No.
47ss December 17, 1960 NATURE
and especially interested in the two great
Scottish gardens the Trust took over--Crathes in
Kincardineshire and Inverewe in Ross and Cromarty.
He gave great prestige to the Trust when, under the
Trust's auspices, he inaugurated the early 'Garden
Cruises', a unique and previously unused method of
transport which has enabled people from all parts of
the world to visit famous, and sometimes somewhat
inaccessible, gardens in great comfort.
Happy and industrious though h e had b een in
India, and undoubtedly was in Edinburgh, he
frankly admitted that not until he retired from
Edinburgh in 1954 and accepted the post of gardens
adviser to the National Trust for Scotland, with his
headquarters at Inverewe House on the incredibly
lovely and rocky peninsula at Poolewe, did complete
contentment and satisfaction come to him ; and
naturally so, when through his great energy and drive
he saw the number of visitors to the Garden steadily
increase from a few hundreds in 1954 to 47,000 in
1960.
Cowan's services to horticulture were acknow-
ledged by the Royal Horticultural Society by the
award of the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1951 and by
the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1955. He was made
C.B.E. in 1952. Mrs. Cowan and a son and daughter
survive him. H. R. FLETCHER
Prof. Yehuda Hirshberg
PROF. y EHUDA HIRSHBERG, head of the Laboratory
of Photochemistry and Spectroscopy in the Weiz-
mann Institute in Rehovoth, Israel, died on Septem-
ber 20. Prof. Hirshberg was born in 1903, went to
Israel as a pioneer in 1923 and joined a Kibbuz.
After a strenuous year he fell ill with malaria, and
was compelled to move to Jerusalem. There he
worked as a labourer and at the same time enrolled
as one of the first students in the pre-faculty of
sciences of the Hebrew University. He studied
chemistry under Prof. A. Fodor, and graduated
in 1928 (unofficially, since the Hebrew University was
not yet r ecognized at the time). Being an outstanding
student, he was given a study grant which enabled
him to go to Brussels, where he continued his studies
towards the degree of doctor of science under two
distinguished teachers-Victor Henry and Jaques
Errera. Despite the difficulties of a new language
and environment, he completed his studies with great
distinction, and was appointed an assistant. His
first independent research paper was published in
1932. A year later he made the acquaintance of
Chaim Weizmann, who soon recognized the high
qualities of the young scientist and invited him to
serve as the physical chemist of the Daniel Sieff
Research Institute which was planned at the time.
Thus b egan Hirshberg's life-long association with the
Sieff and Weizmann Institutes. His scientific career
can truly be called a fruitful one, a s witnessed by
nearly ninety r esearch papers in v arious scientific
journals. His well-known discovery of 'photo-
chromism' in 1950 and the investigation of this
phenomenon and of the 'photochemical memory'
led by him since then, won him world-wide recognition
and international acclaim.
Despite his success, he never ceased to be a 'man
of the people', being on friendly terms with every-
body, irrespective of grade or standing. His p er-
sonality was marked by boundless devotion to his
work, willingness to help, and eagerness to make a
© 1960 Nature Publishing Group
983
friend of whomever he met, a goal which he achieved
almost always, thanks to his rich Jewish humour and
his good-heartedness.
His last years were marred by great suffering
b ecause of his many maladies. Nevertheless, he put
up a stubborn fight against his disease and refused
to give in. He was active in the laboratory and full
of plans to his last day, and succumbed to a heart
attack while still wearing his white laboratory coat.
His colleagues and collaborators will always remem-
ber his high human qualities, his scientific ingenuity,
and his infectious enthusiasm, and hope that the
work being continued in his laboratory will serve as
a living monument to him. E. FISCHER
Dr. Robert W. Lawson
ROBERT WILLIAM LAWSON, who died in hospital
on November 14 in his seventy-first year, was a
lecturer in the Physics Department of the University
of Sheffield for thirty-six years. He went from his
native town of Gateshead to Armstrong College (now
King's College), Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1908 and
obtained a first-class degree with honours in physics.
This was followed by two years research work in the
College on the production of those high-frequency
oscillations which later developed into radio-waves,
but the study of which was then in its infancy. This
brought him an award which enabled him to go to
the Radium Institute in Vienna in early 1914. He
was interned on the outbreak of war but generously
r eleased on parole, so that he could continue his
researches into radioactivity at the Institute. He
worked long hours under difficult conditions, on an
inadequate diet, and published a number of papers,
particularly on the rate of emission of alpha-particles
from radium. The result he obtained in this investi-
gation was verified by later workers and is accepted
as the standard value. These papers earned him the
award of the degree of doctor of science of his own
University of Durham. He also became one of the
first Fellows of the Institute of Physics when it was
founded.
On his return to Britain in 1919, Lawson was
appointed a lecturer in physics at Sheffield and
r emained there for the rest of his life, being made a
senior lecturer on the establishment of this grade.
The privations he suffered in Vienna had an adverse
effect on his health, and it was some time before this
was sufficiently restored for him to resume experim-
ental research . The work of t eaching the influx of
ex-Service students could not be deferred, however ,
and at once he enter ed on a life of service to the
Physics Department. He was a lucid lecturer and it
was his delight to give experimental demonstrations
of his talks whenever possible. In the early nineteen-
twenties he was placed in charge of the laboratories
in which both the special and gen eral degree students
worked. Thus he had a large share in training the
many Sheffield physicist,;; who have attained dis-
tinction. He devised many ingenious experiments
for them, some of which were shown at the open
meetings of the Sheffield Physical Society which he
organized between the two World vVars. He had a
wide circle of friends among Continental physicists,
and this, together with his proficiency in German,
led to the publication of several translations of
important books. Probably the most noteworthy of
these was "Relativity", by Einstein, the first simple
exposition of the theory which has affected science
 984 NATURE
so profoundly. His colleagues benefited from his wide
reading, and in past years he was also a frequent
contributor to the columns of Nature.
Lawson played a prominent part in the formation
of the Non-Professorial Staff Association of the
University and was one of its first representatives
NEWS and VIEWS
Inorganic and Structural Chemistry at Leeds
Prof. H. M. N. H. Irving
DR. H. M. N. H. IRVING has been appointed to
the chair of inorganic and structural chemistry in
the University of Leeds, in succession to Prof. E. G.
Cox (see Nature, 185, 144; 1960). Dr. Irving was
born in Oxford in 1905 and educated at St. Bees
School and Queen's College, Oxford, where he was
a pupil of F. D. Chattaway. He took a 'first' in
chemistry in 1928, a D.Phil. in 1930 and was
awarded the degree of D.Sc. in 1958. He became a
demonstrator in Queen's College laboratory, but
when this closed down Prof. Soddy appointed him as
a demonstrator in the Inorganic Chemistry Labor-
atory of the University. Although his early training
was in the field of organic chemistry, ho rapidly
acquired a mastery of inorganic chemistry, and skil-
fully used his knowledge of organic synthesis, and
familiarity with a wide range of organic substances,
in an attack on various analytical problems and par-
ticularly in the application of stereochemical prin-
ciples to their solution. Later he exploited solvent
extraction and radiochemical methods to good effect.
In these fields he has built up an international
reputation. During the War he was engaged on
government research problems and took an active
part in local Civil Defence. He was a lecturer at St.
Edmund Hall during 1935-38, and has been an
official Fellow from 1938 and vice-principal since
1951. He has played an active part in the Chemical
Society, Royal Institute of Chemistry and the Society
for Analytical Chemistry, and has served on numerous
official committees. He is the author of nearly a
hundred papers on scientific subjects, and in addition
to many interests outside his ordinary work he holds
the licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Psychological Medicine in Edinburgh:
Prof. G. M. Carstairs
DR. GEORGE MORRISON CARSTAIRS, director of
the Medical Research Council Unit for Research on
the Epidemiology of Psychiatric Illnrn::s, Tavistock
Square, London, has been appointed to the chair of
psychological medicino in the University of Edin-
burgh in succession to the lato Prof. Alexander
Kennedy. Dr. Carstairs was born in India and
educated at Georgo Watson's College and the
University of Edinburgh. At the Univorsity he road
arts as well as medicine and was a medallist, in Fine
Art. He was also a well-known athlete. He served
as a medical officer in tho Royal Air Force in Europe
and the Far East. During the War, Dr. Car8tairs
became int,erested in social anthropology, particularly
in studies of the influence of different cultural environ-
ments in personality development,. After tho \Var,
Dr. Carstairs held various sonior appointments at
mental hospitals in Edinburgh and Oxford, and also
studied social anthropology as an external stud0nt of
© 1960 Nature Publishing Group
December 17, 1960 Vo1.. 166
on the Senate when this recognition was accorded.
He retired in 1955, but his interest in physics remained
unabated. His unexpected death will be a shock to
his old students, who had a high regard for him, and
to his many friends. He married in 1922 and leaves a
widow and daughter. J. R. CLARKE
the Institute of Social Anthropology. For t,he next
four years he held research fellowships which first
took him to New York as a Commonwealth Fund
Fellow, where he studied social anthropology under
Dr. Margaret Mead during 1948 and 1949 in prepara-
tion for two years of field studies in Rajputana,
where he carried out research while living in three
primitive village communities. During part of this
time he held a Rockefeller Grant and a fellowship
from the Henderson Trust and worked as a graduate
student of Cambridge under the direction of Prof.
Meyer Fortes. His researches in Rajputana are pub-
lished in his book, "The Twice Born". He has also
published widely in psychiatry and in the psychiatric
aspects of social anthropology.
Lister Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons :
Prof. W. G. Penfield, 0 M., C.M.G ., F.R.S.
PROF. WILDER GRAVES PENFIELD, director of the
Montreal Neurological Institute, has been awarded
the Lister Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, in recognition of his service to the advance-
ment of medical and biological knowledge, especially
in the fields of neurology, surgical neurology, and
psychology ; and equally as humane surgical healer
and as scientific research worker. He will deliver the
Lister Memorial Lecture in London on April 5, 1961,
under the auspices of the Royal College of Surgeons
of England. 'l'his is the thirteenth occasion of the
award, which is made by a committee representative
of the Royal Society, the Royal College of Surgeom;
of England, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,
the University of Edinburgh and the University of
Glasgow.
Code of Practice against Radiation Hazards
A CODE of practice issued by tho Imperial College
of Science and Technology, University of London,
describes the rnles applicable to the use of equipment
producing X-rays, to particle accelerators, and to the
nso of radioactive isotopes, either sealed or unsealed
(Third edition, revised. Pp. v + 35. London : Im-
perial College of Science and Technology, 1960). The
code supersedes a previous one of December 1958,
and deals, in the main, with administrative procedure
and control ; a second part consists of a number of
appendixes giving detailed info1·ma.t,ion and advico
on practice. The purpose of the code is set out under
tho following headings: (1) the protection of the
worker's health ; the hazard includes direct radiation
and the accumulation of traces of radioactive
material in the body; (2) the avoidance of con-
tamination of the laboratory; (3) to ensure the safe
disposal of waste material and effluent. The code
also describes tho mothod of control, the names of
referees and the health physicist, the kind of work
to be registered and the procedure for registration.
Conditions to he observed before work is begun are
also described.