Obituary. 



313 



Deficiency Act of 1913 will be particularly interesting and help- 

 ful. There is generous reference to much that has been done in 

 America, in both the psychological and administrative fields, but 

 the authors do not give notice to the New York system of pro- 

 viding colony and institutional care for the feeble-minded which 

 is one of the most contributive developments in this country. 



The chapter on diagnosis is strongest on the medical side. 

 There is more than the usual emphasis on syphilis as an etiologi- 

 cal factor. 



The volume is compact, convenient, well illustrated and well 

 arranged, and useful alike to teachers, physicians and lay 

 students of the problem. 



Obituary. 



Dr. John Casper Branner, president emeritus of Leland 

 Stanford Unrversity, died on March 1 at the age of seventy-one 

 years. Professor Branner was active in several lines of geologi- 

 cal work. He was especially interested in Brazil, beginning his 

 work there in connection with the Geological Commission in 1875, 

 and as special botanist in 1880-81. He returned to Brazil in 

 1899, and again in 1907 and spent much of his time there till 

 1911. His other connections were also varied. He was topogra- 

 phic geologist of the survey of Pennsylvania (1883-85) and later 

 state geologist of Arkansas (1887-93). He was professor of. 

 geology in Indiana University from 1885 to 1892 ; from 1892 on 

 he was connected with the Leland Stanford University : first as 

 professor, later as acting president and finally president, becom- 

 ing emeritus January 1, 1916. Branner 's wide experience in 

 Brazil and in the United States enabled him to make many con- 

 tributions to science; of these a considerable number are to be 

 found in the pages of this journal. It is not strange that his 

 labors won for him recognition by election to a number of scien- 

 tific societies at home and abroad. 



Dr. James Francis Bottomley, distinguished for his original 

 work in chemistry and physics, died on January 16 at the early 

 age of forty-seven years. His death is a serious loss to science 

 and to certain lines of administration, in which he was of great 

 value to his country. Probably his most important work was 

 that of silica fusion for which he received gold medals at Brussels 

 (1910) and Turin (1911). FeAv men, as noted by Nature (Feb. 

 16, p. 212), have their gifts and tastes so definitely determined 

 by heredity. He was the great-grandson of Dr. James Thomson, 

 professor of mathematics at Glasgow; Lord Kelvin, and James 

 Thomson (of Queens College, Belfast and Glasgow University) 

 were his great-uncles. Further his father, Dr. James Thomson 

 Bottomley, is now on the staff of Glasgow University. 



