August 4, 1923] 



NATURE 



171 



i 



heliometer. These observations were carefully dis- 

 cussed for systematic errors and combined with 

 meridian and photographic observations so as to give 

 accurate positions of all the brighter stars in this 

 region. The subject of the accurate positions of 

 southern circumpolar stars engaged Mr. Hough's 

 attention to the end, and four parts of Vol. XI. of the 

 Cape Annals deal with these stars. 



Mr. Hough's chief work was done with the new 

 Cape Reversible Transit-Circle. This instrument is 

 probably the best of its kind in existence and was 

 designed by Gill with a view of the elimination of all 

 conceivable sources of error. The principal parts of 

 the instrument arrived at the Cape in 1901, but a 

 considerable time naturally elapsed before it was 

 ready for use with its collimators and underground 

 azimuth marks in position. In 1903 and 1904 Mr. 

 Hough spent a large part of his time in the determina- 

 tion of the constants of the instrument, in particular 

 the error of every one of the 5' divisions of the fixed 

 circle was determined. The new transit circle was 

 brought into regular use in 1905. Under Mr. Hough's 

 direction two catalogues of fundamental stars based 

 on observations for the years 1 905-11 and 191 2-16, 

 containing respectively 1293 and 1846 stars, have been 

 published. Each star has been observed at least 

 sixteen times, four times in each of the four positions 

 of the instrument, and the resulting star places must 

 be among the most accurate we have. 



Under Mr. Hough's direction, rapid progress has 

 been made in the completion of the Cape Astrographic 

 Catalogue, Declination 40° to 52° South. Five volumes 

 of measures have now been issued, and this year a 

 magnificent volume giving the spherical co-ordinates 

 of all stars down to and including the 9th magnitude 

 of the C.P.D, scale. There are in all 20,843 stars in 

 this catalogue, and the places have been deduced from 

 all the material available both from the meridian 

 observations and the photographic plates. The over- 

 lapping parts of the plates have been carefully com- 

 pared and the plate constants adjusted so as to give 

 the best agreement possible. This volume has entailed 

 a large amount of work and must prove of the greatest 

 value in the future. 



It is impossible to enter here at length into the 

 different phases of Mr. Hough's work. The meridian 

 observations of the inner planets and the heliometer 

 observations of the outer planets have been carefully 

 collected and discussed. In conjunction with Mr. 

 Halm he discussed the motions of the Bradley 

 stars, and he has derived an accurate value of the 

 solar parallax from the radial velocities of stars as 

 observed at different seasons of the year. Besides 

 giving observations of the greatest accuracy the Cape 

 Publications contain valuable discussions for the 

 derivation of the fundamental constants of astronomy. 



Mr. Hough's contributions to astronomy were 

 recognised in various ways. In 1902 he was elected 

 F.R.S. He was president of the South African Philo- 

 sophical Society in 1907, and on the reconstruction 

 of that society as the Royal Society of South Africa 

 he was elected its first president. Last year he was 

 elected British vice-president of the International 

 Astronomical Union. His death at the age of fifty- 

 three is deeply felt by astronomers throughout the 

 world. J. J. 



NO. 2805, VOL. I 12] 



Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.C.I.E., F.R.S. 



By the death of Sir Henry Hoyle Howorth on 

 July 15, at the age of eighty-one, scientific circles 

 lose a characteristic figure belonging to a generation 

 which has almost passed away, while his many friends 

 mourn the loss of one for whose qualities all had an 

 intense respect and admiration. A man of strong 

 individual character, he had foibles which he himself 

 was not the last to regard with some humour. His 

 most remarkable characteristic, however, was his wide 

 intellectual range and the vast, and sometimes sur- 

 prising, extent of his knowledge. A constant attendant 

 at the meetings of many scientific societies, there were 

 few subjects on which he was not prepared at a moment's 

 notice to make a real contribution to discussion. 



Born in Lisbon on July i, 1842, Howorth was 

 educated at Rossall School and called to the Bar by 

 the Inner Temple in 1867. He soon, however, turned 

 his attention to politics and historical and archaeo- 

 logical studies, which became his main interests in 

 life. Of the large number of scientific and historical 

 works on a variety of topics which he published, the 

 first were two papers dealing with the races of Northern 

 Russia and the extinction of the mammoth respectively, 

 which were presented to the British Association in 

 1868 and 1869. They were followed by a number of 

 papers published in rapid succession in the journals 

 of scientific societies- such as the Royal Anthropo- 

 logical Institute, the Royal Historical Society, the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, and the like. They dealt, 

 among other subjects, with the ethnology and history 

 of the peoples of Central Asia and Eastern and Central 

 Europe and with geological topics connected with the 

 polar areas, and may be regarded as preliminary studies 

 for the works with which his name will mainly be 

 associated in the future. Of these, one, his " History 

 of the Mongols," of which the first volume, dealing 

 with the Kalmucks and Eastern Mongols, was pub- 

 lished in 1876, the second, dealing with the Tartars, 

 in 1880, and the third, on the Mongols of Persia, in 

 1888, brought him recognition in the form of the 

 K.C.I.E. in 1892 and election to the fellowship of the 

 Royal Society in the following year. He also pub- 

 lished a " History of Chengis Khan and his Ancestors " 

 in the Indian Antiquary. He had begun to rewrite 

 his " History of the Mongols " ; but the revision was 

 incomplete when he died. 



For the ordinary individual these detailed studies 

 of Asiatic history and ethnology might well have 

 sufficed ; but they were not adequate to satisfy the 

 needs of an intellectual energy so indefatigable as that 

 of Howorth. He took up the study of glacial problems 

 with equal zeal, and, be it said, with his usual love of 

 controversy. " The Mammoth and the Flood " ap- 

 peared in 1887, and " The Glacial Nightmare " in 

 1893, both being parts of a vigorous attack on Lyell's 

 glacial theory, based upon palseontological, geological, 

 and archaeological evidence and suggesting that the 

 deposition of drift and boulders was due to wave, 

 rather than glacial, action. He followed this up with 

 " Ice or Water ? " which appeared in 1905. At the 

 time of his death he was engaged on the revision of 

 " The Mammoth and the Flood." 



Sir Henry was also keenly interested in the history 

 of the Church, and was the author of a valuable and 



