IV 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



braxy but of other members of the group of disorders with which it is 

 frequently confounded by stock-masters and shepherds. From year to year 

 these excursions to various infected areas were repeated with a similar object, 

 and as their result, augmented by official information mainly derived from 

 Ireland, he was able to settle and map out the topography of braxy. But 

 this was merely a preliminary to the much more important work which was 

 instituted by the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1901, upon which Hamilton acted as chairman and expert. 

 Plans of action were agreed upon and observation stations organised in 

 localities where disease occurred endemically amongst sheep, the chief being 

 located at Kielder, in Northumberland. The report of this Committee 

 appeared three years ago in the form of a Blue book. It deals chiefly with 

 braxy and louping-ill, though touching upon several other disorders which are 

 held to be individually distinct. Hamilton fully confirmed the description 

 of the braxy micro-organism, first recognised by Ivar Nielsen in 1888, and 

 further, added several important observations relating to its seasonal activity 

 and manner of invasion, together with a suggested method of prophylaxis. 

 The louping-ill disease {chorea paralytica ovis) which had been a veritable 

 mystery, was finally unravelled, the bacillus found, its characteristics under 

 cultivation studied, its manner of development and invasion traced, its 

 seasonal activity explained, a plan for protection against it elaborated and 

 tested with most encouraging results. The pages of the report testify to the 

 prolonged and arduous nature of a research which, step by step, led the way 

 to an entirely satisfactory and practical issue. Apart from the information 

 they contain bearing upon seasonal receptivity towards infection, the nature 

 of intestinal infection, the duality of symptoms produced by the toxine 

 originated by the same micro-organism, together with other matters which 

 may have their signification for man as well as for the animals which 

 Hamilton observed, the work has a direct bearing upon agriculture of a 

 far reaching character. The need for similar investigation into other 

 disorders of the sheep, which are touched upon incidentally in the report, 

 is indicated ; it was, indeed, Hamilton's intention to make a thorough 

 study of these individually, but their elucidation was not to be at his hands. 



The attachment of his former pupils was suitably shown in 1906, when, 

 on the completion of his twenty-fifth year of service in the University, a 

 volume of ' Studies in Pathology ' was prepared in his honour, to which many 

 old students, now professors and lecturers in other schools, were contributors. 

 His jubilee coincided in point of time with the celebration of the quater- 

 centenary of Aberdeen University. He appeared to be at that time in the 

 enjoyment of his accustomed vigour, but not long afterwards symptoms of a 

 disquieting character became apparent : exertion fatigued him, vigour of step 

 and speech were less manifest, and although he only relinquished his work at 

 intervals under pressing medical advice, it was evident that he was losing- 

 ground. By the end of 1008 he was confined to his room and unable to be 

 present at the funeral of his wife when her decease occurred somewhat later. 



