250 OBITUARY [Vol. 76 Obituary JOSEPH HENRY LANE JOSEPH HENRY LANE died on March 9th, 1951, in his 68th year. He had been in failing health for more than a year and for some weeks before his death it was evident that the end could not be far off. Lane was educated at Raine’s School, Stepney, and at the Finsbury Technical College. After completing the College course he remained as research assistant to Professor Meldola for two or three years and was joint author with Meldola of papers published in the Journal of the Chemical Society. Towards the end of 1904, Lane and the -writer became associated in the laboratory of the Beetroot Sugar Association (later the Sugar Association) of London, and in 1910 we began in practice as consulting chemists and analysts, a partnership which continued until Lane’s death.Lane’s serene and equable temperament made him an ideal companion in the laboratory, and he was ever more considerate for others than for himself and ready to give others more than their due. A very large part of Qur work consisted in the analysis of sugars and sugar products, and we spent a considerable amount of our spare time, all too abundant in the early days of our practice, in making trial of numerous compounds for use as an internal indicator in the estima- tion of reducing sugars with Fehling solution--a very long-felt want. Methylene blue was found to be the solution of this problem. The discovery was Lane’s, but with characteristic generosity he insisted on joint publication. Lane also found that such small quantities of calcium salts as are frequently present in tap water are sufficient to affect appreciably the estimation of reducing sugars with Fehling’s solution.The error due to the use of tap water instead of distilled water in the volumetric estimation could hardly have been detected prior to the use of methylene blue as internal indicator. The writer has the happiest memories of this long association.May, 19511 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 251 For many years Lane was an abstractor for the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry and for the Journal of the Institute of Brewing. For several years he gave a course of lectures on the Sugar Industry at the City of London College, Moorfields. Lane joined the Society in 1024. He succeeded T. H. Pope as Assistant Editor of The Analyst in 1936, C. A. Mitchell as Secretary of the Society in 1937, and Mitchell again, as Editor of The AnaZyst in 1945. To follow Mitchell as Editor was a very formidable task, but Lane was fully equal to it and The Analyst is an enduring memorial to both. The work involved increased greatly, however, during Lane’s tenure of the Editorship, and additional editorial assistance became necessary. Lane had a great love and appreciation of music and was very widely read in general literature. In his younger days he had a great liking for walking, a taste which he shared with the writer, who has very pleasant recollections of walking week-ends in Lane’s company. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that during the latter half of his life Lane’s sole interest was his work, carried on, despite increasing weakness, until nearly the end. LEWIS EYNON