November ii, 1915] 



NATURE 



289 



at Cornell University, in June, 1906, and one in 

 Hanover, at Dartmouth College, in June, 1908. 

 During the past summer advantage was taken of 

 the World's Fair at San Francisco and the cele- 

 bration of the completion of the Panama Canal 

 to hold the first Pacific Coast meeting at San 

 Francisco, Stanford University and the University 

 of California, under the presidency of Dr. W. W. 

 Campbell, director of the Lick Observatory of the 

 University of California, at Mount Hamilton. 



The meeting opened on Monday, August 2, 



jivith addresses of welcome by Mr. W. H. Crocker, 



Irst vice-president of the International Exposition, 



►r. B. I. Wheeler, president of the University of 



ifornia, and Dr. D. S. Jordan, chancellor of the 



;land Stanford Junior University. Prof. H. F. 



)sborn, of the American Museum of Natural 



[istory, responded on behalf of the Association, 



id Dr. Campbell delivered an address entitled 



Science and Civilisation." 



The sessions of the different sections of the 



jsociation and of the affiliated societies were held 



Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of 



le same week in the buildings of the University 



\i California, at Berkeley (across San Francisco 



Say), and the sessions of Wednesday were held 



\t Leland Stanford Junior University, at Palo 



klto, an hour away from San Francisco by rail. 



>n Monday evening a general reception to visit- 



ig members was held in the California Building 



the Exposition grounds at San Francisco. On 



Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday public addresses 



rere given as follows : Tuesday, by Prof. R. A. 



Dalv,"of Harvard University, on problems of the 



Pacific Islands; Thursday, by Prof. W. B. Scott, 



of Princeton University, on the isthmus of Panama 



and its influence on the animal life of North and 



South America; Friday, by Prof. P. S, Reinsch, 



American Ambassador to China, on the economic 



future of the Pacific. 



The following affiliated societies held meetings : 

 American Mathematical Society, Astronomical and 

 Astrophysical Society of America, American Phy- 

 sical Society, Geological Society of America, 

 Paleontological Society of America, Seismological 

 Society of America, American Society of Natural- 

 ists, American Society of Zoologists, Entomo- 

 logical Society of America, American Association 

 of Economic Entomologists, American Phyto- 

 pathological Society, American Fern Society, 

 American Psychological Association, American 

 Anthropological Association, Archaeological In- 

 stitute of America, and the American Genetic 

 Association. 



Many excursions to points of scientific interest 

 on the Pacific Coast were given. About six 

 hundred members were in attendance. All the 

 arrangements for the meetings were in the hands 

 of the newly-organised Pacific Coast division of 

 the American Association, which prepared a 

 source book of information upon the natural as- 

 pects of the Pacific Coast and upon the develop- 

 ments which have given to the Pacific Coast its 

 peculiar interest. It has been published under the 

 title of " Nature and .Science on the Pacific 

 Coast." 



NO. 2402, VOL. 96] 



Several interesting and rather important sym- 

 posia were held, notably one on the physics of 

 the air, under the auspices of Section B and the 

 American Physical Society ; three on the correla- 

 tion of the Triassic, the Cretaceous, and the Mio- 

 cene,^ under the auspices of the Paleontological 

 Society of America; and one by the American 

 Society of Zoologists on the role of variation and 

 heredity in evolution. An important series of 

 papers was presented by the Botanical Society of 

 America on the geographic distribution of plants. 

 A symposium was also held by the Educational 

 Section of the Association and the American 

 Association for the Study of the Feeble-Minded 

 on the subject of mental tests and their peda- 

 gogical significance. The American Anthropo- 

 logical Association brought together a series of 

 papers on the history of civilisation in the Pacific 

 area and another on the social aspects of race 

 factors in the Pacific area. 



SIR ARTHUR RUCKER, F.R.S. 



ON Thursday last, in the afternoon of a still 

 November day, amidst the russet and gold 

 of the dying year, all that was mortal of a high- 

 minded, courteous, cultured man — the true type 

 of an English gentleman — Sir Arthur Riicker, a 

 very "gentle knight" indeed, was committed to 

 earth in the graveyard of the Berkshire village 

 church in which for some years back, and so long, 

 as his waning strength permitted, he was accus- 

 tomed to worship. His end came peacefully, for 

 he died in sleep, apparently without pain, and so 

 quietly that it was hard to realise that his beautiful 

 spirit had indeed passed away. He had borne 

 with characteristic courage, patiently and uncom- 

 plainingly, an illness which he well knew to be 

 mortal. Although one of the most modest of men, 

 he must have realised that he had made of his 

 life a great success, for almost every mark of 

 appreciation and esteem that can fall to the lot 

 of a man of science had been accorded to him. 

 It was but natural, therefore, that when freed 

 from the cares and responsibilities of a high posi- 

 tion, and with an ample competency, he should 

 have looked forward to years of a dignified leisure 

 in which to resume his studies and to follow the 

 pursuits of the country life he loved so well. But 

 it was not to be. He had barely taken off his 

 harness when signs of the fatal malady made 

 themselves manifest. Yet no embittered word or 

 complaint ever escaped him, and he met the in- 

 evitable end with the calmness, resignation, and 

 fortitude of a martyr. 



Born in 1848, at the timje of his death he had 

 just completed his sixty-seventh year. He was 

 the eldest son of Mr. D. H. Riicker, a City mer- 

 chant living at Errington, Clapham Park. I was 

 privileged to see a little of the home-life at Erring- 

 ton, and I recall the head "of the house as a 

 polished, courtly gentleman with a benign manner, 

 reminiscent of Addison's worthy knight, and I 

 well remember, too, the pleasing deference and 

 affectionate respect with which father and son 

 regarded and addressed each other. The family 



