276 



NA TURE 



[July i8, 1907 



Animals usually positive ; may be temporarily nega- 

 tive, as in the frog. 



Type D. Response to definite objects in the visual 

 field. — Not simple reactions ; responses involve 

 psychical phenomena. Respond (i) to moving 

 objects ; (2) to stationary objects. This form of 

 response usually inhibits ordinary phototropic re- 

 actions. John G. McKendrick. 



SIR W. H. PERKIX. F.R.S. 



■\\r ITH deep regret the whole scientific world will 

 * • hear of the death of Sir William Henry 

 Perkin, F.R.S., the founder of the coal-tar colour 

 industry, and one of the most distinguished of British 

 chemists. Sir William Perkin passed away at his 

 residence, Sudbury, on Sunday, July 14, after four 

 days' illness, the cause of death being double pneu- 

 monia and appendicitis. Especially affecting will be 

 the news to his London friends, among whom his 

 bodily vigour and mental energy had, even up to 

 the last, been the envy of many a younger man. 



Born on March 12, 183S, William Henry Perkin 

 was educated at the City of London School, and at 

 fifteen commenced his studies under A. W. Hofmann 

 at the Roj'al College of Chemistry. During the 

 Easter vacation in 1856 he discovered mauve, and, 

 supported by his father and brother, immediately 

 began its manufacture under the name of " Tyrian 

 Purple." The importance of this discovery, which 

 has given birth to the extensive industry of coal-tar 

 colours, was fully recognised at the Jubilee celebra- 

 tions last year, when Dr. Perkin was presented with 

 congratulatorj' addresses from all the important chem- 

 ical societies of the world, and also received the honour 

 of knighthood. Messrs. Perkin and Sons not only 

 introduced the first aniline dye into commerce, but 

 soon began to manufacture alizarin, in itself the first 

 member of an important series of dyestuffs which are 

 still to-day classed among the most valuable colour- 

 ing matters used by dyers and printers. In 1873 the 

 Greenford Green aniline-dye facton,' was sold, and the 

 business finally transferred to Silvertown, where the 

 manufacture of alizarin is still being carried on with 

 success. 



Perkin now devoted himself to laboratory work, 

 and soon discovered the valuable method of synthesis 

 of unsaturated aromatic acids, such as cinnamic acid, 

 which bears his name. He also effected the synthesis 

 of coumarin, the odorous principle of the Tonka bean. 

 Later, he turned his attention to the magneto-optical 

 properties of organic compounds, and enriched chem- 

 istry with a series of researches on this subject, of 

 which the last account appeared in the Journal of the 

 Chemical Society for May of the present year. In all 

 he contributed about ninety original papers, published 

 chiefly in the Journal of the Chemical Society. 



The value of Perkin 's work v\as not left unrecog- 

 nised; the Royal Society made him a Fellow in 1866, 

 he was awarded the Roval medal in 1S79, the Daw 

 medal in 1889, the Longstaff medal of the Chemical 

 Society in 1888, the Albert medal of the Society of -Arts 

 in 1890, and the Birmingham medal of the Gas Insti- 

 tution in 1892. These were followed by the Hofmann 

 medal of the German Chemical Society and the 

 Lavoisier medal of the French Chemical Society in 

 1906. He held honorary degrees from Wiirzburg and 

 Heidelberg (Ph.D.), St."And"rews (LL.D.), Manchester 

 and Leeds (D.Sc), and Munich (Dr.Ing.). 



Sir \\'. Perkin married, in 1859, a daughter of the 



late Mr. John Lissett, and, some years after this 



lady's death, the daughter of Mr. Hermann Molhvo. 



Few- fathers, can have had the same happiness as he 



NO. 1968, VOL. 76] 



in seeing his three sons distinguish themselves in 

 his favourite science. 



Loved by his neighbours at .Sudbury for his philan- 

 thropic work, respected and admired by his scientific 

 friends the world through, all were instinctively at- 

 tracted by Sir William Perkin's equable and amiable 

 temperament, and unite in deploring the loss which 

 they and the nation have sustained. J. C. Cain. 



NOTES. 

 We regret to see the announcement of the death of Dr. 

 A. Dupr^, F.R.S. , on Monday, July 15, at seventy-one 

 years of age. 



We learn with regret of the death, on July 13, of Prof. 

 Heinrich Kreutz, who for many years acted as editor of 

 the Astronomische Nachrichten. 



The eleventh International Navigation Congress is to be 

 held at St. Petersburg in May, 1908. 



The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has 

 awarded the Rumford premium to Mr. E. G. Acheson 

 " for the application of heat in the electric furnace to 

 the industrial production of carborundum, graphite and 

 other new and useful substances." 



Dr. Arthur J. Evans, F.R.S., describes in the Times of 

 July 15 some further discoveries made by Dr. Mackenzie 

 and himself, during the past two months, in the great 

 prehistoric Palace of Knossos. The net result of these 

 investigations is to show that an additional area of some 

 three thousand square yards must be added to the palace. 

 At a short distance from the actual " House of Minos," 

 two beehive tombs have been found belonging to a period 

 about 800 B.C., and their contents are of deep interest. If 

 the accurate astronomical orientations have been measured 

 of the structures now revealed, the results will be of great 

 value. 



.\ SMALL exhibition of science apparatus, mostly for 

 chemistry and physics, is being arranged by Mr. R. E. 

 Thwaites, of Wyggeston Grammar School, in connection 

 with the forthcoming meeting of the British Association at 

 Leicester. 



The Recorder of Section I (Physiology) of the British 

 Association informs us that an important change has been 

 made in the provisional programme for the Leicester 

 meeting announced in last week's Nature. On August 6 

 there will be no discussion on antito.xins, but instead one 

 on the value of perfusion experiments. This will be 

 opened by Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S., and will probably 

 be of considerable interest to expert physiologists. To the 

 list of those who will take part in the discussion on the 

 phvsiological and therapeutical uses of alcohol has now 

 been added the names of Prof. Cushny, and Drs. Dixon, 

 Rivers, and Waller ; Prof. Zuntz, Prof. Schafer, Dr. Reid 

 Hunt, and Prof. Sims Woodhead. 



In connection with the retirement of Prof. G. Lunge from 

 the chair of technical chemistry at Zurich, of which men- 

 tion was made in last week's issue of Nature, an inter- 

 esting farewell meeting was held on July 10 at Zurich 

 Polytechnic. The occasion was the distinguished chemist's 

 last lecture hour, and, in addition to the students, most 

 of his fellow professors and some from the neighbouring 

 university had assembled. On Prof. Lunge's entry into 

 his lecture theatre all rose in silence. After an interval 

 Prof. Treadwell, professor of analytical chemistry, made a 

 short speech in which he eulogised Prof. Lunge's work, 

 and afterwards read an address from the whole- of the 



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