September ii, 1919J 



NATURE 



■27 



or theories. This thirst for facts and hick of 

 interest in their interpretation is nowhere more 

 clearly displayed than in his choice of subjects 

 for investigation. Perhaps the most striking^ in- 

 stance of this is his monograph on the lachrymal 

 bone. In spite of this curious trait, Prof. 

 Macalister was mainly responsible in this country 

 for maintaining an interest in morphology at a 

 time when anatomy was threatened with the fate 

 of being reduced to the mere mechanical craft of 

 the ^issecting-room. His text-book on anatomy 

 was the instrument by means of which his influ- 

 ence was extended far and wide, especially among 

 teachers of the subject. The great anthropological 

 collection which he made in Cambridge will 

 always remain as a memorial of his zeal and 

 energy. But to those who have been closely 

 associated with Prof. Macalister either as 

 students or colleagues the recollection that has 

 been imprinted most deeply in their memories is 

 that of a generous and kindly soul who throughout 

 the whole of his long career as a teacher of 

 anatomy continued to perform the duties of a 

 junior demonstrator gently "helping lame dogs 

 over stiles " in the dissecting room. 



PROF. L. W. KING. 



THE death of Prof. Leonard W. King on 

 August 20 is a serious blow to archa;oIogy 

 and to the British Museum. Prof. King had made 

 himself one of the foremost Assyriologists 

 of the day, and his comparatively recent 

 appointment to the chair of Assyriology in the 

 University of London was a recognition of his 

 work that was much appreciated by him, and com- 

 mended itself wholly to all students of the subject. 

 From the time when, a few years after his 

 appointment to the British Museum in 1893, Mr. 

 King published his first studies in .Assyriology, his 

 work has been known by its clarity, sanity, and 

 critical acumen. "Prove all things; hold fast that 

 which is good," may be said to have been his 

 guiding principle in his work. All scientific work 

 was to be criticised fearlessly, and what seemed 

 to his clearly distinguishing mind the true solution 

 (if a problem was to be upheld without hesitation. 

 All he sought was the truth, as it teemed probable 

 If) him. And no other consideration moved him. 

 He was a fine type of the modem scientific worker 

 in the field of archaeology, and the loss to science 

 (jf such a man in the flower of his age and activity 

 can scarcely be estimated. 



Prof. King was born in the year 1869. He was 

 therefore only forty-nine years of age v\hen pre- 

 mature death overtook him, largely as the result 

 of heavy double labour during the war as an 

 oflicial attached to the Intelligence Department of 

 the Admiralty and as student of Assyriology, 

 which adversely affected a system already, as we 

 can see now, severely tried by illness contracted 

 in the course of his excavations for the British 

 Museum at Kuyunjik (Nineveh) several years ago. 

 To outward seeming Prof. King was .1 man of 



NO. 2602, VOL. 104] 



robust health and physique, but in reality the 

 rigours of archfeological work in Assyria under 

 the conditions of fifteen years since had under- 

 mined his constitution, and when, in the present 

 year, the results of severe war labour coincided 

 with a recrudescence of old illness, he fell. 



Prof. King was a Rugbeian and a King's man. 

 The book in which he first made his mark was 

 "The Life and Letters of Hammurabi," the great 

 law-giver-king of Babylon. His works on the 

 Assyrian language are well known, and as a 

 proficient Semitic scholar his pronouncements on 

 this subject were always worthy of great respect. 

 His real interest, however, lay rather in the 

 elucidation of ancient history by means of the 

 cuneiform inscriptions than in the ancient lan- 

 guages themselves, and a notable contribution 

 to this end is his edition' of the Inscriptions of 

 Darius on the Rock of Bisitun (Behistun), which 

 he re-copied and edited, in conjunction with Mr. 

 R. Campbell Thompson, after their joint expedi# 

 tion to the spot on behalf of the British Museum, 

 which was carried out in circumstances of con- 

 siderable difficulty and hardship. His two more 

 recent works, "The History of Sumer and 

 Akkad " and "The History of Babylon," are the 

 standard histories of those lands in English. It 

 is ever to be regretted that he was not able to 

 bring out the third work of the trilogy he had 

 planned, "The History of Assyria," but the war 

 compelled him to put it by for the time, and then 

 illness stopped all further work. It is to be hoped, 

 however, that he will be found to have left his 

 manuscript sufficiently complete for his publishers 

 to produce the result of his labours. 



In his historical books the same clean-cut 

 critical faculty is shown as in his other work. 

 This criticism was welcomed by his friends and 

 fellow-workers in the same and kindred fields, for 

 King's interests were by no means confined to the 

 Land of the Two Rivers. He was keenly inte- 

 rested in Egyptian archfeology, but for the study 

 of the hieroglyphs or of Coptic he had no time ; 

 the demands of cuneiform were enough for him, 

 for he did all things thoroughly, and never 

 dabbled. In a minor degree the work of his 

 colleagues in the museum on Mycenfean archaeo- 

 logy also interested him. His Cambridge train- 

 ing made him somewhat suspicious of the so- 

 called "all-round man"; but he had an interest 

 in all branches of archajology, and read every- 

 thing that others had written on their several 

 subjects, and his remarks on their work were 

 always of value, and inspired by sound common 

 sense ; his comments were always conspicuous 

 for balance and sense of proportion. To other 

 workers in his ovyn field he was always scrupu- 

 lously courteous and anxious to give credit where 

 it was due ; his juniors were always sure to 

 receive their due meed of appreciation and in 

 addition energetic support. He will leave among 

 them a name of happy and grateful memory, 

 while his personal friends feel a very deep and 

 grievous loss. It is always to be regretted that 



