LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Number of Strokes of the Brush in a Picture. THE number of strokes of the paint brush that go to making a picture is of some scientific interest, so I venture to record two personal experiences. Some years ago I was painted by Graef, a well known German artist, when, finding it very tedious to sit doing nothing, I amused myself by counting the number of strokes per minute that he bestowed on the portrait. He was methodical, and it was easy to calculate their average number, and as I knew only too well the hours, and therefore the number of minutes, I sat to him, the product of the two numbers gave what I wanted to learn. It was 20,000. A year and a half ago I was again painted by the late lamented artist Charles Furse, whose method was totally different from that of Graef. He looked hard at me, mixing his colours the while, then, dashing at the portrait, made his dabs so fast that I had to estimate rather than count them. Proceeding as before, the result, to my great surprise, was the same, 20,000. Large as this number is, it is less than the number of stitches in an ordinary pair of knitted socks. In mine there are 100 rows to each 7 inches of length, and 102 stitches in each row at the widest part. Two such cylinders, each 7 inches long, would require 20,000 stitches, so the socks, though they are only approximately cylinders, but much more than 7 inches long, would require more than that number.

The following point impressed me strongly. Graef had a humorous phrase for the very last stage of his portrait, which was painting the buttons." Thus, he said, "in five days' time I shall come to the buttons.' Four days passed, and the hours and minutes of the last day, when he suddenly and joyfully exclaimed, "I am come to the buttons." I watched at first with amused surprise, followed by an admiration not far from awe. He poised his brush for a moment, made three rapid twists with it, and three well painted buttons were thereby created. The rule of three seemed to show that if so much could be done with three strokes, what an enormous amount of skilled work must go to the painting of a portrait which required 20,000 of them. At the same time, it made me wonder whether painters had mastered the art of getting the maximum result from their labour. I make this remark as a confessed Philistine. Anyhow, I hope that future sitters will beguile their tedium in the same way that I did, and tell the results. F. G.

The Hydrometer as a Seismometer.

A SHORT time ago (NATURE, May 25) I directed attention to a misconception which seemed to prevail among seismologists as to the behaviour of a spirit-level. It may perhaps be useful to point out another fallacy, also of an elementary hydromechanical nature, involved in some of the unsuccessful attempts to record vertical motion.

It was first proposed by Dr. Wagener, we read,' to record vertical disturbance by means of a floating buoy free to rise and fall in a vessel of water. The buoy was to provide a steady point when the vessel suffered a vertical disturbance. The device was improved, we are told, by Prof. Thomas Gray, who gave the buoy the form of a hydrometer with only a slender stem projecting above the surface of the water. Prof. Milne experimented with both forms; but even with the hydrometer form, adjusted to a state of the most sluggish stability, several earthquakes left no record of vertical motion. The instrument was abandoned as not sufficiently powerful to be selfregistering.

But the theory involved in these attempts is entirely fallacious. Any body, be it buoy or hydrometer, floating in liquid, suffers no displacement whatever relatively to the liquid when the containing vessel is moved vertically.

1 Milne, "Earthquakes," p. 33; Milne, "Seismology," p. 65; Trans. Seismological Soc. of Japan, vol. i., p. 70, vol. iii., p. 54.

The whole moves as one rigid system. More generally, it may be claimed that any system which is in statical equilibrium, and which would remain undisturbed despite a change in the value of gravity, may suffer a vertical displacement of its supports without any relative disturbance of its parts. The whole of such a system moves as if rigid when displaced vertically. Of such a kind is the hydrometer floating in the vessel filled with liquid; of the same kind, also, is a common balance with equal weights in the two scale-pans. These two systems present true dynamical analogy, and are equally useless for detecting vertical disturbance. A spring supporting a load, on the other hand, or any form of apparatus the potential energy of which is partly elastic, is not of this class, and is available as a seismometer for vertical motion. It would seem as though a false analogy between the hydrometer and the spring balance had led to the fallacy in question.

a

The spirit-level (if my previous contention is conceded) is sensitive alike to each of two kinds of disturbance between which it was expected to discriminate. The hydrometer, on the other hand, is insensitive to the very disturbance which it was designed to record. The freezing of the water, indeed (contemplated as an inconvenient contingency with the proposed instrument), would, very precisely, make no difference at all in its behaviour. The instrument has, it is true, been long superseded; but the false principle involved remains as a source of grave confusion for the unwary reader of seismological writings.

It may be remarked that violent earthquakes have been known to damage the rigging of ships in a neighbouring harbour, and to jerk guns from the decks, without any visible movement of the water. Assuming the correctness of the view now urged, a sudden alteration of sea-level would completely account for this. The ship is not in any way spring-borne for such a displacement, but may be subjected to a vertical impulse of any degree of severity. It should be added, also, that a severe shock of earthquake is credited with having disturbed a hydrometer instrument to the extent of 1-1 mm. If the onus of explanation rests with me, I can only suggest that the effect (if really caused by vertical motion at all) may perhaps have been due to the elasticity of the walls of the containing vessel or of the hydrometer. G. T. BENNETT.

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Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

The Pressure of Radiation on a Clear Glass Vane.

IN an article on "The Elimination of Gas Action in Experiments on Light Pressure, read before the American Physical Society in December, 1904, and published in the Physical Review, May, the writer made the following statement :-"A thin vane of clear glass, accurately vertical and mounted radially, may be used to advantage to demonstrate light pressure. If the light has been filtered through several thicknesses of glass there will be but little absorption by the thin vane and its two surfaces will be warmed nearly equally. Consequently the radiometric effect will be small. The reflection of the radiation at the two surfaces will make a difference of about 16 per cent. between the energy in front of and behind the vane. Hence the light pressure will be about one-sixth of that due to the same light beam falling upon a black surface. The throws for such a vane had only about a ten per cent. variation in a range of air pressures from about 10 mm. to 200 mm. of mercury.

Although a large number of observations had been taken on both clear glass and silvered glass vanes, the data were not published at that time. It was then felt that the elimination of gas action was the important point, and the final statement in the paragraph quoted, that the throws for such a vane had only a 10 per cent. variation in a range of air pressures from about 10 mm. to 200 mm. of mercury, was considered sufficient experimental evidence that gas action had been eliminated.

Since this paper appeared, the writer has learned that there is a difference of views among mathematical physicists concerning the pressure of radiation on a nonabsorbing medium. On this account he has gathered 1 Trans. Seismological Soc. of Japan, vol. iii., p. 55

The

together the original data in order to compare the light pressure upon a vane of clear glass with that upon a silvered surface. The experiment may be here recalled. A torsion balance carrying a thin vertical glass vane, 14X10X0.1 mm., silvered on one side, was suspended in a bell jar, and the air was pumped out until the pressure was about 40 mm. of mercury. A beam of light was thrown upon this vane at a definite distance from the rotation axis, and by turns on each side of it. The deflections were read by a telescope and scale. A Nernst lamp was used as a source, the intensity being given by a precision wattmeter. balance was then turned through 180° by the rotation of the external control magnet, and readings were again taken. The mean was proportional to the pressure of the incident and reflected beam. The mean reflection coefficient of air-silver and air-glass-silver for the radiation used has been found to be 85 per cent. The pressure, according to Maxwell's theory, should therefore be 1-85 times that due to the incident beam. The throw obtained (containing certainly less than 1 per cent. of gas action) was 22.8 divisions. Hence the pressure of the standard beam upon a black surface would be 22.8 1.85 or 12.4.

The balance was then taken from the bell jar, the silver removed from the vane, and the glass surface cleaned. The balance was then replaced, and the air pumped out as before. The deflections were small, only about 2 mm., and therefore could not be read to a greater accuracy than 5 per cent. The throw obtained for standard lamp was 2.1 divisions (the mean of forty observations at four different air pressures).

The normal reflection coefficient of glass (u=1.52) for this kind of radiation is 4.1 per cent. The amount reflected from the two surfaces is approximately 8.2 per cent. Hence the energy per unit volume in front of the glass is about 1082 times that of the incident beam, and that behind the vane (since the absorption is negligible) 10-918 times that of the incident beam. The former quantity is greater than the latter by 16.4 per cent. of the energy of the incident beam. Assuming that the pressures on the front and back surfaces of the glass are proportional to the energies per unit volume, the pressure of the standard beam upon a black surface would be 21÷0-164 or 12.7. The agreement between this result and the similar result obtained from the silvered surface shows that light passing through a plate of glass exerts pressures upon the surfaces equal to the difference between the energies per unit volume in front of and behind these surfaces. GORDON F. HULL. Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., U.S.A.

The Habits of Testacella.

UNTIL reading Mr. Latter's letter in this week's NATURE I was unaware that it was not a matter of common knowledge that Testacella appears on the surface during heavy rains. My garden is liable to be flooded, as also, unhappily, is much of this neighbourhood, in spring and late autumn. After the water has stood for a few days the ground is covered by hundreds of these slugs, which leave their burrows and try to find dry quarters. They can survive, however, a week's immersion. In June, 1903. when much of the Thames valley was flooded, I collected a number of these slugs for various malacological friends. In normal circumstances they live at such a depth as never to be unearthed during garden operations. Eton College, Windsor.

NATURE AND MAN.

M. D. HILL.

PROF. LANKESTER in his Romanes lecture began by a statement of the theory of evolution, directing attention to unwarranted inferences commonly drawn by clever writers unacquainted with the study of nature. He described how the change in the character of the struggle for existence, possibly in the Lower Miocene period, which favoured an increase in the size of the brain in the great mammals and the horse, probably became most important in the development

of man. The progress of man cut him off from the general operation of the law of natural selection as it had worked until he appeared, and he acquired knowledge, reason, self-consciousness, and will, so that "survival of the fittest," when applied to man, came to have a meaning quite different from what it had when applied to other creatures. Thus man can control nature, and the "nature-searchers," the founders of the Royal Society and their followers, have placed boundless power in the hands of mankind, and enabled man to arrive at spiritual emancipation and freedom of thought. But the leaders of human activity at present still attach little or no importance to the study of nature. They ignore the penalties that rebellious man must pay if he fails to continue his study and acquire greater and greater control of nature.

Prof. Lankester did not dwell upon the possible material loss to our Empire which may result from neglect of natural science; he looks at the matter as a citizen of the world, as a man who sees that within some time, it may be only 100 years, it may be 500 years, man must solve many new problems if he is to continue his progress and avert a return to nature's terrible method of selecting the fittest. It seems to us that this aspect of the question has never been fully dealt with before. Throughout Huxley's later writings the certainty of a return to nature's method is always to be felt. Prof. Lankester has faith in man's power to solve those problems that seem now to be insoluble, and surely he is right.

Prof.

It is

The dangerous delay now so evident is due to the want of nature knowledge in the general population, so that the responsible administrators of Government are suffered to remain ignorant of their duties. Lankester shows that it is peculiarly in the power of such universities as Oxford and Cambridge, which are greatly free from Government control, to establish a quite different state of things from that which now obtains in England. He says:-"The world has seen with admiration and astonishment the entire people of Japan follow the example of its governing class in the almost sudden adoption of the knowledge and control of Nature as the purpose of national education and the guide of State administration. possible that in a less rapid and startling manner our old Universities may, at no distant date, influence the intellectual life of the more fortunate of our fellow citizens, and consequently of the entire community." Considering Oxford more particularly, and speaking for others as well as himself, he says:-" The University of Oxford by its present action in regard to the choice and direction of subjects of study is exercising an injurious influence upon the education of the country, and especially upon the education of those who will hereafter occupy positions of influence, and will largely determine both the action of the State and the education and opinions of those who will in turn succeed them." As to Greek and Latin studies, he says:-"We have come to the conclusion that this form of education is a mistaken and injurious one. We desire to make the chief subject of education both in school and in college a knowledge of Nature as set forth in the sciences which are Spoken of as physics, chemistry, geology and biology. We think that all education should consist in the first place of this kind of knowledge, on account of its commanding importance both to the individual and to the community. We think that every man of even a moderate amount of education should have acquired a sufficient knowledge of these subjects to enable him at any rate to appreciate their value, and to take an interest in their progress and application to human life." He points out that it is only in the

last hundred years that the dogma of compulsory Greek and the value of what is now called a classical education has been promulgated. Previously, Latin was learnt because all the results of the studies of natural philosophers were in that language.

It is evident that Prof. Lankester includes in his study of nature the study of intellectual and emotional man through history, biography, novels, and poetry, but we think that he made a tactical mistake when he neglected to state this clearly. It seems to us that besides the study of nature, the most important thing in a child's education is to make him fond of reading in his own language, for this leads to a future power to make use of books and self-education for the rest of his life. When Prof. Lankester doubts the value of the study of history he is evidently doubting the value of that study as carried on at Oxford, and surely no person who has read the scathing criticism of Prof. Firth will disagree with him. When he speaks of a reform being possible, it may be that he is taking into account a movement of which but little is known outside Oxford itself, the growing indignation of the average undergraduate at being made to pay extravagant sums of money for tuition which is mischievous.

The readers of NATURE are well acquainted with the views put forward in this address. Huxley and many others, dwelling, perhaps, more upon material loss to our Empire, have published them over and over again, but we do not think that anybody has ever presented them with so much grace of style or so much of an endeavour to secure the goodwill of his audience as Prof. Lankester. But, alas! we fear that this fine address will share the fate of many

others!

When, thirty-three years ago, Japan began her new career, there were a few people like Ito clever enough to see and say that the study of ancient classics alone, to the neglect of the study of nature, meant ruin to the country; but such ideas would never have been adopted had not Japan been in deadly peril. All the nations of Europe bullied and insulted her, and it was only their mutual jealousies which saved her from complete subjugation. In the presence of that peril the pedants held their peace, and everybody saw the necessity for an immediate, radical reform. In time nature was studied by every child in Japan, and in consequence scientific methods of thinking and acting have permeated the whole nation. All ancient and modern European literature is open to the Japanese who knows English, and English is the one language other than Japanese which every cultured man must know. In the matter of self-protection, anyone can see the result. Because the Japanese have studied nature their scientific officers and men have marched or sailed to victory in every engagement; their statesmen will do exactly what is best for Japan in the negotiations for peace; their country will quietly take its place as one of the first-class Powers of the world, and every person who knows anything about Japan is quite sure that ambitious, wrong-headed schemes of conquest are altogether impossible to the scientific minds of the Japanese.

If Japan had not been in great danger we know that she would not have taken to nature-study, and some of us think that it may need a state of danger in England to produce the necessary desire for reform. The South African muddle was worried through, and almost everybody seems to think that all such muddles may also be worried through, but some of us think that we may not always be so lucky. Danger is close enough even now, and we can only hope that if it becomes great it may grow slowly enough to let us learn something from the object lesson which is being

given us day by day in the news from Russia and the Far East.

Fain would we hope that Oxford will pay attention to what has been said by one whom some of us regard as her cleverest son; but, alas! we have no such hope. Oh, Shade of Clough, how can we help saying that "the struggle nought availeth" when your own best admirers seem unable to think for themselves? JOHN PERRY,

A LIFE'S WORK IN THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

The fact

N this elaborate and carefully written treatise the veteran biologist of Freiburg has brought together and presented in connected form the fruit of his life-long investigation of the principles and methods of organic evolution. It would be an easy matter to show-indeed, the author admits as much with perfect candour-that his present standpoint differs in many important respects from that adopted by him at former periods of his career. that Weismann has more than once shifted his ground has often been brought against him as a kind of reproach-we think with scant justice; for in a subject like the present, where new facts come crowding upon us almost daily, it is unreasonable to expect that a far-reaching theory should at once attain finality. If the author of such a theory should be willing to recognise that some parts of it become untenable and others require modification in the light of fresh discoveries, this should be reckoned to his credit rather than otherwise. The practice of putting forward illconsidered and hasty views deserves severe demnation; but it is characteristic of our author that even his boldest speculations rest for the most part on a basis of observed fact, and that he has always honestly striven to render his theory consistent both with itself and also with the new facts that have from time to time come under the observation of other

con

investigators. Moreover, his plan of, so to speak, taking the scientific world into his confidence, and enabling his colleagues to follow the workings of his own mind, has not only added greatly to the interest of his contribution to the biological thought of our time, but has acted also as a powerful stimulus to fellow-workers in the same field. So much may fairly be said, whether his final conclusions meet with general acceptance or the reverse.

The first eleven chapters of the present book traverse familiar ground. Starting with a brief historical account of evolutionary theory up to and including the work of Darwin and Wallace, they proceed to a more detailed discussion of such branches of the subject as the coloration of animals, mimicry, instinct, symbiosis, protective adaptations in plants. the origin of flowers, and sexual selection. These are well-worn topics, but their treatment is interesting and by no means trite. Next comes a discussion of Roux's suggestion of the " Kampf der Theile " which strikes us as somewhat of an excrescence on the general structure of the treatise. The existence of a metabolic response to functional stimulus is undeniable, but we do not think that either Roux or Weismann has plumbed the matter to the bottom. and the latter author's use of the term "selection in this connection appears to involve some overstrain of language.

1 "Vorträge füiber Deszendenztheorie gehalten an der Universitat m Freiburg im Breisgau By Prof. August Weismann Second revised edition. 2 vols. Pp. xii+340; vi + 344 (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1904)

Price to marks.

"The Evolution Theory." By Prof. August Weismann. Translated with the author's co-operation by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson and Margaret R. Thomson. 2 vols. Pp. xvi + 416; iv +405; illustrated. (London: Edward Arnold, 1904.) Price 328. net

Chapters on reproduction and the process of fertilisation in both unicellular and multicellular organisms lead us on to a copious exposition of the author's theory of the germ-plasm and its constitution, with the building up of the assumed ultimate vital units or "biophors" into the successive complexes of "determinants,"" ids," and "idants." After a discussion of the facts brought to light by the labours of the "Entwicklungsmechanik" school, and a fairly full notice of recent work on regeneration in its relation to the germ-plasm hypothesis, we come to what is in many respects the strongest part of the book, the refutation, namely, of the Lamarckian view of the transmissibility of functional modifications. Here Weismann has always been at his best, and to him undoubtedly belongs the credit of having awakened and sustained so fresh and vigorous a body of opinion in reference to this point as virtually to have created one of the most important epochs in the history of evolutionary doctrine. The two next chapters deal with the author's hypothesis of "germinal selection," as to which it may be sufficient to remark that, however ingenious and interesting the theory may be as an attempt to explain the chief phenomena of variation, it is as yet far from having reached the stage of verification. In the succeeding chapters, which deal with inbreeding, parthenogenesis, and reproduction, both sexual and asexual, it is interesting to observe that Weismann has considerably modified his standpoint with reference to amphimixis, his present view approximating in some degree to that advanced several years ago by Haycraft. This section is preceded by a discussion of the "biogenetic law" of Haeckel, and is followed up by chapters on the influence of the environment and of isolation in the formation of the specific type, together with the various causes of extinction.

The book concludes with some theoretical considerations on the subject of spontaneous generation, and a final vindication of the principle of selection, the dominance of which principle over all the categories of vital units may be taken as the key-note of the entire treatise.

certain external conditions, in this case temperature, influencing the germ-plasm even while contained within the body of the parent.

We have little space left for detailed criticism, but must point out that by some unaccountable oversight the letterpress of plates i. and ii. contains several serious errors-patent at once to the trained entomologist, but calculated to mislead the general reader. These mistakes appear uncorrected in the English translation, where also, as if to make confusion worse confounded, "die folgende Art" (plate ii., Fig. 20) is rendered "the foregoing species." Fortunately, however, the lapses in question are not of

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It will be seen that the ground covered by this work is very extensive. Though most of the topics dealt with are considered by the author chiefly or solely with an eye to his theory, his treatment never lacks interest, and the result is worthy of his high reputation. There are some points as to which we should have welcomed a more thorough discussion, and others on which we confess to remaining unconvinced for reasons quas nunc perscribere longum est; but it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge to the full the immense services rendered to biological science by the stimulating labours in the domain both of theory and practice of which this book is a

monument.

The illustrations are for the most part excellent. Of the two here reproduced, the first serves to illustrate the basis of one of the chief arguments brought forward by Weismann, as also by Strasburger and O. Hertwig, in favour of regarding the nuclear chromatin as the true hereditary substance, viz. the numerical equality of the chromosomes and the disparity in amount of the cell-protoplasm in the generative products of the two sexes. The second (from Fischer) supplies evidence of the possibility of

a nature to impair the value of the argument which the figures are meant to illustrate.

Other slips in the translation are plainly due to the fact that the translators are unfamiliar with portions of the subject-matter, as in vol. ii., p. 348, where the point of the argument is blunted by the rendering of "Nachtfalter" as "butterfly "; such imperfections, though they should be remedied in a new edition, are of little real importance. More serious is a mistranslation, or perhaps a misprint (vol. i., p. 290) by which the words of the original, in welchem die eigentliche Chromatinsubstanz nur in vielfacher Zertheilung enthalten ist," are perverted into a statement which is almost grotesquely incorrect.

64

Again, on p. 304 of the same volume, an entirely wrong meaning is given to a sentence by the failure of the translators to make it clear that "wenn es nothwendig wäre "must refer, not to "fertilisation,' but to the limitation of polar divisions." On p. 136 (vol. ii.) the sense of the original is obscured by the inadequate rendering of "dann " as the enclitic "then." Chaerocampa (for Choerocampa) is found in the original; the translators, however, are sponsible for "Coenogenesis."

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But in spite of these and other blemishes of a like nature, the translators are to be congratulated on having performed their difficult task with skill and success, the result being a work which, in its English

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FIG. 2.-A, an aberration of Arctia caja, produced by low temperature. B, the member of its progeny most divergent from the normal. B. though reared at the ordinary temperature, is aberrant in the same direction as its parent. After E. Fischer. From Weismann's "Evolution Theory. Translated by Prof. and Mrs. Thomson.

no less than in its German dress, will be read with extreme interest and with the greatest sympathy and respect for its indefatigable author. F. A. D.

DR. WILLIAM THOMAS BLANFORD, F.R.S. THE tidings of Dr. Blanford's death will be re

ceived with sorrow among men of science all over the world. His many-sided accomplishments had given him a notable place among geologists, geographers, palæontologists, and zoologists, and his gentle, kindly, unassuming nature had gained him an abiding place in the affectionate regard of all who came to be associated with him. Born on October 7, 1832, in London, he early developed a taste for scientific pursuits, and was accordingly sent to the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn Street, where he distinguished himself as a student, under De la Beche, Playfair, Edward Forbes, Ramsay, Smyth, and Percy. From London he passed to the famous mining academy at Freiberg. Having thus obtained an excellent training, he was, in 1855, appointed to the Geological Survey of India under its founder, Thomas Oldham. For some twenty-seven years he continued to devote his energies to Indian geology, making wide acquaintance with the rocks and scenery of the great Dependency, and enriching the publications of the Survey with maps and descriptive memoirs. Had he chosen to remain longer in the service, he would

soon have been placed at its head; but in 1882 he resolved to retire on the pension which he had well earned, and to establish himself in London. Among the great services which he rendered to science during his stay in India, perhaps the most important was the preparation, in concert with his colleague, H. B. Medlicott, of a "Manual of the Geology of India." This invaluable treatise gave for the first time a succinct general view of the geological structure and history of the whole country. It has taken its place as one of the classic text-books of the science. While attached to the Indian Survey, Dr. Blanford's proved ability led to his being employed in several missions or expeditions. Thus when, in 1867, preparations were made in India for the dispatch of an armed force against Theodore of Abyssinia, he was selected as geologist to accompany the Army. The wisdom of this selection was well proved by the excellent volume in which he gave the results of his observations during the march to Magdala and the return to the coast. Again, in 1872, he accompanied the Persian Boundary Commission, and his notes of this journey were embodied in another valuable book.

During his travels in India and beyond it, Dr. Blanford did not confine himself to the study of the rocks, but always kept a keen eye on the wild animals of each region. His published journals showed him to be as capable a zoologist as he was a geologist. Indeed, during the later years of his life his main scientific work lay amidst the fauna of British India, in regard to which his published memoirs were recognised as the chief authority on the subject. His wide experience as a traveller over the surface of the earth likewise enlisted his sympathies with geographical exploration, and made him a valued member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society.

In his writings there is often a suggestiveness or prescience that shows how keen was his insight, how far-reaching his grasp of scientific problems, more especially of those in which questions of zoology and geology were intermingled. Some of his papers in which he unfolded his views on these subjects are well deserving of attentive study. His address to the geological section of the British Association at the Montreal meeting in 1884, and his presidential discourses to the Geological Society in 1889 and 1890. may be cited as examples of his characteristic manner of treatment.

Dr. Blanford's high qualities as a man of science were fully recognised by his contemporaries. He was early elected into several of our leading scientific societies, and was chosen as a member of their councils. He received the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society and a Royal medal of the Royal Society. A few years ago, in recognition of his services to Indian science, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Up to the end he continued to interest himself in the affairs of the societies with which he was connected. For years he had been treasurer of the Geological Society, and he attended the council meetings to within a few weeks before his death. His colleagues at the council board then saw with regret that his health was obviously failing, but they did not anticipate that they were never again to see his familiar face among them. A few weeks ago he was asked by the council of the Royal Society to write for them an obituary notice of his old friend and colleague, Medlicott, who had recently died. He complied with this request, and it proved to be his last piece of work. The printed proofs of his manuscript were sent to him, but before they could reach him he ha become too ill to look at them. After a short illness he passed away on the morning of Friday, June 23,