2i6 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept., 



JOSEPH THOMSON. 

 Born February 2, 1858, Died August 2, 1895. 



THE death of Joseph Thomson adds another name to the list of 

 those who have perished in the exploration of Africa. He was 

 born near Dumfries, studied at Edinburgh University, and at the age 

 of twenty-one years accompanied Keith Johnston's expedition to 

 the Great Lakes. This expedition he successfully carried through, 

 despite the fact that the leader died soon after leaving the coast. His 

 second expedition was one in search of coal, in 1881, to the Rovuma 

 Valley, and his third and most important was the exploration of 

 Masailand, a district inhabited by natives of a particularly dangerous 

 character. But Thomson's tact and patience carried the day, and he 

 was able, by advance and retreat, eventually to reach Barengo Lake, 

 though he had to relinquish a projected visit to Mt. Kenya. In 1885 

 he entered the Royal Niger Company's service, and concluded 

 various treaties in the Central Soudan, while in 1891 the South 

 Africa Company enlisted his services for an exploration of the Nyasa 

 and Bangweolo region. But his health gave vv^ay, and the disease to 

 which he ultimately succumbed was contracted during this period. 

 Mr. Thomson's best known books are " Through Masai Land " 

 (1885); "To the Central African Lakes and Back" (1881) ; and a 

 " Life of Mungo Park " (1890). 



DANIEL CADY EATON. 



PROFESSOR EATON died at New Haven, U.S.A., on June 29, 

 in the sixty-first year of his age. For more than thirty years he 

 had held the chair of botany in Yale College, where he previously 

 graduated in 1857. After leaving college he had the advantage of 

 three years' study under Dr. Gray at Harvard. He was the recog- 

 nised authority in the United States on ferns and fern allies, and 

 supplied the account of these groups for Chapman's " Flora of the 

 Southern United States," Gray's " Manual of Botany " (fifth edition), 

 and Gray's " Botany of Field, Forest, and Garden." His most 

 important work was that on the "Ferns, which appeared in 1879-80, 

 including the Ophioglossaceae of the United States of America and 

 British North American Possessions," illustrated with coloured plates. 

 He was also the author of numerous other papers, many of which 

 relate to his special group. Professor Eaton inherited a taste for 

 botany, his grandfather, Professor Amos Eaton, being one of the 

 leading systematic botanists of his day, while his father. General 

 Amos B. Eaton, was also given to scientific research. 



For several of the facts mentioned in this notice we are indebted 

 to Garden and Forest, of which the issue for July 10 gives an appreciative 

 account of Professor Eaton's work and character. 



