January 23, 1913] 



NATURE 



577 



The Home Secretary has appointed a committee 

 to inquire and report as to the conditions necessary 

 for the adequate and suitable lighting (natural and 

 artificial) of factories and worlishops, having regard 

 to the nature of the work carried on, the protection of 

 the eyesight of the persons employed, and the various 

 forms of illumination. The committee consists of the 

 following members: — Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., 

 F.R.S. (chairman), Mr. Leon Gaster, Prof. F. Gotch, 

 F.R.S., Dr. J. Herbert Parsons, Mr. W. C. D. Whet- 

 ham, F.R.S. , and Sir Arthur Whitelegge, K.C.B. 

 Tlie secretaries of the committee are Mr. D. R. Wil- 

 son and Mr. C. G. Paterson. Any communications 

 regarding the inquiry may be addressed to Mr. D. R. 

 Wilson at the Home Office. 



The committee which has been formed from repre- 

 sentatives of several of the principal agricultural in- 

 stitutions of this country for the purpose of securing 

 adequate British representation at the tenth Inter- 

 national Congress of Agriculture, to be held at Ghent, 

 Belgium, on June 8-13 next, is making an appeal for 

 adherents to this important congress, and also for the 

 contribution of papers on agricultural subjects. The 

 subscription for members, who will receive the pub- 

 lications of the congress gratuitously, and have the 

 right of taking part in the discussions, has been fixed 

 at 20 francs (i6s.) Subscriptions should be sent to 

 the secretary, British committee (Mr. H. Chambers), 

 Craven House, Northumberland Avenue, W.C., with 

 whom those desirous of reading papers at the con- 

 gress should communicate. 



According to an article in The Times of January 

 16, the council of the Zoological Society has received, 

 and accepted, an offer from Mr. J. N. Mappin, head 

 of the firm of Messrs. Mappin and Webb, Ltd., to 

 install in the gardens a series of terraces in rock- 

 work for the better display of certain groups of the 

 larger animals. In tendering a vote of thanks to Mr. 

 Mappin for this munificent offer, the council intimated 

 that the proposed structures are to be known as 

 the Mappin Terraces. The site on which they are 

 to be erected is the one where the special Malay and 

 Nepalese collections were exhibited last summer ; work 

 is to be commenced at the earliest possible date, and 

 it is hoped that the whole installation will be com- 

 pleted within a twelvemonth. That it will enhance 

 the attractions of the ever-popular menagerie cannot 

 be doubted, and it is expected that it will also con- 

 duce to the well-being and health of the animals. In 

 making his offer Mr. Mappin expressed the hope that 

 the council might see its way to allow shop- 

 assistants to enter the gardens at a reduced payment 

 on certain days, a suggestion which was favourably 

 received by that body. The council has also accepted 

 a gift of loooZ. from Sir J. Key Caird, Bart., for the 

 erection of a new insect-house. 



We regret to have to record the sudden death of 

 Dr. O. T. Williams, hon. assistant-physician, Royal 

 Infirmary, Liverpool, and lecturer on pharmacology 

 and demonstrator of biochemistry in the University. 

 Dr. Williams was cut off in the early prime of a life 

 of great promise. He was only thirty-five years of 

 NO. 2256, VOL. 90] 



age, and succumbed to an attack of acute pan- 

 creatitis after a few days' illness. During the past 

 ten years he had published many important papers 

 on the biochemical problems related to disease. His 

 work was concerned chiefly with the biochemical 

 problems of digestion and metabolism, such as the 

 nature and constitution of the lipoids of tissues and 

 organs, the lipoids of diabetic blood, the nature of 

 the protein in albumosuria, abnormal fat assimilation 

 associated with some diseases of the intestine, and 

 certain biochemical changes associated with appendi- 

 citis. An account of Dr. Williams's published papers 

 alone gives but little idea of the influence he was 

 beginning to exert upon the progress of research in 

 medical science in Liverpool, and in forming high 

 ideals of the work of the physician as a scientific 

 worker in the minds of the younger men in the city. 

 His early death will be long lamented by many whose 

 minds he influenced. 



I The death of Colonel F. Bailey, R.E. (retired), at 

 Edinburgh on January 21, will come as a 

 shock to foresters in many parts of the world. 

 Colonel Bailey was one of the early pioneers 

 when, forty years ago, the modern science 

 iif forestry was taken over by Englishmen 

 from the Continent. He is best known as having for 

 many years conducted the course of forestry at Edin- 

 burgh University. Several of his pupils now fill the 

 most important forest appointments in the Empire. 

 When a Captain in the Royal Engineers, Colonel 

 Bailey was selected, so far back as 1871, to take 

 charge of the survey branch of the Indian Forest 

 Department. He held this important post until 18S4. 

 Latterly he also had charge of the Indian School of 

 Forests at Dehra Dun. In 18S4 he was appointed by 

 the Secretary of State for India to take charge of 

 the English students following the course of in- 

 struction at the Nancy Forest School. In 1887 he was 

 decorated by the French Government in recognition 

 of his forest services. He returned to India, tem- 

 porarily, in 1887, and for some time acted as Inspec- 

 tor-General of Forests for that country. In 1907 fail- 

 ing health compelled the resignation of the Edinburgh 

 lectureship; in July last the Senatus of the Univer- 

 sity conferred upon him the honorary degree of 

 LL.D. Until his death he was hon. editor of the 

 half-yearly forestry publication of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society, of which he was president in 

 1898. He was the author of papers on forestry far too^ 

 numerous to mention here. As to his work in the field, 

 he will be remembered as the framer of " working 

 plans " for two important forest estates in Scotland, 

 the first of their kind. The best known of these, that 

 for Novar, is held to be well fulfilling his calculations 

 and anticipations. He also helped Lord Lovat and 

 Captain Stirling of Keir in the preparation of that 

 most detailed and practical working plan of last year 

 for the Glen Mor area on the Caledonian Canal. 



The Horace Dobell lectures of the Royal College 

 of Physicians were delivered by Dr. C. J. Martin, 

 F.R.S., the subject being "Insect Porters of Bacterial 

 Infections." The lectures form a very complete sum- 

 mary of our knowledge of the conveyance of typhoid 



