April 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



287 



A very precarious but highly interesting operation 

 is that of assisting the development and propagation 

 of wild creatures and wild plants in their natural 

 homes. Some observations have been made on the 

 subject now and again, and a few isolated experi- 

 ments are on record, already suggestive of remark- 

 able correlations between development and environ- 

 ment. The principles behind such correlations are 

 wide reaching, and, as ecology has begun to show, 

 of great practical importance. In due course, no 

 doubt, the German scheme will include such experi- 

 ments, care being taken to prevent that very easily 

 obtained result, the absolute extinction of a species. 



A. E. Crawley. 



THOMAS RUPERT JONES, F.R.S. 



BORN in Wood Street, Cheapside, on October i, 

 1819, Rupert Jones, after a long and eminently 

 useful geological career, passed away in his quiet 

 retreat at Chesham Bois on April 13, in his ninety- 

 second year. His father, a silk merchant and 

 throwster, had business premises in Taunton as well 

 as in London, and Rupert Jones spent his early years 

 in Somerset, receiving school education at Taunton 

 and llminster. There the fossiliferous beds of the 

 Lias attracted his attention, and the bent of his mind 

 was directed towards science rather than commerce. 

 In 1835 he was apprenticed to a surgeon at Taunton, 

 and he completed his service at Newbury. Geology 

 absorbed all his spare time, and many of his early 

 observations in the neighbourhood of that Berkshire 

 town were published in a pamphlet in 1854. After 

 1842 Rupert Jones was engaged for some years, 

 chiefly in London, in medical practice. Familiar with 

 the use of the microscope, he applied it with signal 

 success to the study of fossil microzoa. His researches 

 now brought him into contact with William Harris, 

 of Charing, who had gathered a fine collection of 

 Chalk fossils, including the minuter organisms. That 

 geologist also possessed a daughter who became the 

 first wife of Rupert Jones. 



In 1849 his monograph of the Entomostraca of the 

 Cretaceous formation of England, his earliest impor- 

 tant work, was published by the Palaeontographical 

 Society. In the following year he was appointed 

 assistant secretary to the Geological Society of London 

 at Somerset House, where his ability and precision 

 were shown in the editinn^ of the society's quarterly 

 journal. Ever busy, he edited during the years 1854- 

 58 the last editions of Mantell's " Geological E.xcur- 

 sions round the Isle of Wight," "Medals of Creation," 

 and " Wonders of Geology." He likewise prepared 

 for the Palajontographical .Society further important 

 monographs on the Tertiary Entomostraca (1856), and 

 on Fossil Estherifc (1862). In 1858 Rupert Jones was 

 appointed lecturer on geolotry at the Royal Military 

 College, .Sandhurst, and four vears later professor, 

 when he resigned his post at the Geological Societv, 

 and removed to Farnborough, in Hampshire. In 

 association with Dr. Henry Woodward he edited the 

 first two volumes of The Geological Magazine in 

 186 '-65. and among other works edited the " Reliquiae 

 Aquitanicae " of E. Lartet and H. Christy (1875), and 

 the second edition of "Dixon's Geologv of Sussex" 

 (.878). 



His special studies were n<it neglected. He con- 

 tributed to scientific societies and journals numerous 

 original art'cics on recent and fossil Foranvnifent, 

 and F)nloniostraca (Ostracoda and I'hvllopoda), sub- 

 jects on which he came to be recognised as the lead- 

 ing authoritv in this country. Much work, mor^'ovor, 

 was uone in coniunction with his friends, W. K. 

 Parker, H. B. and G. S. Brn'Iv, Tlf.uv W-.ndw nnl, 



NO. 2165, VOL. 86] 



J. W. Kirkby, and others. Thus he received aid in 

 the preparation of the monc^raphs on the Foramini- 

 fera of the Crag (1866-97), ^"^ on British Carboni- 

 ferous Entomostraca (1874-84). In 1880 Prof. Jones 

 retired to London as the special teaching of geology 

 at Sandhurst was then abandoned by the military 

 authorities. 



His interests extended over a wide geological field, 

 and he had a profound knowledge of the literature. 

 South African geology especially attracted him. In 

 later years he gave much attention to the antiquity 

 of man, and wrote on the nlateau implements in 

 1894. Of sturdy build, though below the average 

 height, he was of a cheery disposition, prone to jocu- 

 larity, but ever ready to give earnest help to others. 

 Proof-correcting he regarded as one of his recreations. 

 Prof. Jones was elected F.R.S. in 1872, and the 

 Lveu medal was awarded to him in 1890, by the 

 council of the Geological Society. He was president 

 o*" the Geologists' .Association in 1879-81, and presi- 

 dent of the Geological Section of the British .Asso- 

 ciation at Cardiff in i8()i. H. B. W. 



NOTES. 



A MOST important discovery in regard to the existence 

 of r.ian in early Pleistocene or Pliocene strata has been 

 made by the Marquis of Cerralbo in Spain. In the 

 alluvial deposits of the River Jalon, which is an affluent 

 of the Guadalquiver, he has discovered very abundant re- 

 mains of undoubted Elephas meridionalis in contact with 

 well-characterised implements of human workmanship of 

 the proto-Chellean type. Photographs of the specimens 

 and of the cuttings in which they occur have been received 

 from the Marquis in Paris, and Prof. Marcelin Boule left 

 Paris in Easter week in order to examine the site and the 

 specimens. It is .possible that E. meridionalis may have 

 survived in the south of Europe from Pliocene into early 

 Pleistocene times, but the association of implements of 

 human workmanship with this early species of elephant 

 is altogether new. This discovery tends to confirm the 

 truth of Mr. Moir's contention that the admitted proto- 

 Chellean flint implements discovered last year by him in 

 Suffolk, and exhibited at the Geological Society in the 

 autumn, are really anterior to the Red Crag deposit 

 beneath which they occur. It is to be hoped that Mr. 

 Moir will soon publish an illustrated account of bis dis- 

 covery. 



A VERY interesting expedition is about to visit the neigh- 

 bourhood of .Astrakhan. It consists of a party of trained 

 medical observers, provided with all appliances for re- 

 S( arch, organised in Paris, and under the personal direc- 

 tion of Prof, Elie Metchnikoflf. The object of the 

 expedition is two-fold. It will study the history of the 

 endemic foci of plague in the neigbbourhood of .Astrakhan. 

 The cause of the repeated outbreak of plague in this 

 region, which although usually on a small scale is of almost 

 regularly annual occurrence, will be investigated in the 

 light of our present knowledge of the relation of rat-like 

 animals and fleas to plague. A second object is. to investi- 

 gate the causes of the singular difference of susceptibility 

 to phthisis presented by the Calmuck Tartars and the 

 Russian town population. It appears that the Cnlmucks 

 when living tbcir usual nomadic life in tents are free from 

 phthisis, yet when young Calmucks (semi-adult) nr<" brought 

 into the towns to be " educated," they invariably contract 

 phthisis and die. What is the reason of the less suscepti- 

 bility of the Russian town population? Is it due to 

 immunity conferred by other microbes than that of 

 tuberculosis which have escaped detection hitherto, and 



