244 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



entered the alliance through the marriage of a Miss 

 Wedgwood with Dr. Eobert Darwin. Of this marriage 

 there were six children, and Charles Darwin, the 

 great naturalist, was one of them. From these three 

 allied families, in five generations, comprising about 

 sixty individuals, there are no less than sixteen 

 eminent men, showing exceptional scientific ability. 

 Of these, nine are Fellows of the Royal Societ}' . 



Sir Francis was born in 1822, and died on Tuesday, 

 January 17th, 1911. He was thus eighty -nine years 

 of age at the time of his death. He was one of the 

 many eminent men of science which Cambridge 

 University can claim for its own, since he graduated 

 at Trinity College in 1844. 



He was a man of very varied attainments, to 

 which we are afraid the popular conception of his 

 achievements does but little justice. In the popular 

 mind he is mainly remembered as the author of the 

 finger-impression method of identification. Yet this 

 work, valuable though it be, is but a small part of his 

 contribution to knowledge or to human affairs. His 

 earlier days after leaving Cambridge were devoted 

 to travelling and to the publication of his observations. 

 He was indeed a pioneer among the explorers of the 

 Dark Continent, for in 1844 he spent two years in 

 ascending the White Nile. This was followed in 

 1850 by an exploration, in company with Dr. John 

 Anderson, of Damaraland and the Ovampo country 

 in South- West Africa. He next turned his attention 

 to Meteorology and made the first serious attempt 

 to chart the weather on an extensive scale. Subse- 

 quently, in about 1863, he devoted himself to the 

 study of inheritance, and ever since his life has been 

 occupied in working at the subject. Space does not 

 now permit us to deal with this part of his work as it 

 deserves. No real conception of it can be conveyed 

 to the mind of readers in a short dissertation. But 

 we hope in our next number to publish a full account 

 of his work upon inheritance and of the fruits which 



