464 GUY ALFRED W Y O N

rooms, his friends niight be talking of sport and other matters of great interest to him, while he himself read in a corner oblivious of all else. And later when immersed in a mathematical problem, cold, hours of meals, the keeping of appointments, all other considerations were not infrequently totally forgotten.

All his life he had a singular power of inspiring affection in those who worked with him. His colleagues may have smiled at his peculiarities, differed from him in their opinions or aims, perhaps chafed at his absence on important occasions but through it all they loved him. The pathological laboratory was ever a place for anyone to walk into, and be received with kindliness, there to discuss all sort of things of interest to scholars and to medical men or to get help in problems where the pathologist may be of assistance to the man in practice. Quiet and unassuming, with a clear appreciation of the rights of others, he was not a man to push himself forward, but to those who knew him, who had experience of his keen intellect, his delight in investigation whether in mathematics or pathology, his love of truth and his hatred of shams and crookedness, he was indeed a leader as well as a friend.

J. T. W.

6tip W r e b Wpotz. 1883- 1924.

GUY ALFRED W~ois died of influenza on 2nd March 1924, a t the age of 40. He had been a t work three days before, and was only seriously ill for a matter of twenty-four hours. Son of the late Allaii Wyon, F.S.A., born 15th October 1883, he came of a family which has produced a long line of distinguished sculptors and medallists, and while it is probably true that he himself was largely unconscious of the appeal of art, a t any rate in the form of painting and sculpture, he had a fine appreciation of and joy in natural scenery, amounting in the case of the Lake District almost to a passion.

Educated a t Highgate Grammar School, Wyon continued his studies at home and took the London E.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 1904. The following year he entered Edinburgh University, taking his bachelor's degree in medicine in 1910, and the M.D. (with distinction) in 1915, with a thesis on the Abderhalden reaction. After qualification he served a term as house physician and house surgeon at the East Suf'folk and Ipswich Hospital, and then commenced practice in Bow. It was while so engaged that he did the work for his thesis in the clinical laboratory of the London Hospital.

He joined the R.A.M.C. as a temporary lieutenant in April 1915, and after a short period in France was sent to Salonica. On his return home in May 1916 he became an assistant in the department of

OBITUd R Y 465

applied physi6logy of the Medical Research Council. A t that time the head of the department, the late Professor Benjamin Moore, and Mr T. A. Webster were busily engaged on the subject of trinitrotoluene poisoning then threatening to become a serious menace to the rapidly expanding munition industry. Into this work Wyon threw himself with characteristic ardour and enthusiasm. Syecia.2 Report No. 11 of the Medical Research Council, ‘ I The Causation and. Prevention of Tri-nitro-toluene (T.N.T.) Poisoning,” by Professor Moore shows clearly the important part which Wyon took in these researches. “ Our joint labours,” Moore ‘wrote later, “resulted in a remarkable success, and this was due in no small measure to Wyon’s energy and originality.” By a long series of experiments, including many on their own persons, they were able to show the mode of entrance of the poison, and so to evolve satisfactory methods of protection.

Rejoining the army in September 1917, Wyon worked with the 13th casualty clearing station in France until the armistice, after which, for about a year, he was in charge of No. 19 mobile laboratory, stationed in the Meuse Valley. While with the C.C.S. he used to occupy himself with research work in the attached laboratories a t all the quieter periods.

I n December 1919, having decided not t o return to general practice, he joined the staff of Leeds University as demonstrator in the department of pathology and bacteriology. For the first two and a half years in Leeds he was attached to the bacteriological side, where his chemical training and inclinations found ample scope in the study of the nutritive requirements for bacterial growth, the reaction of culture media and other problems of general bacteriology. Eighteen months ago he was promoted to the post of lecturer in pathology and took over, as part of his duties, the charge of the clinical laboratory a t the Leeds General Infirmary. Naturally he addressed himself with special keenness to the chemical side of the work, and here his influence was soon felt. The simplification and improvement of routine methods, the study of the fundamental principles on which these were based, the establishment of normal standards-these and many other aspects of clinical chemistry were receiving his close attention a t the time he was seized with illness.

Apart from his professional duties, Wyon had many interests and activities. While a science student in London, his chief hobby was lacrosse, a game in which, as in tennis in later years, his long reach stood him in good stead. On one occasion he played for Middlesex second team against Gloucestershire, and had the satisfaction of scoring the winning goal just on the stroke of time. I n Leeds he was an active member of the staff athletic club, the Priestley and pathological clubs, and other bodies. He joined the Society in 1920 and the Biochemical Society in the following year. Lately he had become greatly interested in the clinical applications of psychology.

466 EDWIN BEATON AND BERNARD HARRY WEDD

Wyon married, in 1911, Miss Hitchcock of Bures, Suffolk, who, with three sons, survive him. Theirs was a singularly happy married life, and our sympathy goes out to wife and children in their untimely bereavement.

Tall (he was six and a half feet in height) and of striking aspect, Wyon was of a very quiet and retiring disposition. At home and among his colleagues his keen sense of humour, his good temper, kindliness and unusual gentleness of character endeared hini to all. Personal advanceinent was about the last thing in his thoughts; indeed he may be said to have sacrificed much, in a material sense, in pursuit of his own high ideals. The memory of a good man and a lovable personality will long remain with those who were privileged to know him.

96. J. S.

Ebwin Beaton. 1881 - 1924.

EDWIN BEATON was educated a t Caius College, Cambridge, and St Mary’s Hospital, qualifying in 1906. After filling house appointments a t St Mary’s and the Bath Hospital, he joined the staff of the inoculation department a t St Mary’s and worked there until, in 1914, he was appointed to the laboratory staff of the Egyptian public health service under Dr Charles Toclcl. He continued here until his death from pneunionia a t the early age of 43.

Apart froin his official work, Beaton was chiefly interested in the antitryptic power of the blood and was probably the first t o recognise that an increase in antitryptic power is associated with most infections. He published little, but a paper in 1922 (Byit. J. Xxp. I?bt7~., vol. iii., p. 224) shows the sustained determination with which he approached the difficult topic which he had started with.

JBernarb ’ibarrp W e b b . 1876-1924.

WEDD’S gentle, anliable personality will be remembered by many of those with whom he came in contact during a varied career. Educated at Guy’s, he was for a time an assistant in the bacteriological department there, then went to the pathological department of Moorfields and afterwards worked in the cancer research laboratories of the Middlesex Hospital. He had a hard and heavy time in the war and his health, never of the best, failed to recover from paratyphoid fever and rhenmatisni. He died in Ceylon on 28th January. He had a remarkable range of knowledge beyond his iinmediate professional work and was