OBITUAEIES, EUROPEAN. 



665 



Era," and " The Indian News." He also edited 

 the " Library of Romance," and wrote the 

 letter-press for " Turner's Annual Tour " and 

 "Heath's Picturesque Annual," to collect ma- 

 terials for which he made annual journeys over 

 the Continent of Europe. He edited twelve 

 volumes of these works, and published in the 

 mean time novels entitled " The Magician" and 

 " Schinderhannes, the Robber of the Rhine." 

 Besides several other novels, he published in 

 1857 "Weary-foot Common," and the follow- 

 ing year, " Winter Evening Sketches and Es- 

 says." 



Jan. 18. NEILSON, JAMES BEAUMONT, civil 

 engineer, died at Queenskill, aged 72 years. He' 

 was a native of Shettleston, near Glasgow, and 

 was brought up as a working mechanic, though 

 not without some educational advantages. 

 Some accidental circumstances led him in the 

 course of his studies and experiments to direct 

 his attention to the process of smelting iron, 

 and after much perseverance he ultimately 

 satisfied himself that a vastly increased and 

 improved action of the artificial blast employed 

 in furnaces could be obtained by heating the 

 air in its passage from the blowing cylinder 

 into the furnace, and thus resulted the hot- 

 blast, a process which completely revolution- 

 ized the iron trade. 



Jan. 21. HUMPHREYS, WILLIAM, a skilful line 

 engraver, died at Geneva, Switzerland, aged 71 

 years. He was formerly from Philadelphia, from 

 whence he went to London, where he engraved 

 many fine pictures, including " Sancho and the 

 Duchess," by Leslie, and "Young Lambton," 

 by Lawrence. 



Jan. 22. BONIFACE, J. (X. B. Saintine), 

 author of Picciola, died at Paris, aged 66 years. 

 He was exceedingly successful as a writer, and 

 his name is enduringly connected with several 

 most popular pieces, especially VOurs et la 

 Pacha and Riche d 1 Amour. At the time of 

 his death he was Honorary President of the 

 Societe des Gens de Lettres. 



Jan. 23. CHABRAS, JEAN BAPTISTE ADOLPHE, 

 a French republican soldier, statesman, and 

 author, died an exile in Belgium, aged 55 years. 

 He was a native of Pfalsburg, in the depart- 

 ment of the Meurthe, took part in the Revolu- 

 tion of 1830, was promoted in 1833 to the rank 

 of lieutenant, and for writing a series of articles 

 in the " National" on military ' affairs which 

 gave umbrage to the Government, was sent to 

 Algeria. Here he distinguished himself on the 

 battle-fields as well as in the training of native 

 troops and the colonization of the country. 

 After the Revolution of 1848, he became under- 

 secretary of State and representative for the 

 department of Puy de D6me. He was one of 

 the chief pillars of the Republican Government, 

 and a victim of the coup d'etat of December 2, 

 1851. In January, 1852, he was transported to 

 Belgium, but two years after was expelled from 

 thence at the request of Napoleon, whom he had 

 denounced on many occasions. Since December, 

 1857, however, he has been permitted to reside 



there. lie was the author of Histoire de la 

 Campagne de 1815, published in 1857, and Lea 

 Trois Marechaux de France (1853). The former 

 work is not allowed to enter France. 



Jan. 31. WHITE, ROBERT MEADOWS, D. D., 

 Professor of Anglo-Saxon in Magdalen College, 

 Oxford, Rector of Slimbridge, near Stonehouse, 

 Gloucestershire, and an author of some note, 

 died at the rectory, aged 67 years. He gradu- 

 ated at Magdalen College in 1819, was ordained 

 deacon in 1821, priest in 1822, and in 1832 be- 

 came college tutor, holding the office for several 

 years. In 1834 he was elected Rawlinson Pro- 

 fessor of Anglo-Saxon, and was vice-president 

 of his college in 1838. At that tune he enjoyed 

 the character of domestic historian and anti- 

 quary of his college, besides being the chief 

 authority in the English language. With all 

 his other literary labor, he assumed the editing 

 of the poem " Ormulum," preserved hi the 

 Bodleian Library, a work which he had in hand 

 nearly twenty years; and in order to do full 

 justice to that portion containing Danish ex- 

 pressio.ns, and gain a knowledge of the Danish 

 language, he visited Denmark in 1837. Dr. 

 White was a correspondent of most of the 

 English philologists, Dr. Bosworth, Benjamin 

 Thorpe, Mr. Garnett, and others. 



Jan. 31. FALCONER, HUGH, M. D., an emi- 

 nent British naturalist, and President of the 

 Royal Society, London, died at his residence in 

 Park Crescent, aged 55 years. He Avas educa- 

 ted at King's College, Aberdeen, and hi 1826 

 went to Edinburgh, where he entered upon and 

 completed his medical studies. Subsequently 

 he entered the East India Company's service as 

 assistant-surgeon, where his acquisitions in the 

 study of botany won for him the superintend- 

 ence of the botanical gardens at Serampore, 

 and latterly at Calcutta. In this occupation 

 (with the exception of the usual furlough to 

 Europe) he passed twenty years of his useful 

 and valuable life, returning to England with 

 shattered health about two years ago, to pursue 

 the same career with unabated ardor. In the 

 domain of Indian botany he may be said to 

 have created the teas of Assam, the first suc- 

 cessful attempt to transfer the tea-plant of 

 China to a foreign region. But perhaps the 

 most striking of Dr. Falconer's discoveries were 

 those in the department of palaeontology, where 

 he might be considered almost equal to the 

 Cuviers, the Owens, and the Lyells. From the 

 lowest range of the Himalayas he made, ar- 

 ranged, described, and carried to England the 

 largest collection of fossilized organic remains 

 which was ever made. In this pursuit he trav- 

 elled extensively, and but a few months previ- 

 ous to his death he inspected the caves of Gib- 

 raltar, in which he found. the fossilized bones 

 of man with those of mastodons, elephants, etc. 

 Dr. Falconer was a thorough master of geology, 

 botany, and zoology, was well versed in eth- 

 nology and archaeology, and was both a classi- 

 cal and oriental scholar. Among his published 

 works are " Fauna Antiqua Sivalonis, being the 



