal which had the 

 oyster and other shellfish difficulties under considera- 

 tion. 



Another public health question with which Dr. Bul- 

 strode was particularly concerned is that of tuber- 

 culosis. In 1903 he gave the Milroy lectures at the 

 Royal College of Physicians, choosing the subject of 

 tuberculosis. In 1905 he was associated with Dr. 

 Theodore Williams as a representative of the British 

 Government at the International Congress on Tuber- 

 culosis at Paris. In 1908 Dr. Bulstrode's report on 

 sanatoria for consumption was issued and presented 

 in Parliament. This extremely valuable work on sana- 

 toria in England and Wales was republished bv HAL 

 mery Office in a cheaper edition, the demand for 

 it haying been large. 



Dr. Bulstrode, at the time of his death, was en- 

 g 1 1 -1 in an inquiry, as a representative of the Local 



