January 26, 1893] 



NATURE 



309 



I 



was more competent to give an opinion upon the scientific side 

 of the question, there was no necessity for doing so. He could 

 not refrain, however, from speaking upon one point. Among 

 the various characteristics of Sir Richa'-d Owen, one of the most 

 remarkable was his untiring industry, which enabled him to pro- 

 duce an amount of work which was truly prodigious. It could 

 hardly be expected that such a vast series of memoirs on so 

 many diverse subjects, as that which he had given forth to the 

 world during his long life, could all be equal in quality, or that 

 the merits of some of them should not have been the occasion 

 of controversy. He would only refer to one instance of this 

 kind. As long ago as 1837, Sir R. Owen read a 

 paper before the Society in whose rooms they were now 

 assembled, which was published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, and in which certain remarkable characteristics 

 were stated to exist in the brain of marsupial animals, widely 

 distinguishing them from other members of the class to which 

 they belong. The conclusions apparently established by this 

 paper were generally accepted for nearly thirty years, but in 

 1865 another memoir was read before the same society, and 

 also published in the Philosophical Transactions, in which a 

 different view was taken both of the nature of the structural 

 peculiarities and of their significance in classification. The 

 views of the author of this second paper have generally found 

 favour until within a few months since, when an independent 

 investigation of the subject, carried on with all the improved 

 methods of modern research, by Dr. J. Symington, has resulted 

 in a declaration in favour of the accuracy of Owen's original 

 description and conclusions. These observations may still re- 

 quire confirmation by others, but as he (Sir W. Flower) was 

 the author of the second paper, he considered it only fitting 

 that he should, at a meeting assembled to do honour to the 

 memory of the great anatomist, from whom, on this point, he 

 had differed so long, call attention to them. He thought this 

 the best contribution he could make to the object for which they 

 had gathered together. 



Dr. P. L. Sclater suggested that, in addition, a memorial 

 catalogue of the late professor's writings should be issued, with a 

 portrait and biographical memoir. 



Sir James Paget moved that a committee be formed to carry 

 out the preceding resolutions. It would be impossible, he said, 

 to have any better evidence that the resolutions just passed were 

 right than the number and position of those who had offered to 

 serve on the committee, for there was never a more representative 

 list. Headed by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Teck, the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chancellor, it con- 

 tained nearly 150 of the most prominent workers in all branches 

 of science and many who were the best judges of the influence 

 of science on the general well-bemg of the nation. He was the 

 oldest person present who had worked with Sir R. Owen, and 

 could remember him on entering St. Bartholomew's Hospital as 

 a student in 1834. He could testify to the influence Owen had 

 exercised in promoting the study of science by showmg to all 

 around him how keen his delight was in it, and how in itself 

 alone it might be a sufficient reward. He resisted all tempta- 

 tions to leave science, though he might have been a very successful 

 medical practitioner ; and he was one of the first by whom the 

 real reform of sanitary matters was begun in this country. 



Sir J. Evans briefly seconded the motion. 



Sir A. Clark moved— "That the following list of gentlemen 

 constitute the executive committee : His Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales (chairman), His Serene Highness the Duke of 

 Teck, the President of the Royal Society, the President of the 

 Royal College of Physicians, the President of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons, the President of the Linnaean Society, the Presi- 

 dent of the Zoological Society (treasurer). Sir John Evans, Prof. 

 Michael Foster, Dr. A. GUnther, Prof. Huxley, Sir F. Leigh- 

 ton, Sir James Paget, Dr. P. L. Sclater, Mr. W. Percy Sladen 

 (secretary). Lord Waisingham, Mr. A. Waterhouse, R.A., and 

 Mr. Henry Woodward." Sir Andrew remarked that this 

 memorial movement reminded them that nations no more than 

 individuals can live by bread alone. Material prosperity did 

 not constitute the true abiding life of a nation ; it was necessary 

 that it should live by ideas : and the nation honoured those who, 

 like Owen, communicated new ideas which spurred others to 

 new courses of activity. 



Mr. T. Bryant, in seconding the motion, said the College of 

 Surgeons felt the loss that science had sustained in the death of 

 him who unquestionably was the grand expounder of John 

 Hunter and who, more than any one else, demonstrated the 



value of the materials John Hunter left behind him. He did 

 more than any one else to call the attention of the scientific 

 world to the museum in Lincoln's Inn, and by additions to it 

 to make it what it is. More than that, at a time when com- 

 parative anatomy and biological studies were little thought of 

 he called attention to the value of them, the necessity for them, 

 and the pleasures they would yield. As a young man he 

 attended Owen's lectures, and felt the full force of his quiet 

 enthusiasm, which was altogether independent of the materials 

 embodied in the lectures. 



Lord Piayfair, in supporting the motion, said that he was the 

 last surviving member of the Health of Towns Commission of 

 1844, upon which he was brought into continual intercourse 

 with Sir R. Owen, and therefore he knew how much Sir Richard 

 had at heart the advancement of sanitary science. This interest 

 in it he maintained throughout his whole career. He lived close 

 to Sir Edwin Chadwick, and although no two men could be 

 more unlike, they were most intimate friends, and were con- 

 stantly discussing how to advance the health of the nation. When 

 Sir Richard returned from his interesting expedition to Egypt 

 he told the speaker that he had come back in an unforgiving 

 spirit towards Moses, because though skilled in the learning of 

 the Egyptians, and having derived his chief commandments from 

 those of that ancient race, he missed one important one, " Thou 

 shall not pollute rivers." Owen, like Prof. Huxley, exercised 

 great influence outside the domain of science. Prof Huxley 

 had benefited the education of the country, and Prof. Owen had 

 considerable influence in improving the sanitary condition of 

 the country. 



Sir W. Flower read a first list of donations, headed with one 

 of £21 by the Prince of Wales. 



Sir Henry Aclaud moved, and Prof. Michael Foster seconded, 

 a vote of thanks to his Royal Highness for consenting to be- 

 come chairman of the committee, and for presiding on the 

 present occasion. 



The Prince of Wales, in responding, said, — I beg to return 

 my warmest thanks to my kind and valued old friend, Sir 

 Henry Acland, for the way he has proposed, to Mr. Michael 

 Foster for the way in which he seconded, and to you all for 

 the kind manner in which you have received this resolution. 

 It has indeed been a labour of love to me to-day to preside on 

 this very interesting occasion, and I think that it has seldom 

 been my good fortune to listen to more interesting or eloquent 

 addresses than those which have fallen from the lips of those 

 eminent gentlemen who have spoken. Nobody will take a 

 deeper interest in the carrying out of this memorial of our 

 lamented friend Sir Richard Owen thah myself, and most 

 sincerely do I hope that the great work that is to adorn the 

 Natural History Museum will be worthy of a great sculptor 

 and of the great man that it represents. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin de V A cad emit Royale de Belgique, Nos. 9 and 10. 

 Classe des Sciences. — On some new Caligidei of the coast of 

 Africa and the Azores Archipelago, by P. J. van Beneden. — On 

 an optical atmospheric phenomenon observed in the Alps, by F. 

 Folie (see Notes). — On a state of matter characterised by the 

 mutual independence of the pressure and the specific volume, 

 by P. de Heen. It is easily shown that the density of saturated 

 vapour at the critical temperature is variable, and depends, at 

 constant pressure, upon the proportion of liquid enclosed in the 

 tube. Experiments were made in order to decide whether this 

 independence of pressure and volume was shown also at other 

 temperatures. The liquid chosen was ether, and the volume of 

 liquid and vapour contained in a sealed tube was read by means 

 of a cathetometer. A series of results showed that during con- 

 densation by pressure the density of unsaturated vapour was 

 greater than that of satuated vapour, or that the specific volume 

 increased with the pressure. This is an experimental verification 

 of Prof James Thomson's pseudo gaseous state of matter. — On 

 the most complete reduction of invariant functions, by Jacques 

 Deruyts. — Ex-meridian observations made at the Royal Ob- 

 servatory of Belgium from March to October, 1892, by L. Niesten 

 and E. Stuyvaert. — On a new fluorine-derivative of carbon, by 

 Frederic Swarts. This is a liquid, of the formula CCI5F, 

 boiling at 24° 7, insoluble in water, and unaffected by sulphuric 

 and nitric acids. Its density is i '4944 ; an alcoholic solution of 



NO. 12 13, VOL. 47] 



