786 



NATURE 



[June 17, 1922 



to the Agricultural Industry," Right Hon. Lord 

 Bledisloe ; " Educational and School Science/' Sir 

 Richard A. Gregory. The lamented death of Dr. 

 W. H. R. Rivers deprives the psychology section of its 

 president-designate. He had chosen as the subject 

 of his address "The Herd-instinct and Human 

 Society." 



Among the subjects "of joint discussions are : 

 ■' Economic Periodicity," " The Origin of Magnetism/' 

 " Psychoanalysis and the SchQol/' " Mental Characters 

 and Race/' " The Present Position of Darwinism." 



" Vitamins/' " The Possibility of increasing the Food 

 Supply of Great Britain/' and " Reformed Mathe- 

 matical Teaching." 



There will also be evening discourses on " The Atoms 

 of Matter/' by Dr. F. W. Aston, and " Fishing : Old 

 Ways and New/' by Prof. W. Garstang. 



Special efforts are being made by the local secretaries 

 at the Guildhall, Hull, to secure a large list of 

 members, as by so doing it is hoped substantial grants 

 may be made to the Association towards the advance- 

 ment of science in its various ramifications. T. S. 



Obituary. 



Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S. 



DR. WILLIAM HALE RIVERS RIVERS, whose 

 death occurred on June 4 at the age of fifty-eight 

 years, came to Cambridge, at the invitation of Sir Michael 

 Foster, in October 1893, to lecture on the psychology 

 of the senses, and was made University lecturer in 

 physiological and experimental psychology in December 

 1897 ; these two subjects were separated in 1907, 

 when Rivers was made lecturer in the physiology of 

 the senses. By this time he had established the 

 Cambridge School of Experimental Psychology, which 

 has produced many distinguished psychologists. 



In 1898 Rivers joined the Cambridge Anthropological 

 Expedition to Torres Straits and had charge of the 

 psychological work, in which he was ably helped by 

 his pupils, C. S. Myers and William McDougall. This 

 was the first occasion on which trained psychologists 

 with adequate equipment had attempted to investigate 

 the psychology of natives in the field, and valuable 

 results were obtained. While studying the psychology 

 of the Torres Straits Islanders, Rivers began to collect 

 genealogies in order to ascertain how far aptitudes or 

 disaptitudes ran in families. He very soon found that 

 the genealogies revealed a number of valuable data 

 with regard to vital statistics, such as the number of 

 births and deaths in a generation, the proportion of 

 the sexes, the effects of fresh strains coming into a 

 family, and the like. This method of research enabled 

 him to record kinship terms with accuracy, and a 

 consideration of them led to a study of social organisa- 

 tion. He also found that certain social duties and 

 privileges were confined to certain specific relation- 

 ships. Thus step by step he was led to realise the 

 prime importance of social grouping for an under- 

 standing of social structure and function, and he 

 found that the genealogical method was best fatted 

 to supply the necessary data. On joining the Expedi- 

 tion, Rivers went out with the sole object of studying 

 comparative psychology ; he came back a keen ethno- 

 logist, having in the meantime forged a new instrument 

 of research. 



Four years later, in 1902, he went to south India 

 to investigate the Todas, and in his important mono- 

 graph (" The Todas," 1906) on that small but most 

 interesting people, he proved once more the value of 

 the genealogical method. His researches demonstrated 

 how a trained mind, sympathetic manner, and scientific 

 method can accomplish a great deal of first-class work 

 in a relatively short time. 



His first expedition to Melanesia was made in 1908, 

 when he devoted most of his time to the Solomon 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



Islanders. The practical result of his work there was 

 the publication in 1914 of his monumental " History 

 of Melanesian Society." The Melanesians were usually 

 regarded as primitive folk of low culture, but Rivers 

 demonstrated the existence of at least four layers of 

 culture, due to as many migrations into that area. 

 He dissected out, as it were, the main constituents of 

 each layer, and showed that certain beliefs, rites, 

 customs, and objects were found to be linked together 

 in an organic whole in each layer or complex. He 

 also discussed acutely the probable effects of one 

 culture upon another, and showed that certain condi- 

 tions which had usually been considered as due to 

 social evolution were better regarded as a case of social 

 adjustment between a pre-existing and an immigrant 1 

 custom. The method formulated by Rivers is one of I 

 prime importance and is capable of indefinite extension 

 to other peoples. 



As an example of the continual growth of the mind 

 of Rivers and his intellectual honesty, it is interesting 

 to note that in his presidential address to Section H 

 of the British Association in 191 1, and in his " History j 

 of Melanesian Society " (1914), he points out the 1 

 change that had taken place in his standpoint. The 

 greater part of the book had been written as an evolu- 

 ' tionist, and, in commori with other English ethnologists, 

 he believed that similarities of custom and belief are 

 the results of the uniform reaction of the human mind 

 to similar conditions. A further consideration of the 

 facts and problems with which he was then occupied 

 led him to the view that these similarities are the 

 result of diffusion from a common source by means 

 of migration — a view which certain older British 

 ethnologists had held, though it was temporarily 

 neglected. This change of standpoint prepared 

 Rivers for an enthusiastic acceptance of the main 

 principles enunciated by Prof. G. Elliot Smith in his 

 " Migrations of Early Culture " (1915), and ever after 

 Rivers was a keen supporter of cultural migrations. 



Throughout this time Rivers continued teaching in 

 the School of Psychology, and maintained his interest 

 in that subject. He also made researches on the 

 influence of alcohol and other drugs on fatigue, and 

 on cutaneous sensibility in collaboration* with Dr. 

 Henry Head. 



During the period of the war. Rivers was made 

 temporary captain in the R.A.M.C, and naturally 

 occupied himself with psychopathology. He was 

 appointed Medical Officer to the Military Hospital, 

 Maghull, later to the Craiglockhart War Hospital, and 

 finally was psychologist at the Central Hospital R.A.F. 



