28o NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 1896. 



Museum in 1874 f° r tne sum °f £%°- About this time Mr. and Mrs. 

 Wachsmuth made a prolonged tour through the whole of the Old 

 World, during which he studied the crinoid collection in many foreign 

 museums, and visited the most notable scenes in Italy, Greece, 

 Turkey, Arabia, and Africa. It was Wachsmuth's custom to spend 

 some months every summer on collecting excursions together with his 

 wife ; ransacking thus the principal localities of North America, some of 

 which he discovered for himself, and obtaining other specimens 

 by means of collectors, such as the late Charles Beachler, and pur- 

 chasing yet others with the co-operation of his friend, Mr. Frank 

 Springer, he for a third time gathered together one of the finest 

 collections of crinoids in the world, to receive which he built a special 

 fire-proof museum. Though retiring in his habits, the dead palaeon- 

 tologist was one of the leading citizens of Burlington, a trustee of the 

 free public library, and the vice-president of its board. 



Mr. Wachsmuth's health had been declining for three years, and 

 writing to me on January 13 he said, " I doubt if I shall be able again 

 to do scientific work " ; his end, therefore, was hardly unexpected. 

 Had he lived but a few months longer, it was hoped that the Geo- 

 logical Society of London would have marked the publication of his 

 Monograph by electing him a Foreign Member. English geologists 

 will regret that their roll of fame must continue to lack so bright an 

 ornament as the name of Charles Wachsmuth. F. A. B. 



SEKIYA SEIKEI. 

 Born 1855. Died January 9, 1896. 



THE death of Professor Sekiya leaves a serious gap. His pub- 

 lished memoirs are few in number (we can speak only of those 

 written in English), but several of these are of lasting value. Among 

 them may be specially mentioned his two papers on the Japanese 

 earthquakes of 1885, and that on " Earthquake Measurements of 

 Recent Years, especially relating to Vertical Motion." In conjunction 

 with Mr. Kikuchi he wrote an account of the eruption of Bandai-san 

 in 1888 ; and, with Mr. Omori, a valuable " Comparison of Earth- 

 quake Measurements made in a Pit and on the Surface Ground." 

 Beginning his scientific career about the time when accurate seismo- 

 graphs were invented, and living in the country where they were first 

 erected and most frequently put into use, it is only natural that 

 Sekiya's attention should have been attracted to their indications, 

 and some of his most valuable work consists in the unravelling of 

 their records. Outside the ranks of specialists, he is most widely 

 known by his model showing the motion of an earth-particle during 

 an earthquake. By this happy device he has furnished the best 

 illustration we possess of the complicated movements of the ground 

 during a severe shock. In 1886 Mr. Sekiya was appointed the first 

 Professor of Seismology in the Imperial University of Japan. 



