December 20, 1917] 



NATURE 



309 



He was secretary of the former society from 1889 

 to 1892, and afterwards vice-president. He con- 

 tributed seventy-five papers to it between 1877 

 and 1 9 10, which show the keen interest that he 

 took in the improvement of the fundamental con- 

 stants of astronomy. He revised Taylor's Madras 

 Catalogue and made systematic comparisons of 

 the Star Catalogues of Greenwich, the Cape, 

 Washington, Cordoba, Melbourne, Hong-Kong, 

 etc., with the object of deriving their systematic 

 rrors. He discussed the measures of the planet- 

 ary diameters, and investigated the errors of the 

 tabular orbits of Juno and Flora. 



This work formed an admirable preparation for 

 the post of superintendent of the Nautical 

 Almanac Office, to which Dr. Downing was ap- 

 pointed in 1892 on the retirement of Dr. Hind. 

 He retained this post for eighteen years, retiring 

 early in 1910. During his tenure of office the 

 solar and planetary tables of Newcomb and Hill 

 replaced those of Le Verrier, the list of ephemeris 

 stars was greatly enlarged, and Besselian co- 

 ordinates were introduced into the eclipse and 

 occultation sections, facilitating the accurate com- 

 putation of these phenomena. The "Lunar Dis- 

 tance " tables were dropped, as practically obso- 

 lete in navigation, and their place was taken by 

 the physical ephemerides of the sun, moon, and 

 planets, the regular publication of which is a 

 great convenience to observers. They were pre- 

 viously contributed to the Monthly Notices by Mr. 

 Marth, and have led to an increase of our know- 

 ledge of the surface currents of Jupiter. Dr. 

 .Downing took part in the international confer- 

 ence of directors of ephemerides which met at 

 Paris in 1896 to endeavour to attain uniformity 

 in the adoption of astronomical constants : its 

 efforts were partly successful, agreement being 

 reached on the questions of precession, nutation, 

 aberration, and solar parallax. He was one of the 

 founders of the British Astronomical Association 

 in 1890, and was its second president (1892-94). 

 He took part in two of the eclipse expeditions 

 organised by it — to Vadso, Lapland, in 1896, and 

 to Plasencia, Spain, in 1900. 



Dr. Downing availed himself of the publication 

 of the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung in 

 1899 to investigate the distribution of stars south 

 of the equator, for which complete homogeneous 

 material had previously been lacking. He found 

 that the galactic condensation of the faint stars 

 was greater in the southern hemisphere than in 

 the northern. In conjunction with Dr. Johnstone 

 Stoney he calculated the perturbations of the 

 Leonid meteors between 1866 and 1899. Their 

 results were published too late to warn the public 

 of the probable non-appearance of the shower in 

 1899, so that considerable disappointment was 

 caused, though the result was really in accord 

 with calculation. 



Dr. Downing spent the last few years in quiet 

 retirement, owing to failing health. His tragically 

 sudden death on December 8 resulted from angina 

 pectoris. He leaves a widow and daughter. 



A. C. D. Crommelin. 

 NO. 2512, VOL. 100] 



NOTES. 



The death of Mrs. Garrett Anderson on December 

 18, at eighty-one years of age, deprives the world of a 

 pioneer whose persistent efforts opened to women the 

 portals of institutions having the power to confer quali- 

 fications to undertake medical practice. She was the 

 first woman to secure a medical diploma in this coun- 

 try, and she lived to see a steady stream of capable 

 women enter the door which she was chiefly the means 

 of opening. Mrs. Garrett Anderson was born in Lon- 

 don in 1836, and in i860 began her medical studies 

 with the view of obtaining an English qualification as 

 a practitioner. No medical school of the metropolis 

 would receive her as a student, and the Royal College 

 of Surgeons, as well as the Royal College of "Physicians, 

 declined to allow her to sit for their examinations. 

 She obtained, however, private tuition in anatomy and 

 surgery, and studied at the London Hospital as a 

 nurse ; and after completing her course, was able to 

 establish her claim to be examined by the Society of 

 Apothecaries, which was compelled by its charter to 

 admit to examination all persons, irrespective of sex, 

 who presented themselves after passing through an 

 approved course of study. She thus obtained the de- 

 sired qualification of licentiate of the society, and began 

 to practise medicine. In 1866 she opened a disp)ensary 

 near Lisson Grove, Marylebone, and out of this under- 

 taking grew the New Hospital for Women in the 

 Euston Road, of which she remained senior physician 

 until 1890. With Miss Jex-Blake, Mrs. Garrett Ander- 

 son endeavoured to induce the University of Edinburgh 

 to grant medical degrees to women, but unsuccessfully. 

 She went to France, however, and obtained the degree 

 of doctor of medicine of the University of Paris in 

 1870. The refusal of the northern University to admit 

 women to its medical schools led to the establishment 

 of the London School of Medicine for Women, and the 

 alliance of this school with the Royal Free Hospital 

 completed the provision for teaching required bv the 

 General Medical Council. From its foundation in 1876 

 until i8g8 Mrs. Garrett Anderson lectured to the 

 students on medicine, and from 1883 to 1903 acted as 

 dean of the school. In 1896-97 she was president 

 of the East Anglian branch of the British Medical 

 Association, and £rave an address on "The Progress of 

 Medicine in the Victorian Era." At Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 

 which was her home for many j'ears, she was elected 

 mavor in iqo8, and was the first woman to occupy such 

 a post in England. In August last the honour of 

 Commander of the Order of the British Empire was 

 bestowed upon her by the King. Medical women will 

 long cherish the memory of the pioneer to whose 

 courage and stronf character they largely owe the posi- 

 tion now occupied by them. 



The student of natural science is continually sur- 

 prised by the inaccuracies which appear when writers 

 and artists in the general Press touch even the 

 most elementary conceptions of the natural world in 

 which we live. Mr. J. Reid Moir has just directed 

 our attention to a remarkable case in a large 

 advertisement published in various newspapers on 

 December 4. It purports to be a reply to 

 a question propounded in displayed type, "'How 

 did Man conquer the Dinosaurus?" and is made 

 attractive by a sketch of a Diplodocus-like animal 

 being attacked by primeval man. The most elementary 

 acquaintance with geology would have assured the 

 author that his question could never arise, because all 

 the dinosaurs were extinct long before man appeared; 

 and even if, presuming on little knowledge, he had 

 mentally confused a dinosaur with a mammoth, he still 

 made a fundamental mistake (as Mr. Moir points out) 

 in providing the huntsman with a Neolithic implement. 



