December 23, 1909] 



NA TURE 



22' 



Langer and Quincke, of an entire!)' new and alto- 

 gether unloolied-for group of cliemical compounds, 

 now known as tlie metallic carbonyls, is an admirable 

 illustration of this faculty. The formation of nickel 

 ■carbonyl — a most interesting substance produced by 

 the direct combination of carbon monoxide with nickel 

 — led to the establishment by him of a new process for 

 the extraction of the metal from its ores which is 

 now in successful operation by the Mond Nickel 

 Company at Swansea. 



Dr. Mond was a well-read man of liberal culture 

 and artistic tastes, broad-minded and tolerant, and 

 of a judgment ripened by contact with leading men of 

 all conditions and countries. His merits as a man of 

 science and a technologist were widely recognised. 

 He was an honorary graduate of universities at home 

 and abroad; a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a 

 member of the Accademia dei Lincei. He was presi- 

 dent of the Society of Cheinical Industry in 1889, 

 and of the chemical section of the British Association 

 in 1896. He was offered the presidency of the 

 Chemical Society a year or so ago, a distinction he 

 was unable to accept owing to the state of his health. 



He died on December 11, 1909, in the seventy-first 

 vear of his age, and was buried at the St. Pancras 

 Cemetery, East Finchlev. T. E. Thorpe. 



We have received the following short statement of 

 generous assistance afforded by Dr. Mond to the pro- 

 gress of science, in addition to the foundation and 

 endowment of the Davy-Faraday Research Labor- 

 atory, of which we hope to give an account in another 

 issue. 



Dr. Mond did not restrict his benefactions in science 

 to the direct encouragement of physical and chemical 

 researches. He was an original member of the 

 council of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine 

 (which subsequently developed into the Lister Insti- 

 tute), and gave 2000/. towards its foundation in 1893. 

 He also, three years ago, furnished 500/. for installing 

 an apparatus for the investigation of caisson disease 

 and of the problems of deep-sea diving. The work in 

 connection with this investigation was carried on by 

 Drs. Haldane and Boycott, and Lieut. Damant, and 

 their results were published in the Journal of Hygiene, 

 and in a report to the Admiralty. At Dr. Mond's sug- 

 gestion, and v.dth the aid of a subsidy from him, a 

 research into the toxicology of nickel carbonyl, a sub- 

 stance he had himself discovered and put to practical 

 use in the manufacture of pure nickel, was carried 

 out by H. W. Armit, who published the results in two 

 papers in the Journal of Hygiene. 



In the year 1904 Dr. Mond contributed 10,000 lire 

 towards the cost of erecting a laboratory and hostel 

 at Col d'OIen in connection with the International 

 Laboratory of Physiology on Monte Rosa, on the 

 understanding that the Royal Society should have the 

 permanent nomination to two posts in the laboratory. 



Shortly after his election into the Royal Society in 

 1891, he gave practical effect to the deep interest which 

 he felt in scientific bibliography. Indeed, but for his 

 generous and active cooperation it would probabl}' 

 have been impossible for the Royal Society to con- 

 tinue its great undertaking of publishing a catalogue 

 and index of the scientific literature of the last century. 



In the second year of his fellowship of the Society 

 Dr. Mond made a donation of 2000Z. towards the cost 

 of preparing the remaining material of the Catalogue 

 and Subject Index of Scientific Papers, of which the 

 third series was then approaching completion ; and at 

 the same time gave a promise of further assistance. 

 This promise was amply fulfilled. Ten years later, in 

 1902, when the task of dealing with the mass of 

 material published in the last seventeen years of the 

 NO. 2095, VOL. 82] 



nineteenth century had to be faced, Dr. Mond offered 

 6000L in four yearly instalments of 1500L for the 

 purpose of the completion of the catalogue and of the 

 index. Again, in 1906, on the expiry of the four 

 years, he gave a further 6000/. in three yearly instal- 

 ments of 2000/. each for the same purpose ; and, to- 

 wards the end of the year 1908, he promised an addi- 

 tional donation of 2000L, with the view of accelerating 

 the publication of the catalogue, and more particularly 

 of the three subject-index volumes for mechanics, 

 physics, and chemistry. 



Dr. Mond also took an active part in the inaugura- 

 tion of the International Catalogue of Scientific Liter- 

 ature, now in its seventh year of publication, and his 

 interest in that undertaking continued unabated to 

 the end of his life. 



SIR ALFRED JONES, K.C.M.G. 



OF all the " slings and arrows of outrageous for- 

 tune," I have not often experienced one sharper 

 than the news of the death of Sir Alfred Jones. I am 

 not sure that, broadly looked at, the loss of a battle 

 would not have been more tolerable. For a defeat 

 may be retrieved, but the loss of a commander may be 

 irremediable. 



This is to rate his loss pretty high, but not, I think, 

 too much so. For the man was of a quality of which 

 I have not met with the like in the past, nor do I ex- 

 pect to do so in the future. I cannot pretend that I 

 knew him intimately, for he was of that Napoleonic sort 

 which does not invite intimacy. But we were brought 

 together by common interest in public work, w'here 

 we each strove strenuously by different paths, and 

 where success attended Jones more than could have 

 been hoped for. 



Part of the story is told admirably by a sympathetic 

 hand in the Times. If I lift the veil a little further, 

 the official indiscretion, if it be such, must be con- 

 doned in justice to Jones's memory. An old-fashioned 

 firm, Elder, Dempster and Co. were the shipping 

 agents of Kew in Liverpool. They carried on the 

 trade with the West African colonies which has always 

 been centred there ; and in this firm Jones was 

 originally a clerk. 



But at the start these colonies were mere trading 

 settlements on the coast which no one at home 

 troubled about so long as they did not trouble. Then 

 came the partition of Africa ; the liinterlands were 

 brought under British control, and a new problem 

 immediately arose. If tribal wars are to cease, and 

 an orderlv government is to be maintained, a revenue 

 to support it must be raised ; and in the last resort 

 this can only be achieved by the promotion of native 

 agriculture and the supply of produce for an export 

 trade. 



With these ends in view, Kew succeeded in estab- 

 lishing a number of cheap botanical stations, where 

 plants suitable for cultivation could be grown and 

 propagated, and where the natives could learn cultural 

 methods by inspection. The attempt, for the most 

 part, was rather acquiesced in than encouraged by 

 the colonial officials on the spot, and Jones was per- 

 haps the first to impress spontaneously upon the 

 Colonial Office its importance. He had by that time 

 grasped the future of West Africa, had bought out 

 his old masters, and placed West .^.frican trade on an 

 entirelv new footing. Incidentally he restored pros- 

 perity to the Canaries, and introduced the banana into 

 England. Amongst the principal products of West 

 Africa are various sorts of oil-seeds ; for these Liver- 

 pool was hardly more than an entrcpSt, as their prin- 

 cipal market was in France. To utilise them at 

 home, Jones started large oil-mills. All this, so far 



