December 8, 1923] 



NATURE 



837 



Obituary. 



Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, F.R.S. 



IN the death on November 13, at the age of eighty- 

 two, of Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, medicine and sanitary 

 science have lost a leader, and society has lost a very 

 interesting man. For some generations the Teales 

 had been medical practitioners in Leeds, and Mr. 

 Pridgin Teale's father — of the same name — had like- 

 wise a very large consulting practice in surgery in 

 and beyond the county of Yorkshire. The family 

 were in part of Huguenot descent (Pridgin = Pru3ean), 

 and to this strain no doubt Pridgin Teale owed much 

 of his social charm and vivacity. 



Of Pridgin Teale's eminence as a surgeon there is 

 no need to speak ; for the particulars of his professional 

 work our readers will look to the medical journals ; 

 it is our place to speak of his work as a man of science, 

 and especially as a reformer in sanitary practice and 

 in economy of fuel. For twenty years he was president 

 of the North-Eastern Branch of the Sanitary In- 

 spectors' Association, and to that body he deUvered 

 many addresses full of that vigour and acute practical 

 intelligence so characteristic of him. He was as ardent 

 in teaching and persuasion as he was ingenious in 

 suggestion and contrivance. In his well-known fire- 

 grate constructions it is interesting to know that Mr. 

 Teale was in intimate association, on the aesthetic 

 side, with Mr. de Morgan. Since the days of Mr. 

 Teale's most active life many changes have passed 

 over sanitary science, but among the earnest and 

 inventive pioneers in these subjects, Pridgin Teale's 

 name will scarcely be forgotten. 



To his friends' Pridgin Teale was one of the most 

 attractive of men. Absolutely sincere, unselfish, 

 blithe, and enthusiastic, he was one of the most 

 charming of companions and the most loyal and 

 generous of friends. C. A. 



Brigadier-General G. E. Pereira. 



The death, at the age of fifty-eight, of Brigadier- 

 General G. E. Pereira is a severe loss to Asiatic 

 geography, owing to the wide range of his Chinese 

 travels. He served at home in the Grenadier Guards 

 until 1899, when he was sent on special service to 

 China and was attached to the Chinese regiment in 

 the British Protectorate of Wei-hai-Wei. He accom- 

 panied the Japanese army in Manchuria in 1904, and 

 was military attache at Peking from 1905-10. 



General Pereira made good use of the intimate know- 

 ledge of the Chinese and fluent mastery of the language 

 acquired during these services, in long journeys in 

 China and Chinese Turkestan. His liest known 

 expedition was his walk overland in 1921 from Peking 

 to India across Tibet and through Lhasa. In this 

 journey he obtained much valuable information, 

 especially accurate heights of some of the passes in 

 eastern Tibet. In 1922 he started on what was intended 

 to be his last expedition, and crossed from Bhamo in 

 Burma by the chief road through south-western China 

 to the Yangtze at Sui-fu. He descended the Yangtze 

 by boat, and visited the island of Hainan in connexion 

 with his ethnographic studies. He returned up the 



NO. 2823, VOL. 1 12] 



Yangtze to Yunnan-fu, whence in compan)' with Dr. 

 Thompson he set out for south-eastern Tibet in the 

 hope of reaching Amnemachin, which is thought to 

 be the highest peak in the Kwen-lun Mountains, near 

 the upper bend of the Hwang Ho. He had seen this 

 mountain in 1921, and his descriptions led to the report 

 that it might be the highest mountain in the world. 

 Considering, however, its geographical relations, 

 General Pereira's own estimate of 25,000 ft. is probably 

 more correct. The two travellers reached A-tun-tze last 

 August, and letters from Pereira were full of enthusiasm 

 and hope for a successful journey to the Kuen-Luns. 

 He reached Yakalo, the French mission station, well 

 known as the residence of the Abbe Desgodins, by 

 the Salt Mines on the Mekong. His last letters were 

 dated there on September 15, and his fatal illness was 

 probably on the borders of autonomous Tibet. 



General Pereira had published but little, and those 

 interested in Chinese geography hoped that he would 

 devote his leisure to a general account of his extensive 

 travels. He was an enthusiastic adherent of the 

 traditional view that the Himalaya end in Assam, 

 and some of his last letters from A-tun-tze re-stated 

 his views on that problem. Amongst his scientific 

 contributions was obtaining for the Natural History 

 Museum its second Chinese skin of the, Panda, one of 

 those interesting animals living in southern China the 

 affinities of which are American. 



Mr. W. H. Dudley Le Soufir. 



The October issue of the Victorian Naturalist contains 

 an appreciation of the life and work of Mr. W. H. Dudley 

 Le Souef , Director of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 

 who died on September 6, at the age of sixty-six. Mr. 

 Le Souef was a prominent member of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria, and his extensive travels 

 over the Australian continent studying the habits of or 

 collecting native animals, birds, etc., provided material 

 for numerous papers which he contributed to the Club. 

 In most of these the main interest centred on the birds, 

 but other branches of natural history were not neglected. 

 He compiled a list of Victorian reptiles published in the 

 Victorian Naturalist of 1884, and was the author, with 

 Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, of two standard works, " The 

 Animals of Australia," and " The Birds of Australia." 

 In another volume, " Wild Life in Australia," he 

 brought together the accounts of his many expeditions 

 which had appeared from time to time in the Victorian 

 Naturalist and the Emu, the organ of the Australasian 

 Ornithologists' Union, of wiiich he was one of the 

 founders. His interest in Australian ethnology led him 

 to take part also in expeditions to King Island, the 

 Kent Group, and to Albatross Island. Mr. Le Souef 

 was an enthusiastic student of Nature, who was always 

 willing to bring natural history before an audience, 

 generally illustrating his lectures by lantern slides from 

 his own photographs. For many years he was Assistant 

 Director of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, and in 

 1902 he was made Director, in succession to his father. 

 Under his care the Gardens have become tiie most 

 important collection 01 animals in Australia. 



