OBITUARY. 



JAMES WOOD MASON. 



IT ,^E regret to announce the death of Professor James Wood Mason, 

 VV which took place at sea in the middle of May at the early age 

 of forty-nine. The deceased naturalist had for some time been in 

 failing health. He went to India in 1869 as Assistant in the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta, and in 18S5 succeeded Dr. J. Anderson as Super- 

 intendent of that institution, and also as Professor of Physiology in 

 the Medical College. In addition to his work in Calcutta, he under- 

 took two expeditions (in 1871 and 1873) to the Andaman and Nicobar 

 Islands, where he made considerable collections, and in 1880 he 

 investigated, on behalf of the Government, the life-history of the 

 destructive "tea-bug" in Assam. He made a special study of 

 •Crustacea and insects, paying particular attention to the Phasmidae and 

 Mantidae, a work on the latter group being unfortunately cut short by 

 his untimely death. His contributions to science are contained in 

 numerous papers in the Joiirn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, the Aim. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., and other journals. 



DR. MOLESCHOTT, Professor of Physiology in the University 

 of Rome, died on May 20 at the age of seventy. A Dutchman 

 by birth, he became Professor of Physiology, Anatomy, and Anthro- 

 pology at Heidelberg in 1847, removing nine years later to Zurich, 

 thence to Turin, and in 1879 to Rome. 



jV/rR. WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL, the well-known African 

 iVl traveller, died on ]\Iay i at the age of seventy-five. The death 

 is also announced of the traveller and botanist, Dr. J. Braun, who 

 had been exploring Madagascar. 



AMONG other recent deaths we also have to record those of Mr. 

 Edward Vivian, of Torquay, Editor of MacEnery's " Cavern 

 Researches" (1859); of Dr. John Passerini, Director o^the Botanic 

 Gardens in the University of Parma ; of Professor Ferdinand 

 Senft, the veteran geologist ; of Professor Robert Hartmann, the 

 German anatomist and anthropologist ; and of the entomologists, 

 E. G. Honrath and J. Bigot. 



