EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xvii 



disease of the hip-joint as the result of a fall downstairs, 

 and was condemned to spend many years on his back. 

 A severe operation was performed when he was ten, and 

 at thirteen he was able to leave home and reside with a 

 tutor. He was left with a stiff joint, and from time to 

 time suffered greatly from sciatica. During his residence 

 in Sarawak a fall from a rickshaw produced an abscess, 

 from which he entirely recovered. For the first four 

 years in Oxford his leg seemed to give him no trouble 

 except for occasional attacks of sciatica, and, in spite of 

 his lameness, he used to find great pleasure in playing 

 golf. He enjoyed life to the full, his interests were 

 many-sided and keen, and he ran risks which, to one 

 with his active, energetic temperament, were perhaps 

 inevitable. An accidental slip, in April 1909, led to the 

 recrudescence of the old disease, and to all the terrible 

 suffering of his last illness. A too brief respite in its 

 course enabled him to return for a time and carry on 

 the old work for which he was always longing, and when 

 he was compelled to give this up he still continued, until 

 within a few months of the end, to help the Department 

 in many ways. In a letter from Margate, where he had 

 gone in the hope that the bracing air would restore his 

 health, he wrote : " I am so pleased to think that I can 

 do something at any rate, even if small, for the Hope 

 Department." His death, on June 22, 1912, was mourned 

 by a wide circle of friends interested in the most varied 

 sides of natural history, all of whom felt not only a keen 

 sense of personal loss, but also the loss to the science to 

 which they had devoted their lives. We at Oxford retain 

 grateful memories of pleasant years spent in hard work 

 and constant friendly intercourse, and his efficient 

 control of the Sarawak Museum and bright, attractive, 

 1* 



