696 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Another remarkable trait of the character of your lamented 

 brother was his perhaps too liberal disposition to work in science 

 for the benefit of others, without credit for himself. Not only did 

 he give his time to the determination of an immense number of 

 specimens which were sent to him by students, or by so-called 

 authors, etc., but often, without claiming his right of authority, 

 he determined the species, prepared descriptions of the new ones, 

 when he well knew that they would be published under the names 

 of his applicants. He has thus fixed a far larger number than 

 those which were published in his name. Even lately he exam- 

 ined a large collection of mosses in which his opinion was re- 

 quested, prepared descriptions of new species, remarks on inter- 

 esting ones, etc., and from this work a catalogue was made by the 

 same applicant, the notes copied as well as his remarks, and thus 

 the authorship was literally taken from him, and not even a word 

 of credit was given for his work. Such absence of scientific hon- 

 esty was not even resented by your brother, who merely alluded 

 to it as a poor reward for hard work. A character as was his, 

 without trace of envious or jealous feeling, marked by true kind- 

 ness for everybody, by a ready disposition to acknowledge and 

 help every effort for the advancement of his science of predilec- 

 tion, to recognize errors and to correct them without the slightest 

 word of depreciation, could but excite admiration and love ; and, 

 indeed, your brother was truly and sincerely loved by the few 

 who knew him well ; for he was not open to everybody. A man 

 of few words, he never talked of himself or his doings, and thus 

 only those who had the privilege of being intimate with him 

 would recognize his noble nature." 



IN a paper read at the recent International Geographical Congress, Mr. 

 H. Yule Oldham, of the University of Cambridge, attached great value in 

 the study of the history of geographical discovery to the mediaeval manu- 

 script maps or portolani. Usually made for practical purposes, by sailors, 

 they were, as a rule, free from personal and political bias. A careful study 

 of them gives valuable corroboration and often correction of information 

 derived from ordinary documents. It was long customary to ascribe the 

 discovery of the Madeiras and Azores to the fifteenth century, but they 

 were found on maps of the fourteenth century. Similarly at a later period 

 Cuba was shown to be an island at a time when, according to the ordinary 

 historical documents, it was believed to be continental; and the Bermudas 

 and other islands were shown on maps of earlier dates than those to which 

 their discovery was ascribed. So often was cartographical information 

 found to be ahead of historical records pointing to the results of otherwise 

 unrecorded voyages, that additional interest and importance were lent to 

 those maps which seemed to indicate the possibility of a pre-Columbian 

 discovery of America. 



