136 NATURAL SCIENCE [February 



he retired and devoted the remaming twenty years of his life to 

 matters of wider public interest. His name is particularly connected 

 with the development of the ' oral speech ' method for the teaching of 

 the deaf; and it was through his instrumentality that this method 

 was accepted and officially recognised by the U.S. Legislature. 

 "With Alex. Graham Bell he was founder of Science. To him also is 

 largely due the introduction of the telephone to the whole world. 

 When the U.S. National Geographic Society was organised, Mr 

 Hubbard became its first president, and in that capacity founded the 

 National Geographic Magazine. He is succeeded in the olhce by A. 

 Graham Bell. Of late years he took much interest in a scheme for 

 greater cooperation between the scientific institutions of the American 

 Government. 



Samuel A. Millee, who died on December 19, at Cincinnati, 0., aged 

 sixty-one, had contributed very largely to the literature of American 

 palaeontography. Tiie cause of science in Cincinnati was much 

 advanced by his energy. In 1874 he founded and edited the 

 Cmcinnati Quarterly Journal of Scienee. This was superseded in 

 1878 by the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, of 

 which Dr Miller was ever a prominent member. With a keen eye 

 for the differences between specimens, and a facile pen, he introduced 

 an enormous number of new species in all classes of fossil Invertebrata, 

 but chiefiy among the Crinoidea. His work in this direction has been 

 severely criticised by some and scornfully ignored by others ; but it 

 should be remembered to his credit that his descriptions were invari- 

 ably accompanied by figures, which is more than can be said of some 

 naturalists who think themselves his superiors. His really valuable 

 work was the index to the fossils of North America, of which three 

 editions and a supplement were published. This catalogue is one of 

 the most useful books that a working palaeontologist can possess, and 

 though the science and etymology are occasionally open to criticism, 

 still the bibliographic references are rarely incorrect, and this too 

 is more than can be said of many writers with far greater oppor- 

 tunities than ever were possessed by this busy lawyer in the heart of 

 America. F. A. B. 



The death is announced of Professor Eknst Ludwig Taschenberg 

 the well-known entomologist. Born in 1818, he was appointed 

 inspector of the Zoological Museum at Halle in 1856. He was the 

 author of many works on entomology, which, apart from several treatises 

 on hymenoptera, are written in popular form, and deal mostly with 

 obnoxious insects. His first paper appeared in ISrSV, and his " Wa» 

 da kriecht und fiiegt" in 1861. 



The following deaths are also announced : — At Coolgairdiie, WiLLrAM E^:^fEST 

 Powell Giles, the Australian explorer, who was awarded the founder's medal by the 

 Royal Geographical Society for having, between 1874 and 1875', twice traversed the W. 

 Australian desert from Adelaide to Perth ; Dr Wilhelm Joest, the explorer, in Aus- 

 tralia ; Charles Gornevin, professor of hygiene and zootechny in the Veterinary 

 School of Lyons ; Raphael Slidell Freiherr v. Erlakger, professor of zoology at 

 Heidelberg University, on Nov. 29, aged 33 ; Ivan Otto Plekarsky, keeper of the 

 Zoological Cabinet of St Petersburg University, at Jelissawetgi'a*!,: in January, aged 30 ; 



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