December 8, 192 1] 



NATURE 



475 



(ionic, thermal, etc.) the committee recommends 

 the symbol o ; for the ratio of specific heats the 

 symbol y ; and for electrode potential, as for elec- 

 tromotive force, the symbol E. It may also be 

 noted that the committee recommends that 

 kation should always be spelt with a "k." 



While the committee considered it to be in- 



advisable that any attempt should be made to 

 compel authors to use the symbols which it recom- 

 mends, it was of opinion that every means should 

 be taken to encourage the use of these symbols, 

 and it remains for the different official bodies 

 concerned to consider how such encouragement 

 can best be given. 



Obituary. 



Dr. J. A. Allen. 



MR. H. E. Anthony, associate curator of 

 mammals in the American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York, has sent us a de- 

 tailed notice of the life and scientific work of Dr. 

 J. A. Allen. Lack of space prevents us from 

 publishing more than the following extracts re- 

 ferring to a few points of particular interest : — 



Natural history has suffered a heavy loss by 

 the death, on August 29 last, of Dr. Joel Asaph 

 Allen at eighty-three years of age. Dr. Allen was 

 best known for the work in mammalogy which 

 he carried out as curator of ornithologA' and mam- 

 malogy in the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory of New York City. However, his activities 

 were manifold, and an insight into the truly re- 

 markable amount of work accomplished by Dr. 

 Allen may be gained from a glance at his biblio- 

 graphy, which in 1916 included the following : 

 Papers on mammals, 271; on birds, 966; 

 on reptiles, 5 ; on zoogeography, 9 ; on evolution, 

 22 ; on nomenclature, 35 ; on biography, 134; mis- 

 cellaneous, 20; a total of no less than 1462 

 papers. Since the publication of this list other 

 papers have appeared and a great deal of un- 

 published manuscript has been prepared for pub- 

 lication. One could not but be impressed by such 

 a list as a mere feat of writing alone, but the 

 workers in his field who consult the publications of 

 Dr. Allen know that an infinite amount of 

 patience, of painstaking application to tiring 

 detail, and of well-balanced and judicious weigh- 

 ing of facts, is characteristic of his papers. 



The bulk of Dr. Allen's papers deal with taxo- 

 nomic questions, with the identification of collec- 

 tions and with the revision of groups. Many of the 

 latter have become classical, and among the best- 

 known might be mentioned the monographs on 

 North American Rodentia, written in collaboration 

 with Dr. Elliot Coues. Dr. Allen had marked 

 capabilities for philosophical research into, and 

 interpretation of, the phenomena of zoology, as 

 is well shown by some of his earlier papers, but 

 circumstances directed that he should expend his 

 energies in other directions. 



One of his youthful aspirations was for editorial 

 work, and from 1874, when he edited his first 

 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History," until 1918 he performed continuous 

 service as editor of several scientific publications. 

 For thirty-two years of this period he edited the 

 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, and for twenty-eight years the Auk. 

 NO. 2719, VOL. 108] 



Probably Dr. Allen is best known internation- 

 ally through his authoritative position on zoo- 

 logical nomenclature. In this exacting field he 

 was pre-eminent; internationally his worth was 

 recognised by his position on the International 

 Commissions since 1910. 



Among the many honours which Dr. Allen re-, 

 ceived may be mentioned the Walker Grand Prize 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1903, 

 and the medal of the Linnaean Societv of New 

 York in 1916 ; he was president of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union, 1883-91, president of 

 the Linnaean Society of New York, 1890-1897, 

 member of the National Academy of Sciences, etc. 

 He was also an honorary member of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union, the Zoological Society of 

 London, the Australian Ornithologists' Union, 

 and the South African Ornithologists' Union. 



The early part of Dr. Allen's life was spent in 

 New England. That part of his academic train- 

 ing which had most influence upon his later life 

 was his association w'ith the great teacher, Louis 

 Agassiz. Struggling under the handicap of a 

 constitution at no time very strong, he made 

 several notable collecting trips, the most im- 

 portant being that to Brazil in 1865. His first 

 museum appointment was with the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, but in 1885 he took a curatorship in the 

 American Museum of Natural Histor\' of New 

 York City. Here his tenure was continuous until 

 the time of his death. 



Dr. Allen numbered among his friends practic- 

 ally all the well-known workers on birds and 

 mammals, and the respect for his scientific attain- 

 ments promptly grew into a love of the man him- 

 self whenever one was fortunate enough to be 

 numbered among his personal friends. 



W. A. Baillie-Grohman. 

 It is with much regret that we record the death 

 of Mr. W\ A. Baillie-Grohman, who passed away 

 suddenly on November 27 at Schloss Matzen, in 

 Tyrol, in his seventy-first year. A man of striking 

 physique, endowed with high courage and great 

 mind, he possessed an intense affection for the 

 wild and grand in Nature, coupled, . remarkably 

 enough, with an unflagging interest in much that 

 is purely scholarly. That such a man, the son of 

 a sporting Austrian of large estate, should have 

 developed in early youth what proved to be per- 

 manent tastes for hunting and mountaineering was 

 perhaps inevitable, and in due course his adven- 



