No. 4104 June 26, 1948 NATURE 1001 gations to maintain or increase the output of canned of corrosion and film formation in aluminium and its foods have been terminated to permit concentration alloys. In the Division of Industrial Chemistry the on such long-term projects as the effects of maturity process devised for the preparation of chrome and variety on the quality of certain processed fruits chemicals from chromite by an acid treatment reached and vegetables. Investigations on the storage of egg an advanced stage in pilot plant, and pilot plant powder have been terminated, and work on the tests have also been undertaken on the chemical processing and storage of dehydrated vegetables isolation of cerium, thorium and lanthanum com• curtailed ; while studies on preventive measures for pounds from monazite. A survey is being made of bacterial rotting in shell eggs have been resumed, as Australian ceramic materials, and the Physical have some fundamental studies on the metabolism Chemistry Section has continued its work on surface of fruit in cold storage and on problems of heat chemistry with particular reference to aspects transfer and evaporation in cooling meat in refriger• affecting the flotation process for the separation of ation chambers. Other investigations have dealt with minerals. Corrosion in aircraft engine cooling systems the organisation of the plant cell and its relation to and condenser tubes in power generating plant, the cell stability and the respiration of the plant cell, adsorption of surface-active agents from organic particularly the organic acid metabolism and the solvents, sugar-cane wax, the pilot-scale isolation of nature of the oxidative enzymes, skin coatings for mannitol from the exud,ate of suga.rwood, catalytic apples, the effectiveness of 'Pliofilm' wraps, 'stretch oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide and catalytic wraps' and case liners compared with a standard wax dehydration of 2 : 3-butylene glycol to butadiene, the treatment for storing oranges. Features of the year's loosening of wool from skins by sweating and with work on canning and fruit products were modified depilatories are among other problems which received procedures for canned citrus juices, the canning of attention during the year. Freestone peaches, the steam-flow, hot-lid method of In returning to the study of fundamental problems, obtaining vacuum in commercial automatic can• the Division of Radiophysics has placed emphasis on closing machines and the maintenance of colour by researches into the propagation of radio waves, addition of soluble tin to fruit packed in lacquered atmospheric physics and vacuum physics. The cans. Lubricants and Bearings Section, renamed the Tribo• The exceptionally interesting report from the physics Section, has been concerned with the Fisheries Division refers to the return of the Division's mechanism of boundary lubrication, surface damage research vessel from the Royal Australian Navy and and wear, silicones, surface-active compounds and the gradual resumption of research activities. The mechanical properties, the deformation of metals by routine testing of the new southern trawling grounds heating and cooling, deformation and recrystallization with the Danish-seine net continued, and biological of duplex alloys and the electrolytic polishing of investigations covered Clupeoid fish, whitebait and metals. Tuna species, salmon and mullet. Hydrological and seaweed investigation's are also recorded, including both the production of agar and the use of seaweed as fodder ; many aerial observations of pelagic fish were made from aircraft allotted by the Royal OBITUARIES Australian Air Force. Sir George Newman, G.B.E., K.C.B. The work of the Division of Electrotechnology has been devoted almost entirely to the establishment of GEORGE NEWMAN was born at Leominster, Here• the facilities required for the maintenance of standards fordshire, on October 23, 1870. He was the second and for measurements, and release of the staff of the son of Mary Anna. Pumphrey and Henry Stanley Physics Division from routine testing has permitted Newman, who for twenty years edited the Quaker further attention to research. Fundamental investi• weekly, the Friend. Sir George was educated at gations on the physics of wool fibres, particularly in Bootham School, , and the University of Edin• relation to their frictional properties, have been burgh. He graduated M.B., C.M. in 1892 and pro• continued and extended to include studies of the ceeded to the M.D. in 1895, his thesis on leprosy ultimate structure of the fibres. Further work has qualifying for the gold medal. In the same year he been done with the view of maintaining the Inter• obtained the Cambridge D.P.H. During 1896-1900 national Temperature Scale quite independent of he was senior demonstrator in bacteriology and lec• secondary standards calibrated elsewhere, and an turer in infectious diseases at King's College, , instrument has been developed for measuring the of which he was later to become a. fellow. During temperatures of estuarine muds and waters. Some 1900-7 he was medical officer of health of the County work on solar physics has been commenced, and the of Bedfordshire and of the Metropolitan Borough of nucleus of a section to work on the physics of solids Finsbury ; and lectured on at St. has been established. Bartholomew's Hospital. He early acquired reputa• The Division of Aeronautics is now concentrating tion as an energetic administrator, and published on more fundamental and long-range problems, works on the bacteriology of milk, on the relation turbine engine research being particularly prominent. of bacteriology to public health and on infant The instability characteristics of flat and curved mortality. plates of both isotropic and orthotropic material have In 1907, Newman was appointed the first 'chief been investigated, and work on plywood plates medical officer' of the Board of Education. With Sir subjected to end compression has been carried Robert Morant, the permanent secretary, and his further. Preliminary work has been undertaken on able colleagues, Dr. Eichholz, Dr. Ralph Crowley and tungsten- chromium alloys, and tests on the corrosion Dame Janet Campbell, Newman built up the school of the alloys of mock-up cooling systems by inhibited medical service and extended its scope and oppor• and uninhibited ethylene glycol has been continued tunities. As a result, the mental and physical with a. coolant containing sulphonated gyro-oil as education of the children of Britain has improved inhibitor. A study has been made of the mechanism beyond all comparison with the past. The years

©1948 Nature Publishing Group 1002 NATURE June 26, 1948 Vol. 161 from 1900 to 1919 were years of strenuous endeavour, Dr. George H. Pethybridge, O.B.E. and were perhaps the most constructive periods of Sir George's life-work. GEORGE HERBERT PETHYBRIDGE, for many years The First World War gave a new impetus to one of the leading personalities in plant pathology in preventive , and in 1919 Dr. Aadison, Great Britain, died in his native town of Bodmin on of the Local Government Board, appointed May 23 at the age of seventy-six. Born in 1871, of S1r George Newman medical officer of the Board. a family well known in legal, medical and banking However, the Ministry of Health was established in circles throughout Cornwall, he passed from Dunheved June of that year and took over the functions of the College, Launceston, to the University College of Local Government Board, the National Health Wales, Aberystwyth. He took an honours degree in Insurance Commission and other health activities ; science in the , and, after a Sir Robert Morant became its secretary and Sir short period as science master at Kingswood School, George Newman its chief medical officer, retaining Bath, and elsewhere, proceeded to the University of his position undet the Board of Education. Gottingen in 1897. Here he studied under Prof. Newman's main task at the Ministry was to con• Berthold and obtained his doctorate for a dissertation solidate and develop the health services which had on the effect of inorganic salts on the development been established by the Local Government Board. and structure of plants. Having to deal with wide issues, he was content to Returning to Britain, he joined the staff of the exercise general direction of the whole service. He Science and Art Department in the Royal College of therefore allowed his senior medical officers full scope Science, Dublin. When, in 1900, this body was taken in their respective spheres of work, although he was over by the newly created Department of Agriculture always ready to discuss important questions and and Technical Instruction for Ireland, Pethybridge decisions with them. In addition to his heavy became the first head of the Seeds and Plant Diseases responsibilities as chief medical officer of two depart• Division of the Department. During the next twenty• ments, Sir George Newman undertook much other work. three years he carried out a long series of researches During the War of 1914--18 he was chairman of the on diseases of potato, flax and other crop plants. It Health of Munition Workers' Committee, which was mainly his work on potato diseases that gained survives as the Industrial Health Board ; he pro• him world-wide recognition, including the award in moted the cause of temperance as medical member 1921 of the Boyle Medal of the Royal Dublin Society. of the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic); and One of his innovations was to establish field served on many departmental and other committees. laboratories in areas where the diseases were most He rendered great service to medical education, not prevalent. only in his special reports-"Outline of the Practice By his thoroughness, enthusiasm and rigorous of Preventive Medicine" (1919) and "Recent Advances experimental methods he gree.tly stimulated the study in Medical Education" (1923)-but also as medical of plant diseases in Ireland and set a very high assessor to the University Grants Committee, as standard for those who followed him. He was, Crown nominee on the moreover, a keen field naturalist, and in 1905 col• during 1919-39, and in his work for the British laborated with R. Ll. Praeger in an account of the Postgraduate Medical School and the London School vegetation of the district lying south of Dublin, while of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. in 1910, with J. Adams, he published a "Census Newman was an indefatigable worker, a fluent Catalogue of Irish Fungi". speaker, an expert diplomatist, a philanthropist, and On the change of government in Ireland, Pethy• a lover of books and medical history. In his writings bridge resigned his post, and shortly afterwards in and in his long series of annual reports of his depart• 1923 he became mycologist to the Ministry of Agri• ment, adorned with pregnant phrases and quotations, culture and Fisheries and assistant director of the he maintained the literary traditions of his. predeces• Ministry's Plant Pathology Laboratory at Harpenden. sors, Simon and Buchanan. These reports exercised From then onwards his work was of an administrative great influence upon the general public, impressing rather than a research nature ; but he played a large upon them the importance and value of public health. part in promoting research in plant diseases-notably At various times he delivered the Yale, Linacre, into virus diseases of plants-and under his guidance Gresham, Halley Stewart and Heath Clark Lectures intelligence work on plant diseases occurring in and the Harveian Oration. He retired in 1935. and Wales was second to none. His long Sir George received many honours. He was and valuable services were recognized by the award knighted in 1911, created K.C.B. in 1918 and G.B.E. of the O.B.E. shortly after he retired in October in 1935. His honorary degrees included D.Sc.(Oxon.), 1936. D .C.L.(Dunelm) and the LL.D. of tLondon, Edinburgh, Pethybridge clung tenaciously to his ideals, perhaps McGill, Toronto, Glasgow and Leeds. He was also even at times in the face of progress, but to the many F .R.C.P.(Lond.) (1918), Hon. F.R.C.S.(Eng.) (1928), who came under his influence he was a. most generous, and honorary freeman of the Society of Apothecaries. helpful and homely friend, a delightful correspondent He received the Bisset Hawkins Medal of the Royal and a wise counsellor, at work as well as by his College of in 1935 and the Fothergill Gold fireside. His scientific writings bear the stamp of Medal of the Medical Society of London. careful preparation A.nd of the thoroughness that Short of stature, with abundant white hair and cha.racterized his whole life : he gave and demanded white moustache, Newman was a well-known figure the best and despised the shoddy. Shy and retiring in Whitehall. His conversation was vivacious and by nature, he usually avoided public life and office, dramatic. He married Adelaide Constance Thorp though he was persuaded to accept the presidency of in 1898, and with her lived a happy and secluded the British Mycological Society in 1926. Among other home life. Lady Newman died in 1946. Sir George activities he served the Journal of Pomology in an died on May 26, 1948, at York, at the age of editorial capacity from 1936 until 1948, and it is a seventy-seven, after a long illness. fitting and timely tribute that the current volume is ARTHUR s. MACNALTY to him. W. C. MooRE

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