68 



KNOWLEDGE. 



CMakch 1, 1897. 



gation will throw doubt on its genuine character, for it was 

 carried out under test conditions ... the sole reservation 

 being the nature of the materials employed.' It wUl be 

 seen that M. Chassagne employs four solutions — one for 

 the purpose of rendering the plate or print susceptible to 

 the other three coloured solutions — but the composition of 

 the whole is, for the present, retained as a secret. Captain 

 Abney, who was with Sir H. T. Wood, says : "I was 

 present as a sceptic, and came av,ay partially convinced 

 . . . and I shall not be satisfied till I get the plates that 

 have been promised me by the inventor, and taken nega- 

 tives of certain test objects which will be unknown to the 

 inventor." — ►<-. — 



Dr. Arthur Willey, who, two and a half years ago, left 

 England for the South Seas in search of the eggs of the 

 pearly nautilus — the only living representative of the great 

 group of extinct animals whose shells are known as 

 ammonites — has been rewarded with success. He has 

 ascertained that these creatures are trapped in baskets by 

 the natives of some of the Melanesian Islands and used as 

 food. Last summer Dr. Willey, in Lifu, one of the Royalty 

 Islands, captured the nautilus in three fathoms of water, 

 and constructed a large submarine cage in which he kept 

 specimens, feeding them daily. By December last some 

 of the nautili had spawned in the cage. Each egg is as 

 large as a grape, and is deposited separately by the mother 

 nautUus. " It is," says Prof. Ray Lankestcr, "a legitimate 

 source of gratification to British men of science that a 

 successful result has followed from the application of these 

 funds " — referring to the Balfour studentship and the 

 Government grant fund of the Royal Society, by means 

 of which the young naturalist referred to was enabled to 



carry out his investigations. 



— »-.-• — 



The late Sir B. W. Richardson is credited with the 

 following curious information on suicides. The rate of 

 suicides is highest in the last four days of June, and 

 lowest in February ; more common among Protestants 

 than Roman Catholics, and rarest among the Jews. It 

 increases with education, and spreads with railways and 

 telegraphs. More men than women are swayed by its 

 influence, and the average of suicides is set down at 

 twelve in every one hundred thousand. 



All ornithologists will hear with deep regret of the death 

 of Herr Heinrich Giitke. Born in a small town of the 

 Mark of Brandenburg, Heinrich Giitke went at an early 

 age to the Island of Heligoland, resolving to pass a number 

 of years immediately by the sea as a marine painter. 



As is well known, the Island of Heligoland is without 

 rival as a bird observatory. Throughout the year — scarcely 

 ceasing for a day — tens of thousands of birds pass the 

 island on migration. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that Gatke the artist 

 should have become Giitke the ornithologist, so well known 

 by his book, " Heligoland as an Ornithological Observa- 

 tory," which was the result of fifty years' experience on 

 the island. Besides being an able thinker, Herr Gatke 

 was a splendid observer and field naturalist, and he will 

 be much missed by the ornithological world. It is indeed 

 to be hoped that his important position as an observer on 

 Heligoland will be filled without delay. 



surface. His early training as a draughtsman stood him 

 in good stead in his efforts to depict the formations on our 

 satellite. About thirty years ago he set up his first 

 observatory in Caldwell Street, Bedford, and was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1871. On 

 the founding of the British Astronomical Association, he 

 was asked to take charge of the lunar section. An enduring 

 monument of his achievements in the study of the moon 

 is to be found in his book, " The Moon," published in 1895. 

 Mr. Elger was also devoted, more or less, to other branches 

 of science, for he was a leading spirit in many scientific 

 enterprises in his own town, and also served as Mayor, on 

 the Commission of the Peace, and on many committees 

 where his experience was deemed valuable. 



'We regret also to record the death of Mr. Harry 

 Proctor, youngest son of the late R. A. Proctor, whose 

 name was for many years so closely associated with this 

 magazine. He died on the 20th December last, after 

 having recently attained his majority. The young man, 

 like his father before him, betrayed a predilection for 

 things scientific ; but, unfortunately, constitutional weak- 

 ness thwarted all serious efforts in this direction. 



Notices of ISoolts. 



Thomas Gwyn Empey Elger, who died on the 9th January, 

 aged fifty-nine, was a distinguished selenographer whose 

 researches added much to our knowledge of the lunar 



Journal of the Eir/ht Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Burt., K.B., 

 P.R.S. Edited by Sir Joseph D. Hooker. Pp. 466. With 

 Portraits and Charts. (Macmillan.) 17s. In this age of 

 multitudinous books, when the personal characteristics, 

 foibles, and views of minor men are preserved in print 

 more for the glorification of their families than on account 

 of public interest, it seems astonishing that the journal 

 kept by Sir Joseph Banks during Captain Cook's first 

 voyage in H.M.S. Emlearour, in 1768-71, should have 

 had to wait nearly one hundred and thirty years for publi- 

 cation. Yet that is so, and the story of why it is so is 

 told by Sir Joseph Hooker. It is briefly this. When Sir 

 J. Banks died without issue in 1820, his papers and cor- 

 respondence, including the journal were left to the late 

 Dr. Robert Brown, with the object of his writing a life of 

 Banks. Age and infirmities prevented the realization of 

 this project, and the materials were handed to Dr. Dawson 

 Turner, F.R.S., who had the whole faithfully transcribed. 

 In 1873 the originals and copies of the journal and cor- 

 respondence were deposited in the British -Museum ; but 

 they were claimed by Lord Brabourne some ten or eleven 

 years ago, afterwards to be sold in two hundred and seven 

 lots at Sotheby's for £'182 19s. ! For this beggarly sum 

 (minus the auctioneer's commission) the noble Peer was 

 willing to sacrifice all Banks' manuscripts and let them be 

 scattered to the four corners of the earth. But for the 

 copies taken when the journal and letters were in the 

 possession of Dr. Dawson Turner, the present volume 

 could not have existed. The action of I>r. Turner in 

 having the manuscript transcribed thus saved the work 

 from perishing, and for it naturalists cannot be too grate- 

 ful. How much would have been lost to science had such 

 forethought not been exercised can be seen in the volume 

 now before us. The charming narrative, full of first im- 

 pressions of a strange world and people ; the activity of 

 Banks as a collector and his acuteness as an observer ; and 

 the records of natural history, geography, hydrography, 

 and ethnography obtained during this unique voyage — the 

 pioneer journey of a naturalist around the world — combine 

 to place the volume in the first rank of scientific classics. 



Few works could await publication for a century and a 

 quarter and then be successful ; but the present volume 

 will find an even greater number of readers now than it 



