1897] 209 



OBITUARIES 



Sib John Charles Bucknill, one of the first editors of Brain and 

 editor of the Journal of Mental Science for nine years, was, at the 

 time of his death recently, acting in the capacity of Censor, Councillor 

 and Lumleian Lecturer in the Royal College of Physicians. In 1866 

 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in July 1894 he was 

 knighted. He produced a large number of psychological works, 

 making insanity and similar subjects a specialty. He became 

 especially popular through his psychological essays on the " Mad folk 

 of Shakespere." 



Mb Samuel Laing, who died on August 8th at the advanced age of 

 87 years, was formerly chairman of the Brighton Railway and had a 

 lifelong connection with railway interests. He devoted his leisure to 

 scientific pursuits, and his principal original work was the exploration 

 of the prehistoric refuse heaps of Caithness, which he described, with 

 the aid of Prof. Huxley, in 1866. During recent years he successfully 

 devoted himself to the popularisation of science, his best known works 

 being entitled " Modern Science and Modern Thought " and " Human 

 Origins." 



'6' 



The death of Captain Bertram Lutley Sclater at Zanzibar on July 

 24th will excite widespread sympathy among English naturalists for 

 his father, Dr P. L. Sclater, as well as deep regret at the loss of an 

 officer whose career was full of promise. His main work was road- 

 making in British Central and British East Africa ; during which he 

 accomplished many careful surveys. His maps form a valuable 

 addition to our knowledge of the geography of those countries, in the 

 future development of which the work which cost him his life will 

 play an important part. 



Another geographer whose death cannot pass unnoticed in Natural 

 Science was the late Ney Elias, a man whose work, though popularly 

 very little known, was of such importance as to place him among the 

 greatest English travellers of this century. His first paper, " Notes of 

 a Journey to the New Course of the Yellow River," is one of the 

 classics of physical geography. His exploration of western 

 Mongolia during a journey from Pekin to Nijni Novgorod is one of 

 the six great feats in Asiatic travel. In 1885 he settled the vexed 

 question as to the sources of the Oxus, and later on made numerous 

 less famous journeys in the Indian borderlands. His shyness was exces- 

 sive, and he had no ambition for notoriety. His great feats are recorded 

 in technical geographical papers, but these will live. His reputation 

 as a traveller will probably be greater in a century's time than it is 

 to-day. But in the meanwhile it would be very useful if his papers 

 were collected and republished with some sketch of his life. 



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