OBITUARY. 
JAMES WOOD MASON. * 
W* regret to announce the death of Professor James Wood Mason, 
_ 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 1885 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 Phasmide and 
Mantidz, 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 Fourn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, the Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hfist., and other journals. 
R. 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. 
NV R. WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL, the well-known African 
traveller, died on May 1 at the age of seventy-five. The death 
is also announced of the traveller and botanist, Dr. J. Braun, who 
had been exploring Madagascar. 
MONG other recent deaths we also have to record those of Mr. 
Epwarp Vivian, of Torquay, Editor of MacEnery’s ‘Cavern 
Researches’’ (1859); of Dr. JoHN Passerini, Director of the Botanic 
Gardens in the University of Parma; of Professor FERDINAND 
SENFT, the veteran geologist ; of Professor RopertT HarTMaANnN, the 
German anatomist and anthropologist; and of the entomologists, 
E. G. Honratu and J. Bieor. 
