302 



NATURE 



[January 28, 1892 



gator, were at once made known ; and that on Septem- 

 ber 23, 1846, the planet Neptune was found by Dr. Galle, 

 of Berlin, on the basis of Leverrier's elements. Adams 

 and Leverrier rank as joint discoverers, and, as such, 

 they received on February ii, 1848, the gold medal of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society. Some members of 

 Adams's college, in order to mark their sense of the im- 

 portance of his achievement, raised a fund, which the 

 University accepted, for the founding of a prize, to be 

 called " The Adams Prize," to be awarded every two 

 years to the author of the best essay on some subject of 

 pure mathematics, astronomy, or other branch of natural 

 philosophy. In 1851 he was elected President of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society. 



As he did not take orders, his Fellowship at St. John's 

 expired in 1852, but he continued to reside in the College 

 until 1853, when he was elected to Pembroke. In 1858 

 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the Uni- 

 versity of St. Andrews, but he held this office only 

 during a single session. He became the Lowndean 

 Professor of Astronomy and Geometry, at Cambridge, 

 in 1859, in succession to the late Prof. Peacock, and 

 retained this position during the remainder of his life. 



Meanwhile, he had been carrying on many important 

 investigations ; and, until ill-health disabled him, his 

 labours were never seriously interrupted. Foremost 

 among his later achievements were the results of his 

 researches on the moon and on the theory of the Nov- 

 ember meteors. In 1866 the Royal Astronomical Society 

 awarded him its gold medal for his lunar researches. 

 He had succeeded Prof. Challis as Director of the 

 Cambridge Observatory in 1861, and in 1884 he served 

 as one of the delegates for Great Britain at the Inter- 

 national Meridian Conference at Washington. 



For about a year and a half before his death, Prof. 

 Adams was too ill to do as much work as he had been 

 accustomed to do, and during the last ten weeks he was 

 confined to bed. He died on the morning of January 21. 

 He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the 

 leading foreign scientific bodies ; and honorary degrees 

 were conferred upon him by his own University and by 

 Oxford. The post of Astronomer-Royal was offered to 

 him by the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1 881, on Sir 

 George Airy's retirement, but declined by him on the 

 ground of age. 



WALTER HOOD FITCH. 



THIS talented botanical artist, whose name appears 

 in almost every illustrated work of importance on 

 botany or horticulture that was published in this country 

 during the half-century from 1835 to 1885, expired at 

 his residence at Kew on the 14th inst., after several years' 

 indisposition, in which mental and physical decay were 

 combined. The deceased was 75 years of age, and his 

 whole life from early youth had been devoted to botanical 

 drawing and painting ; and his reputation was so high 

 and so world-wide that it is unnecessary to say much on 

 this point. Nevertheless, some particulars of the work 

 of a man who accomplished so much and so well may be 

 interesting to many persons who only know his work. 

 Of Scotch birth, he was apprenticed, while still very 

 young, to the designing department in a manufactory of 

 fancy cotton goods at Paisley. Here his natural aptitude 

 for drawing developed so rapidly and to such a degree 

 as to indicate that he possessed talents of no ordinary 

 kind, and his name soon became known outside of the 

 factory. By some means he came under the notice of a 

 friend of the late Sir William Hooker, and he, knowing 

 that the latter was in need of a draughtsman, strongly 

 recommended him to try the youth's capabilities. Sir 

 William Hooker, at that time Regius Professor of Botany 

 at Glasgow, acted on this suggestion, and the result was 



NO. I 161, VOL. 45] 



so satisfactory that he negotiated the cancel of Fitch's 

 indentures, took him into his sole employ, and trained 

 him for the kind of work he wished him to execute. We 

 have not ascertained the exact date of this event, but it 

 must have been as early as the year 1832, for already in 

 1834 he was a contributor to the Bota7iical Magazine^ 

 and he continued his connection with this long-lived 

 periodical down to 1878, having during this period 

 drawn and lithographed some 3000 of the plates. At 

 first his initials did not appear regularly on the plates, 

 but, on reference to the volume for 1837, it may be seen 

 that it was practically all his, and that he had already 

 become an efficient botanical draughtsman. The same 

 year (1837) the first volume of Hooker's " Icones Plant- 

 arum" was published, and although Fitch's name does 

 not appear, we have other evidence that he was the 

 artist. In short, he not only illustrated all the numerous 

 works of his first patron, but also those of his son, now 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, as well as those of numerous other 

 public and private persons. The fertility of his pencil 

 was equalled by its facihty, grace, vigour, and boldness ; 

 and his colouring was usually rich, and full, and truthful. 

 It is true that most of his work does not exhibit the 

 finish and minute detail characteristic of the master- 

 pieces of the productions of the few other botanical 

 artists with which comparisons could be made. In 

 1 841, Sir William Hooker was appointed Director of 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, Fitch accompanying him, and 

 residing there until his death. At Kew he found full 

 scope for his powers, and notable amongst the numerous 

 productions of his best days are the magnificent elephant 

 folio plates representing various stages of the develop- 

 ment of the Victoria regia as cultivated at Kew and 

 Syon House ; the plates of Sir William Hooker's nume- 

 i rous works on ferns ; of Sir Joseph Hooker's " Botany 

 of Sir James Ross's Antarctic Voyage " ; and his " Illus- 

 trations of Himalayan Plants and Himalayan Rhodo- 

 dendrons"; of Howard's " Quinologia" : of Bateman's 

 ' " Odontoglossum " ; of Welwitch's "West African 

 ; Plants"; of Speke and Grant's "Plants of the Upper 

 I Nile" ; and of Seemann's " Botany of the Voyage of the 

 } Herald." Examples of his later work are to be found in 

 1 Elwes's " Lilies," and the botany of Salvin and Godman's 

 I " Biologia Centrali-Americana," the latter the last im- 

 portant work he accomplished. As might be imagined 

 I from the amount of work he did. Fitch wielded the 

 I pencil with remarkable rapidity and freedom ; and one 

 could not but admire the way in which he stood up and, 

 ' free handed, guided his pencil over the stone without 

 any preliminary drawing. Botanical drawing, however, 

 is not a very lucrative profession, and therefore not likely 

 \ to attract persons of great attainments ; but when Fitch 

 became incapacitated through failing health, his merits 

 were so far recognized as to gain him a Civil List pen- 

 i sion, on the recommendation of the Earl of Beaconsfield, 

 of ^100 a year. 



NOTES. 



March 17 is the date fixed for the Bakerian Lecture of the 

 Royal Society, and Prof. James Thomson is to be invited to 

 deliver it. The Croonian Lecture is to be delivered on March 

 24 by Prof. Angelo Mosso, of Turin, the subject being "The 

 Temperature of the Brain." 



At the Council Meeting of the Royal Society on the 21st 

 inst., no fewer than ten deaths were announced, seven of the 

 deceased having been Fellows of the Royal Society, and three 

 Foreign Members. Taking into account that the average 

 number of deaths for the whole year is fifteen, such a list for a 

 single month is quite extraordinary. 



