Jen 22; 1915] 
NATURE 
567 

a compound fracture with a strip of linen soaked 
in coarse, impure, undiluted carbolic acid. What 
came of that experiment the world knows, and is 
not yet tired of knowing. But he could not then 
foresee the wealth of new discoveries which fol- 
lowed, incessantly, this first method of dealing 
with “germs of putrefaction.” Least of all could 
he foresee the swift rise of bacteriology, its ex- 
tension over the whole art and science of medicine 
and surgery, and its magnificent achievement of 
protective treatments, antitoxins, and vaccines. 
But he lived to see them, and to help to make them 
possible. We are likely to have in our hands, 
before many months, the final and authoritative 
record of his life and of his work. It will be a 
book worth waiting for, and it will be, even in 
these hard times, a book worth buying. 
Meanwhile, for all who love to read of surgery 
—and who does not?—there are two admirable 
lectures by Keen of Philadelphia, entitled ‘ Be- 
fore and After Lister.”” They were given to the 
United States Army Medical School a few weeks 
ago, and are published in Science, June 11 and 
18. They have much to say of military surgery, 
past and present, and they say it very well. There 
is also a very striking article in the Times of 
June 28, on ‘Wounds and Blood-poisoning,” and 
on the present work of Sir Almroth W right at 
Boulogne. The lectures and the article, between 
them, give us a good insight into the progres 
en spirale of surgery, from 1865 to 1915. 

NOTES. 
Ir was announced on July 5 that Admiral of the 
Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone had been appointed 
chairman of the Inventions Board established to assist 
the Admiralty in co-ordinating and encouraging scien- 
tific effort in relation to the requirements of the Naval 
Service. The arrangements for the organisation of 
the Board have now been completed. It will com- 
prise :—(a) A Central Committee; (b) a Panel of 
Consultants composed of scientific experts who will 
advise the main Committee on questions referred to 
them. The Central Committee will consist of :— 
Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, G.C.B., O.M. (president), 
Sir aeleeboomson, OMe akakes-eiion. Sir ©. Ae 
Parsons akG.6., bak Sse OieGael. Beilby, F.R-S- 
The Consulting Panel will comprise the following list, 
which will be added to from time to time as neces- 
Sanya:—Prot, Hl. B. BakepyeheRes., Prof. W. H. 
Bragg, F.R.S., Prof. H. ©. H: Cxmien Sir William 
Crookes, O.M., F.R.S., Mr. W, Duddell, F.R.S 
Prof. Percy Frankland, F.R.S., Prof. Bertram Hone 
kkinson, F.R.S., Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Prof. W. J. 
Pope, F.R.S., Sir Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S., Mr. G. 
Gerald Stoney, F.R.S., Hon. R. J. Strutt, F.R.S. 
The Board is accommodated temporarily in the White- 
hall Rooms, Hotel Métropole, Whitehall Place, S.W., 
but at an early date (which will be announced in due 
course) it will be transferred to permanent offices at 
Victory House, Cockspur Street, S.W. Communica- 
tions should be addressed to the secretary, Board of 
Invention and Research, 
NO. 2386, VOL. 95 | 

WE regret to announce the death in action on the 
western front, on Saturday, July 10, of Lieut. Ernest 
Lee, a young botanist of considerable promise, who 
had already published some excellent work, notably 
a paper in rg9rr on leaf-fall. Lieut. Lee obtained a 
national scholarship in 1906, and while at the Royal 
College of Science, South Kensington, was both Mar- 
shall scholar and Forbes medallist. He was an asso- 
ciate of the Royal College of Science and a fellow of 
the Linnean Society. In 1910 he became assistant 
lecturer in the botanical department at the Birkbeck 
College, London, and in 1913 went to the University 
of Leeds as a lecturer in agricultural botany. He 
there became a member of the Leeds O.T.C., and 
obtained a commission in the Duke of Wellington’s 
Regiment soon after war broke out. In the autumn 
of 1914 he married Miss H. S. Chambers, lecturer in 
botany at the Royal Holloway College. Lieut. Lee 
was Ixilled instantaneously by a bullet while with his 
guns, and he will be greatly regretted by all who 
knew him or his work. 
Last week we recorded with regret the death, at 
the age of twenty-seven, of Mr. H. S. Bion, assistant 
superintendent of the Geological Survey of India. 
Mr. Bion was born in India, and was educated at 
the School for the Sons of Missionaries at Yvesdon 
House, Blackheath, and at University College, Lon- 
don. His university career was a distinguished one. 
In 1905 he obtained the university scholarship in 
geology, and in 1906 the Morris geological prize. In 
1908 he took the degree of B.Sc. in the University of 
London, obtaining first-class honours in geology. In 
1g1t he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society. 
In February, 1911, he joined the Geological Survey 
of India, and in the following November he was 
appointed curator of the museum and lecturer in the 
Presidency College, Calcutta. His work in the field 
was chiefly in Burma and Kashmir, and he did par- 
ticularly valuable work in the latter area, especially 
among the Carboniferous rocks. His marked ability, 
his unselfish character, and scientific enthusiasm, en- 
deared him to all with whom he came in contact, and 
his untimely death is deeply regretted by his former 
teachers in this country, his colleagues of the Indian 
Survey, and-his numerous friends. 
By the death of Mr. R. W. Raper, fellow, vice- 
president, and bursar of Trinity College, the Univer- 
sity of Oxford has suffered a serious loss. For some 
time his health had been failing, but the news of his 
sudden decease has come as a shock to his friends in 
Oxford, who had seen him walking about as usual 
up to within a very recent period. Mr. Raper was one 
of the best known and most highly respected of Oxford 
residents. His services to his college were of great 
value. The combination of clear-headed business 
aptitude, firmness in action, and humorous but not 
unsympathetic methods of dealing with difficult 
situations made him an almost ideal college bursar. 
Countless undergraduates have good cause to remem- 
ber his generous friendship and refined hospitality. 
As a promoter of public interests he did a great work, 
both in his University and in his paternal home at 
Malvern. Oxford holds in especial gratitude his 
