708 
NATURE 
[AuGuUST 26, I915 

in his steps, will widen into a. broad highway. 
Ehrlich was honoured by almost every university. 
He was Croonian lecturer of the Royal Society, 
and joint recipient with Metchnikoff of the Nobel 
prize, and his genial and striking personality was 
well known to British bacteriologists. In 1897 
he was created Geheimrath, and in 1911 Wirk- 
licher Geheimrath. 
In the present strife of nations, we British 
will be the first to recognise that in the death of 
Paul Ehrlich a great man, worthy to be ranked 
with Pasteur, Lister, and Koch in his particular 
line, has passed away. 
FREDERICK VICTOR DICKINS, C.B. 
HEN it became known to the friends of F. V. 
Dickins only a few days ago that a serious 
surgical operation had been suddenly called for, 
they sadly recognised that the end was probably 
not far off. Heart failure and the weight of over 
seventy-seven years closed his life on Monday, 
August 16, 
Dickins was a remarkable man and had enjoyed 
a singularly varied and interesting life. Medicine 
first attracted him, and after graduating (1861) 
M.B. and B.Sc. in the University of London, he 
served for five years in the Navy between China 
and Japan. Then he took up law, and having been 
called to the bar in 1870 he practised in Yokohama 
for many years, and at this time began to give 
increasing attention to those Oriental studies which 
occupied him to the end of his life. In 1882 he 
became Assistant Registrar to the University of 
London, the late Arthur Milman being then Regis- 
trar. It was in this capacity that he became known 
to the large circle of eminent men connected with 
the university, and especially the examiners. Soon 
after his appointment the practical examinations of 
the university were considerably amplified in scope, 
and examinations in practical physics were intro- 
duced for the first time. It is not too much to 
say that the successful conduct of these examina- 
tions at the outset was largely due to the energy 
of the assistant registrar, who not only obtained 
the necessary apparatus, but set up much of it 
with his own hands when required for the use of 
the examiners. A technical assistant for this 
business was employed later. He succeeded Mil- 
man as registrar in 1896. 
Dickins read widely and was familiar with the 
chief advances in physical and natural science, in 
which he took great interest. But his speciality 
was Japanese and, to a less extent, Chinese lan- 
guage and literature. After retiring from the 
registrarship in 1go1 his leisure was therefore 
naturally occupied with his favourite studies, and 
we owe to his pen the two volumes of “ Primitive 
and Medieval Japanese Texts,” published by the 
Clarendon Press in 1906, and the translation of 
the charming Japanese ‘‘Story of a Hida Crafts- 
man” in 1912, besides other works. 
Dickins was a member of the Atheneum, but 
owing to failing health and distance, he retired 
from the club two years ago. 
NO. 2391, VOL. 95] 


NOTES. 
THE Royal Society is compiling a register of scienti- 
fic and technical men in Great Britain and Ireland, 
who are willing to give their services in connection 
with the war. The register will be classified into 
subjects, and will ultimately constitute a large panel 
of men of standing, whose services will be available 
whenever any Government department or similar 
authority requires specialist assistance. The register 
is being co-ordinated with those independently com- 
piled by other societies and institutions, but the Royal 
Society would be glad to have applications for forms 
from such members of the staffs of colleges and tech- 
nical institutions as have not yet been registered by 
any society. The Royal Society is also drawing up, 
with the co-operation of the principal societies and 
institutions, a list of scientific and technical men 
actually on active service in His Majesty’s forces. 
Any names, with rank and unit, for this list will be 
gratefully received by the secretaries at Burlington 
House, Piccadilly, W. 
WE learn that Mr. M. T. Dawe, formerly a 
member of the gardening staff of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew, sometime Superintendent of the 
Botanical and Forestry Department, Uganda, and 
lately Director of Agriculture, British East Africa, 
has been appointed Agricultural Adviser to the 
Government of Colombia. 
Tue Chilean war vessel General Baquedano, which 
has recently returned from Easter Island, has brought 
news of the Easter Island Expedition of Mr. and Mrs. 
Scoresby Routledge up to June 8; at which date the 
expedition had been fourteen months in residence, 
during which time a careful survey had been made of 
the existing antiquities and such ethnographical in- 
formation collected as is still available. 
Tue Hutchinson medal for research, of the London 
School of Economics and Political Science, has been 
awarded to Mr. R. C. Mills for his thesis on ‘‘ The 
Colonisation of Australia, 1829-1842: the Wakefield 
Experiment in Empire Building,” and the Gladstone 
Memorial prize to Mr. C. M. Jones. 
WE regret to hear that Capt. W. E. G. Atkinson, 
son of the late Prof. Atkinson, of the Staff College, 
Camberley, was killed at the Dardanelles on August 
6. Capt. Atkinson was educated first at Clifton 
College and afterwards at the Wye Agricultural Col- 
lege, where he had a very successful career. In 1902 
he left Wye and proceeded to the Rothamsted Experi- 
ment Station as a post-graduate research worker. 
Prior to that date there had been very few such 
workers at any time, and none for a number of years. 
Capt. Atkinson was the first of the modern con- 
tingent, which has since swelled considerably. He 
worked with Mr. Hall on the problem of quality in 
wheat. Millers and farmers alike recognised the 
marked differences between varieties of wheat, some— 
the so-called strong wheats—giving grain of high 
baking quality, possessing great capacity for forming 
large, well-piled loaves, while, others—known as weal: 
wheats—gave rise to squat, heavy-looking loaves, 
much less attractive in appearance. No satisfactory 

