February i, 19 12] 



NATURE 



455 



famous " Natural History of Selborne," with collections 

 illustrating his work and times. The exhibition will be 

 open on February i6 at the conversazione, and to the public 

 on the following day by kind permission of the First Com- 

 missioner of his Majesty's \\orks. It is hoped that all 

 who have objects of interest which should form part of 

 the exhibition will communicate with the honorary secre- 

 tary of the Selborne Society, at 42 Bloomsburv Square, 



^^'."c. 



At the end of the current session Sir Willirfm Ramsay, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., will resign the chair of general chemistry 

 in University College, London, to which he was appointed 

 in 1887. At a meeting of the Senate of London University 

 held on January 24, it was resolved :— " That the Senate 

 accept Sir William Ramsay's resignation with sincere 

 regret, and d£sire to express to him their high apprecia- 

 tion of the services which he has rendered to the University 

 both by his inspiring work as a teacher and by the great 

 series of researches carried out by him at LTniversity 

 ■College during his tenure of the chair of chemistry." It 

 is unnecessar}' here to refer to Sir William Ramsay's dis- 

 tinguished career, since so recently as January 11 his work 

 was described in our " Scientific Worthies " series by Prof. 

 Wilhelm Ostwald. 



On Monday, January 29, Prof. J. Norman Collie, F.R.S., 

 gave to the Royal Geographical Society an account of his 

 recent explorations in the Rocky Mountains to the north 

 of the Yellow Head Pass. In 1910 he and Mr. A. L. 

 Munn utilised the new branch of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway by Edmonton to explore the valley of the Smoky 

 River and the mountain region which it traverses. All 

 existing maps of the region are both incomplete and 

 inaccurate, and the information gained in 19 10 encouraged 

 the explorers in 191 1 to utilise the routes which they had 

 found, and to study more thoroughly the region ti'aversed 

 in the preceding year. Magnificent glaciers, vast snow- 

 fields, and range upon range of snow peaks were seen ; the 

 main watershed was determined over many miles of the 

 range, and topographical questions of interest were investi- 

 gated. Series of parallel ranges with transverse valley 

 complicate the drainage, which at some points is indeter- 

 minate, flowing at one point to the Atlantic in 1909, and by 

 a new channel in a shingle fiat to the Pacific in 1910. 

 Both to the mountaineer and to the student of mountain 

 structure this region, now being rendered accessible by 

 railway, offers problems of the greatest interest. 



We regret to record that the distinguished surgeon, Sir 

 Henry Trentham Butlin, Bart., died on January 24, at the 

 age of sixty-six. He was elected president of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of I'nt^l.nul in 1910, and again in 

 i'liT, but to the rcf^ret I all Immd it necessary to resign 

 that honour only a few weeks ago on account of his 

 health. His investigations and clinical observations helped 

 to improve many branches of practical surgery, but his 

 chief services to medicine were rendered as an ardent sup- 

 porter and leader of every movement directed towards the 

 improvement of medical education and of medical research. 

 He was himself a keen student of cancer, regarding that 

 disease as parasitic in nature, and took a most active part 

 in the management of the Cancer Research Fund. During 

 the years he was dean of the medical faculty of the Uni- 

 isity of London he led a strenuous movement which 

 ught to concentrate the teaching of medical subjects in 

 1 toaching university worthy of London. He was presi- 

 1' at of the British Medical Association when that body 

 held its great meeting in London in 1910. His great 

 l)ublic services to medicine were recognised last year, when 



NO. 2205, VOL. 88] 



he was created a Baronet. Sir Henry Butlin was a pupil 

 of Sir James Paget, and held the memory of that great 

 surgeon in the highest esteem. 



We announcf'd last week with regret the premature 

 death of M. lin'ophile Duraiul, director of the Jardin 

 Botaniquu dc TEiat at Brussels, who, after a prolonged 

 illness, which assumed a serious aspect about six weeks 

 ago, passed away on Friday, January 12. He was born 

 at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, a suburb of Brussels, on 

 September 4, 1855. In 1880 he entered the Botanic Garden 

 at Brussels, then under the directorship of F. Crdpin, and 

 he remained intimately connected with that establishment 

 to the last. He was appointed " Conservateur au Jardin 

 Botanique " in 1880 and director in 1902, succeeding 

 F. Cr6pin. He was more a bibliographer and compiler 

 than a man of original research, but within those limits 

 he was very active and successful. In most of *his publi- 

 cations he shared the authorship with a collaborator, prob- 

 ably an unavoidable consequence of his very defective eye- 

 sight ; but he is solely responsible for the " Index Generum 

 Phanerogamarum," which appeared in 188S, and for the 

 " Introduction " and the third volume (Phaneroganies) of 

 the " Prodrome de la Flore Beige," by Durand and 

 De Wildemann. With the latter he also published a 

 volume of " Illustrations de la flore du Congo," and 

 another of " Contributions k la flore du Congo "; further, 

 " Plantae Thonnerianae Congolenses," " Reliquiae 

 Dewevrianae, " and a " Mat^riaux pour la flore du 

 Congo"; with Schinz, a "Conspectus Florae Africae," 

 of which, however, oni\ vol. i., part i., and vol. v. 

 appeared, and "Etudes Mir la flore de I'dtat inddpendant 

 du Congo"; with his daughter H^l^ne, a " Sylloge florae 

 Congolanae " (Phanerogamae) ; with Pittier, a " Primitiae 

 Florae Costaricensis," since continued by Pittier; and with 

 B. D. Jackson the first supplement to the " Index 

 Kevvensis." T. Durand was a corresponding member of 

 the Belgian Academy, a Chevalier de I'Ordre de Ltepold, 

 and Oflicier de I'Ordre de la Couronne. He was for some 

 time president of the Geographical Society of Belgium, and 

 general secretary of the Botanical Society of Belgium, and 

 in 1910 he acted as one of the presidents of the Inter- 

 national Botanical Conj^nw, lukl at Brussels. 



.\.N extension of the llorniman Museum, comprising a 

 lecture hall and a new library, the gift of Mr. Kmslie J. 

 Horniman, was opened to the public on January 27 by Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president of the Royal Society. 

 The library is a students' reference library of books on 

 anthropology, zoology and botany, and other works of 

 assistance to biological workers. In declaring the building 

 open, Sir Archibald Geikie said that the old idea that a 

 museum is a miscellaneous collection of oddities has passiil 

 away. Museums are now to be found in every town of 

 consequence, and they .u. .i^ nuich an essential part of 

 a town's organisation .is .m art gallery or public library. 

 One great necessity in starting a museum is to begin on 

 scientific lines. The Horniman Museum has been arrange*! 

 on such lines, which give the ordinary man in the street 

 a clear notion of the relations of different animals and the 

 various functions which they perform. One good feature 

 is the excellent labels affi.xed to the specimens. A good 

 label is just about as essential as the object to which it is 

 aftlxed. 



.\ ciKCULAK letter from ih' Ixesearch Defence Society 

 reminds us that it is ju-^i Imii years since the society was 

 founded, to make gener.illy known the facts as to experi- 

 ments on animals in this country, and the regulations under 

 which they are conducted, the immense importance of such 



