May 7. 'QoSj 



NATURE 



po^itum hand ita pridem adeptus, pecuniae sumiiiam 

 niagnam non inertem rcliquisti, sed Matris almac in 

 maniis totani coUocasti, et Matris eiusdcm filiis omnibus 

 liljeralitatis exemplar conspicuum praebuisti. Cancellarii 

 autcm ad officium hodie admissus, sine dubio iura et 

 privilegia nostra omnia in tutelam tuam tradita, si quando 

 opus fucrit, fortiter defendes. Tuo, ut speramus, sub 

 patrocinio,- non scientiarum modo studia florcbunt, sed 

 etiam, praemiis a Cancellario ipso iuvenluti Arademicae 

 quotannis propositis, et iuris. et litterarum Graecarum, 

 Latinarum, Anglicarum, amor, sicut antea, accendctur. 

 Dum gratias tibi hodie omnes ex animo agimus, nihil 

 amplius rcstat quam ut tibi, vir honoratissime, Cancellarii 

 in munere magno fcliciter obeundo, annos prosperos quam 

 plurimos exoptemus. 



In his reply the Chancellor expressed his sense of 

 th" honour the Senate had done him in electing him 

 to the high office, and mentioned his close connection 

 with Cambridge, " the nursing home of Herschcl, 

 Airy, Stokes. Kelvin, and of Adams," both as student 

 and as professor. Lord Rayleigh also recalled the 

 fact that he had served, under the Act of 1877, on the 

 Commission which framed the new statutes for the 

 L'niversitv and colleges; in fact, he and the Bishop 

 of Bristol, who acted as secretary, are the sole sur- 

 vivors of that Commission. He spoke of the reforms 

 u hich had been then efTected, and referred to the view 

 iliat thev may still need supplementinp', and he dwelt 

 for a moment on the fact that the efficiency of the 

 I'niversitv would be promoted by the command of 

 .imple resources. The Chancellor paid a tribute to the 

 l.-ite Duke of Devonshire, whose quiet and persistent 

 interest in the L'niversity manifested itself in many 

 ways. Indeed, his unremitting efforts to advance its 

 welfare are probably only recognised by those who 

 were brought into contact with him, both as head of 

 the University and as president of the Cambridge 

 .\ssociation. 



In choosing Lord Rayleigh as its Chancellor, Cam- 

 bridge has chosen one of the most distinguished men 

 of science of the age, and one whom we feel sure will 

 devote his energies to the promotion of the good of 

 that ancient institution. In these days chancellors of 

 universities have a good deal more to do than even 

 the members of the Senate usually recognise. .-Xpart 

 from occasional appearances at ceremonies there is 

 much and continuous work to be done; the inter- 

 pretation of the statutes rests with the Chancellor, and 

 in many ways he represents the University in the 

 larger world. The new Chancellor of Oxford has 

 shown what can be done even in a few months of 

 wise activity in re-awakening interest in the older uni- 

 versities, and in defining and formulating a definite 

 policy of expansion. 



PIERRE JACQUES ANTOINE BECHAMP. 

 T)Y the death of Bechamp, on April 15, at the ripe 

 -'-' age of ninety-two, France lost th' doyen of 

 her chemists, and the world of science is the poorer 

 by the disappearance of one more link connecting 

 the new chemistry with the old. " The nature of that 

 link will be evident from the circumstance that 

 Bechamp was born in the same year as Gerhardt, 

 and that the period of his greatest scientific activity 

 was contemporaneous with that of Laurent and 

 Gerhardt. 



Bechamp was born at Bassing, near Dieuze 

 (Meurthe), on October 16, 1816. He lost his parents 

 when he was eleven years of age, and was taken 

 charge of by an uncle, who had settled in Roumania, 

 and with whom he remained until 1834. In his 

 seventeenth year he was apprenticed to a pharmacist 

 at Strasburg. Pharmacy at that period constituted 

 the main avenue to scientific chemisiry, and in tra- 



NO. 2010, VOL. 78] 



versing it Bechamp simply followed in the footsteps 

 of a dozen of his predecessors, some of whom, like 

 Scheele, Vauquelin, Dumas, are among the most re- 

 nowned of chemical investigators. At Strasburg, at 

 that period, were Gerhardt and Wurtz, and, as in 

 their case, Bechamp was soon attracted to the study 

 of the rapidly extending branch of organic chemistr}', 

 and made ample use of the opportunities which his 

 master's laboratory afforded to prosecute his inquiries. 

 \t that time, even in England, pharmacy was a pro- 

 fession, and the pharmacist was a practical chemist, 

 abreast of the science of his time, whose laboratory 

 v\ as of more importance to him than his shop. 



In 1S51 Bechamp became attached to the School 

 of Pharmacy at Strasburg, and thenceforth devoted 

 himself to an academic career. Pasteur was then a 

 professor of the Faculty of Science of Strasburg, and 

 to him Bechamp presented a thesis on the newly dis- 

 covered gun-cotton, which gained for him his 

 doctorate of science in 1853. In 1856, at the age of 

 forty, he became a doctor of medicine, and in the 

 following year was appointed to the chair of medical 

 chemistry in the' Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier. 



Bechamp was a prolific contributor to the literature 

 of chemistry. The Royal Society's Catalogue of 

 .Scientific Papers enumerates upwards of 140 papers 

 which proceeded from his pen down to the year 1873. 

 As he continued his activity to the last, the total num- 

 ber cannot fall short of a couple of hundred. In addi- 

 tion he published a number of scientific treatises in 

 book-form, mainly relating to chemical biology. 



Bechamp's worl-c ranged over nearly every depart- 

 ment of chemistry. Inorganic chemistry appears, 

 however, to have had little attraction for him, and 

 his name is associated with not more than a dozen 

 communications in that branch of inquiry. 



It is mainly in connection with the early history 

 of what is called coal-tar chemistry, and more especially 

 in connection with the fields of investigation with 

 which the name of Pasteur is preeminently associated, 

 that Bechamp's services will be recalled. The method 

 of manufacturing aniline ultimately made use of by 

 Perkin in England, and by the brothers Renard in 

 France, was due to Bechamp. It consisted in the 

 action of ferrous acetate on nitrobenzene, and appears 

 to have been first made known in 1854. He also con- 

 tributed to the French Academy in 1860-61 communi- 

 cations on fuchsine and allied colouring matters. 



But it was to the domain of biological chemistry 

 that Bechamp's energies were principally directed, 

 and he took an active part in the inquiries and con- 

 troversies which ultimately led to the triumph of Pas- 

 teur and his immediate followers. .'Mthougli much of 

 Bechamp's work on fermentation, on the production 

 of moulds, on the silk-worm disease, and on zymases 

 ran parallel with Pasteur's inquiries, his interpretation 

 of the phenomena was generally opposed to that of 

 Pasteur, and the two investigators were frequently 

 in acute controversy on these subjects. Bechamp's 

 fame has probably suffered in consequence. We must, 

 however, do him the justice to admit that his main 

 contention, that unorganised ferments play a larger 

 and more important part in the phenomena of meta- 

 bolism than the immediate followers of Pasteur were 

 willing to concede, is intrinsically sound. Bechamp 

 developed his views into a general theory, which he 

 published in 1866, whilst at Montpellier, in a work 

 entitled " Microzymas et Microbes. Ongine des fer- 

 ments." This he supplemented some years later by 

 a further work, " Les Microzymas dans leurs rapports 

 avec I'heterogenie, I'histogenie, la physiologic et la 

 pathologic," Paris, 1S83. Whatever may be the ulti- 

 mate fate of his theoretical conceptions, his experi- 

 mental work on blood, fibrin, milk, proteins, and his 



