26 



NATURE 



[September ii, igig 



plane was above the clouds half the time, and the 

 navigator was in a position which precluded any 

 possibility of seeing out of the machine. He was, 

 nevertheless, able to direct the course of the 

 machine, forecast the time of arrival half an hour 

 in advance with an error of less than two minutes, 

 and find the force and direction of the wind de- 

 flecting the machine from her course from time to 

 time, such predictions being found to be accurate 

 when compared with the meteorological report 

 later in the day. 



In certain circumstances excellent results can be 



Fig, 



-Return journey. Dotted line, thus —.. — ..— indicates actual track 

 machine as followed by map readers. 



obtained when only one beacon station is avail- 

 able. This is especially useful when the beacon 

 is at one's destination, when head bearings alone 

 are used. J. Robinson. 



PROF. ALEXANDER MACALISTER, F.R.S. 



IN the death of Prof. Macalister, at the age of 

 seventy-five, British anatomy loses a singu- 

 larly gentle and kindly master, who, in a quiet 

 and unobtrusive way, exerted a great influ- 

 ence upon the teaching of his subject during the 



NO. 2602, VOL. 104] 



last fifty-nine years — for he had qualified to prac- 

 tise medicine, and had become a demonstrator of 

 anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in 

 Dublin before he was seventeen years of age ! — 

 and upon the development of the medical school 

 in Cambridge, where he was professor of 

 anatomy for thirty-six years. While acting as 

 demonstrator in anatomy at the Royal College of 

 Surgeons he was a student at Trinity College ; 

 at the age of twenty-five he became professor of 

 zoology there, and eight years later succeeded to 

 the chair of anatomy and chirurgery. At Trinity 

 College he developed that craving for 

 encyclopasdic knowledge which through- 

 out his life he was continually striving to 

 satisfy. He was especially devoted to the 

 study of Celtic archaeology and ancient 

 Egyptian literature, and in his own sub- 

 ject his wonderful powers of memory and 

 his persistent accumulation of facts by 

 personal observation gave him a know- 

 ledge of the details of anatomy and the 

 literature relating to it which was almost 

 uncanny and at times disconcerting 10 

 those who sought his advice. For, with- 

 out intending to discourage youthful ad- 

 venturers in anatomical research, the 

 formidable record of what had already 

 been accomplished, which he was able to 

 give quite impromptu to one who was 

 contemplating some original investigation, 

 was responsible for bringing to nought 

 not a few budding aspirations. Prof. 

 Macalister never seemed to realise the 

 crushing effects of his vast erudition. In 

 the latter years of his life he often dis- 

 cussed with the writer the efforts he had 

 made to encourage men to do research, 

 and his difficulty in understanding why 

 so little came of it. 



When he succeeded to the chair of 

 anatomy in Dublin he took Sir George 

 Humphry, of Cambridge, as his guide 

 and master, and began a series of detailed 

 investigations in comparative anatomy and 

 especially myology ; but when he became 

 Humphry's successor he devoted himself 

 more and more to osteology, and to the 

 end of his life he continued to collect data 

 and fill note-book after note-book with 

 the records of his observations and 

 admirable pencil drawings. Unfor- 

 tunately, only a relatively small proportion of 

 these results have been published. When, from 

 time to time, his friends pressed him to make his 

 work available ' for other anatomists, he would 

 modestly disclaim that any journal would find 

 space for the contents of his voluminous note- 

 books, or urge that they were always available 

 for anyone to use ; and, in fact, he was ever 

 generously ready to give the results of his work 

 to anyone who asked for them. Prof. Macalister , 

 spent his life in amassing facts, and avoided 

 generalisation and the formulation of explanations- 1 



