September 9, 1922] 



NA TURE 



;6i 



from it. On the whole, both Pollock's life and work 

 were determined by an almost Roman sense of duty, 

 and his output of scientific investigation (considerable 

 though it was) was limited by the severe view he took 

 of his obligations as a teacher. 



Prof. Tadeusz Godlewski. 



I\i'i 1 - Godlewski was born on January 4, 1878, 

 Hi' . 'invest son of the distinguished plant physiologist, 

 Dr. Emil Godlewski, Sr., who was for many years a 

 professor in the Jagellonian University of Cracow. 

 After receiving his early education at the St. Anna 

 School in Cracow, Godlewski entered the philosophical 

 faculty of the Jagellonian University in 1897, and 

 graduated in 1903, the subject of his dissertation being 

 the osmotic pressure of solutions. Between 1901 and 

 1903 he worked under Prof. A. W. Witkowski as 

 demonstrator in the University Physical Laboratories, 

 and then proceeded to Stockholm for a year's post- 

 graduate study with Prof. Svante Arrhenius, from 

 whose laboratory he published a paper on electrolytic 

 dissociation. 



In October 1904 Godlewski travelled to Montreal 

 and entered the laboratory of Sir Ernest Rutherford, 

 by whom he was initiated into radioactive research, 

 and under whose guidance he published three papers 

 on radioactivity during the following year. On his 

 return to Poland in 1905 he was appointed demon- 

 strator, in 1906 assistant professor, and in 1910 full 

 professor of physics at the Technical High School, 

 Lwow (Leopol or Lemberg, Poland), and for the 

 academic year 1918-1919 he was elected Rector of that 

 institution. In 1921 he was elected a Corresponding 

 Member of the Polish Academy of Science and Letters 

 in Cracow. He died on July 28, 1921, from the effects 

 of a slow poisoning, resulting from a coal-gas leak in 

 his laboratory. 



Godlewski's later work was devoted mainly to radio- 

 active and electro-chemical problems, and he published 

 numerous original papers. His nature was kindly and 

 lovable, and those who knew him could not but feel 

 the charm of his personality. During the period of 

 my association with him in Vienna in 1915, he looked 

 forward to the dawn of better days for a united Poland, 

 and I well remember his unutterable grief at the death 

 of his friend Smoluchowski in 1917, when he wrote me : 

 " This is truly the greatest calamity that could have 

 befallen us." During the last few years Poland has 

 suffered the loss of several eminent men of science, 

 whom she could ill spare, whose foresight and in- 

 fluence would have been invaluable in her policy 

 of scientific and educational reconstruction. Inter- 

 national science, too, mourns the loss of such men 

 as Olszewski, Rudzki, Danysz, Smoluchowski and 

 Godlewski. K. W. L. 



M. L. 1am',. 



The death of M. Louis Lave alter an illness of 

 sexual weeks occurred on July 31. Before his 

 retirement M. Fave was the chief hydrographic engineer 

 to the French Navy, and the greater part of his forty 

 years' administrative service was devoted to the study 

 of tides, to coastal surveys, and to the configuration of 



NO. 2758, VOL. I 10] 



oceanic basins. He was interested chiefly in the 

 observational side of such work, and especially so in 

 connexion with the invention and construction <>l new 

 scientific instruments for those purposes. Among 

 these may be mentioned a very efficient device for the 

 damping of small periodic movements in such instru- 

 ments as mariners' compasses ; he also devi ed 111 I in 

 ments for the navigation of balloons. 



His most outstanding achievement, however, for 

 which M. Fave deservedly received great credit, was 

 the invention of the Fave tide gauge. This ingenious 

 instrument, designed lor the continuous registration of 

 tidal heights in the open sea, was invented in 1887 and 

 has received continuous development. It is essentially 

 a pressure gauge and registers the variations in pressure 

 by means of two Bourdon gauges on a rotating piece 

 of smoked glass, from which measurements are made 

 with the aid of a microscope. One of tin advantages 

 of the instrument is that it can be left without atten- 

 tion at the bottom of the sea for a fortnight. By 

 various devices M. Fave was enabled to obtain records 

 in fairly deep water, and recently he claimed successful 

 operation at a depth of 400 metres. The applications 

 of such an instrument as this are very interesting and 

 important; for instance, Whewell suggested the 

 existence of a point about half-way between England 

 and Holland, where the vertical movement of the sea 

 is zero, and the Five gauge' has been used to supple- 

 ment other observations, so proving the existence of 

 such a point. 



The news of M. Fave's death will be received with 

 much regret by all who are interested in hydrography. 



The death is announced from New York of Dr. 

 Jokichi Takamine, at the age of sixty-eight vears. 

 Born in Japan, Dr. Takamine was educated at the 

 Imperial University and afterwards in Glasgow at 

 Anderson College. While in Glasgow he worked at 

 the enzymes of fungi and introduced the useful pre- 

 paration known as " taka-diastase." He returned to 

 Japan in 1881 and, alter marrying an American lady, 

 went to the United States in 1890, became attached 

 to Messrs. Parke, Davis and Co. as consulting chemist, 

 and set up a laboratory of his own. His chief scientific 

 achievement was the separation of adrenaline from the 

 supra-renal bodies. Much of his time was spent in 

 travelling between the United States and Japan. He 

 thus played an important part in facilitating the 

 relations between these countries. 



We notice with regrel thai Dr. Sophie Bryanl has 

 met her death by accident neat 1 hamonix. She bit 

 her hotel at Montanvert on August 15 to walk to 

 Chamonix, and her body, bearin 1 \ eral 



injuries, was found on August 28. She appears to have 

 wandered from the usual path and to have fallen on to 

 a rock. Dr. Bryant was the first woman in the British 

 Lies to receive the degrei of doi tor oJ 1 iem e, and she 

 wa headmistress of the North London Collegiate School 

 lor Girls from 1895 to 1918. 



Wk regret to see the announcement of the death, 

 on August 27, of Dr. David Sharp, K.K.S., at the age 

 "I 1 ight \ one years. 



