42; 



NATURE 



[January 31, 19 18 



for a time a member of the Senate, and up to the 

 date of his death was chairman of the deleg-acy 

 which g-overns the City and Guilds Eng-ineering- 

 College. It was at his instance that the Institu- 

 tion of Civil Eng'ineers adopted an examination 

 scheme so that candidates for admission to mem- 

 bership must now pass an educational test as well 

 as an investigation of their experience in con- 

 structional work. 



At the memorial service held at St. Margaret's 

 Church, Westminster, on Saturday, January 26, there 

 were present, in a large and distinguished congrega- 

 tion, representatives of many scientific societies and 

 other bodies with which Sir J. Wolfe Barry was 

 connected, including the following : — British Science 

 Guild (Sir Robert Hadfield and Sir Alex. Pedler) ; City 

 and Guilds Engineering College (Profs. W^ E. Dalby, 

 A. R. Forsyth, and T. Mather) ; Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology (Sir Alfred Keogh and Mr. 

 Alexander Gow) ; Institute of Municipal and County 

 Engineers (Mr. Thomas Cole); Institution of Civil 

 Engineers (Mr. Harry Jones and Dr. J. H. T. Tuds- 

 bery) ; Institution of Electrical Engineers (Mr. R. 

 Elliott-Cooper and Mr. Alexander Ross); Institution 

 of Naval Architects (Sir Henry J. Oram and Mr. 

 Robert W. Dana); King's College, London (Mr. W. 

 Smith) ; National Physical Laboratory (Sir Richard 

 Glazebrook) ; Royal Institution (Sir W. Phipson Beale 

 and Hon. R. C. Parsons); Royal Society (Sir J. J. 

 Thomson and. Sir Richard Glazebrook) ; Roval Societv 

 of Arts (Mr. A. A. Campbell Swinton and Mr. G. K. 

 Menzies) ; and Surveyors' Institution (Mr. Alexander 

 Goddard). 



T>R. WILLIAM GREENWELL, F.R.S. 

 "" I ""HE distinguished archaeologist, Dr. William 

 -^ Greenwell, of Durham, died on January 27 

 in his ninety-eighth year. He was affectionately 

 referred to by everybody as Canon Greenwell, on 

 the streng-th of a minor canonry of Durham, 

 which was the highest promotion the Church 

 found for him, and which he adorned for more 

 than sixty years. For all that time he was the 

 guide, philosopher, and friend of two generations 

 of archaeologists. What he was to the Church 

 in Durham may be indicated by his preservation 

 of the windows of Lanchester Church and by 

 other work in ecclesiastical antiquity. 



Dr. Greenwell became the local secretary for 

 Durham of the Society of Antiquaries in 1866, and 

 was elected a fellow in 1868. He did not attend 

 to be admitted until 1875, but in the meantime 

 made several communications to the society. His 

 contributions to Archaeologia were six,' made 

 between 1889 and 1909. The majority of the 

 papers read and exhibits made by him to the 

 society during his fifty-two years' association 

 with it related to prehistoric archa?olog-y, on which 

 he wrote with hig^h authority ; but he was equally 

 at home in describing a ring of Alfred the Great's 

 sister, which he had added to his collections, or a 

 portrait of Mary Tudor, belonging- to the Dean 

 and Chapter. He was an indefatig-able explorer 

 and a discriminating collector. Before 1880 he 

 had accumulated objects from 234 barrows, and 

 these he presented to the British Museum. No 

 NO. 2518, VOL. 100] 



sooner had he given away or sold one collection 

 than he began to make another. This happened 

 more than once. The latest instance is that of 

 the fine collection of remains of the Bronze age 

 which was acquired for the British Museum a few 

 years ago by the munificence of a lamented 

 American millionaire. We are much mistaken if, 

 since then, another collection has not been well 

 begun. He lectured at the Royal Institution in 

 1867 on the Yorkshire barrows. 



Dr. Greenwell joined the Ethnological Society 

 in 1868, was forthwith elected on its council, and 

 contributed to it in 1870 an account of the open- 

 ing of Grimes Graves near Brandon, in Norfolk. 

 He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1878. He addressed the Royal Archaeological In- 

 stitute at Durham in 1908 with "extraordinary 

 knowledge and lucidity ' ' on the development of 

 the spear and dagger during the Bronze age. 



Of his published works, besides his papers in 

 the Transactions of these and many other 

 societies, and several ancient records edited by 

 him for the Surtees Society, the principal is that 

 on British barrows, in which the late Prof. 

 Rolleston collaborated. 



Dr. Greenwell was honorary D.C.L. of Durham, 

 a man of versatile accomplishments and much 

 learning. He was an adept in the sport of fly- 

 fishing, which he practised almost to the last. 

 Genial and witty, warm-hearted and enthusiastic, 

 he lived every day of his long life. 



MISS ETHEL SARGANT. 

 jyy the death of Miss Ethel Sargant, which 

 ■*-' occurred on January 16, after a brief illness, 

 at the. age of fifty-four, botanical science has 

 sustained a . severe loss. Miss Sargant was 

 educated at the North London Collegiate School 

 and at Girton College, Cambridge ; she took the 

 two parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1884 

 and 1885. In 1913 she was elected to an honorary 

 fellowship of Girton College. She was a fellow of 

 the Linnean Society, and was the first woman to 

 serve on its council. At the time of her death she 

 was president of the Federation of University 

 Women. 



Miss Sargant spent a year at Kew (1892-93), 

 working at the Jodrell Laboratory under Dr. D. H. 

 Scott; she always spoke with gratitude and en- 

 thusiasm of the training in the methods and spirit 

 of research which she received at his hands. A 

 paper written in collaboration with Dr. Scott 

 appeared in the Annals of Botany in. 1893. All 

 Miss Sargant 's later research was carried out 

 privately, for some years in a laboratory built in 

 the grounds of her mother's house at Reigate, and 

 eventually at her own home in Girton village, 

 Cambridge. Her earlier work, after leaving Kew, 

 was cytological, and dealt with the formation of 

 the sexual nuclei in Lilium martagon. Her atten- 

 tion to the structure of the embryo-sac bore further 

 fruit at a later date in an interesting theory • 

 regarding the meaning of "double fertiHsation " 

 m Angiosperms, which she developed in the 

 Annals of Botany for 1900. 



