‘Marcu 18, 1915] 
NATURE 71 

degrees of an external university. Prof. Tanner 
took an active’ part in the arrangement of the 
mathematical work of the Welsh University in 
the early days, and the courses of study in pure 
mathematics still show the great influence he 
exerted on the general character of the mathe- 
matical teaching in Wales. 
At Cardiff Prof. Tanner made a reputation for 
himself as an inspiring teacher and an excellent 
administrator. When the British Association 
visited Cardiff in 1891 he acted as one of the local 
secretaries, and the success of the meeting was in 
a large measure due to the thoroughness with 
which the secretaries carried out the necessary 
arrangements. After the death of Principal Jones 
he filled for some time the position of Acting- 
Principal of the college. In the year 1909 his 
health broke down, and he resigned his appoint- 
ment as professor. In recognition:of his services 
as head of the department of . mathematics for 
twenty-six years, the Council of the college ap- 
pointed him Emeritus Professor of Mathematics 
and Astronomy. 
Amid all his varying activities in connection with 
his work in college, Prof. Tanner found time to 
engage in mathematical research, and he published 
in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical 
Society a series of valuable papers. His early 
papers, the first of which was written in 1875, 
dealt with the solution of partial differential 
equations, but his later papers were mostly con- 
cerned with the theory of numbers. These later 
papers were remarkable alike for grasp of prin- 
ciple, clearness of exposition, and elegance of 
method. The Royal Society recognised the value 
of his research work by electing him a Fellow of 
the Society in 1899. The University of Oxford 
also honoured him by conferring on him the degree 
of D.Sc., and by appointing him on one occasion 
an examiner for mathematical scholarships. 
IRS JEL, ee 

NOTES. 
Tue fifth annual May lecture of the Institute of 
Metals will be given on Wednesday, May 12, by Sir 
J. J. Thomson. 
A spEcIAL lecture on the septic infection of wounds 
will be delivered before the Royal Society of Medicine 
on Tuesday, March 30, by Sir Almroth Wright, who 
will deal with the results of his investigations and 
research with the Expeditionary Force. 
A CORRESPONDENT in Moscow informs us that the 
Imperial Society of Naturalists has removed the names 
of Prof. Haeckel and Prof. Ostwald from its list of 
members on account of their having signed the 
address, ‘‘To Civilised Nations,’ containing libels 
upon the Russian people. 
Tue death is announced, at eighty-six years of age, 
of Dr. W. M. Dobie, who was associated with Charles 
Kingsley in founding the Chester Society of Natural 
Science, Literature, and Art, and was president of 
the society during the sessions 1893-94 and 1894-95. 
NO, 2368, VOL. 95] 

Tue Board of Trade announces that in. order to 
mitigate the effects of the. dearth of indigo for dyeing 
purposes caused by the present war, and also to pre- 
vent any speculative holding up of natural indigo, 
the Government has acquired the greater part of the 
crop of natural indigo now coming forward for the 
use of dye-users in the United Kingdom. 
Tue British Medical Journal has received a com- 
munication from a distinguished Scandinavian col- 
league in which he expresses the opinion that the 
reception accorded to foreign medical visitors in this 
country compares unfavourably with that they habitu- 
ally receive from the medical profession in Austria and 
Germany. In these countries the practice of the large 
hospitals is placed at the disposal of foreign visitors 
without fee, whereas here fees more or less large are 
generally charged. This doubtless depends partly on 
the fact that our hospitals are voluntary and the staff 
is unpaid, whereas abroad the hospitals are Govern- 
ment institutions. The Germanic countries are also 
indefatigable in flooding the Scandinavian countries 
with their medical literature, while England and 
France, on the other hand, send scarcely a book for 
review-to the Scandinavian countries. Here seems to 
be another opportunity for the extension of British 
enterprise. 
Dr. BartscHInski, of the University of Moscow, 
informs us that Prof. Nicolas Oumoff, whose death 
on January 15 was announced in these columns on 
January 28, was born at Simbirsk, East Russia in 
1846. After passing through the University of Mos- 
cow he became lecturer and afterwards professor of 
theoretical physics at the University of Odessa. In 
1903, after twenty-two years at Odessa, he was ap- 
pointed professor of physics at the University of 
Moscow. Here, with the late Prof. Lebedew as his 
colleague, a large new physics institute was designed 
and erected. Prof. Oumoff was one of the Russian 
representatives at Lord Kelvin’s jubilee, and received 
the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of 
Glasgow. Along with many other Moscow professors, 
he resigned his position in 1911, and devoted himself 
to the Ledenzoff Society for assisting discoveries and 
inventions useful to humanity. He was very success- 
ful both as a university and as a popular lecturer. 
Of his published papers those on terrestrial mag- 
netism are probably best known in this country. 
Tue death is announced, at seventy-nine years of 
age, of Sir George Turner, whose researches relating 
to rinderpest, leprosy, and other diseases in South 
Africa are of high importance. Sir George Turner 
entered the Civil Service of Cape Colony as medical 
officer of health in 1895. The year after, rinderpest 
broke out in the Cape Colony. Koch had just devised 
a system of inoculation against this disease of cattle, 
and after, three weeks’ collaboration with him, Sir 
George continued the work, and before long devised 
a method of producing a lasting immunity by simul- 
taneous inoculation with virus and serum. Within a 
year rinderpest in Cape Colony was stamped out; 
later, the same method was adopted in Egypt and 
Natal. In the South African war, on the outbreak of 
