228 



NATURE 



[January 4, 1894 



Victoria Nyanza, and a year later Baker was able to sup- 

 plement their discovery by arriving on the shores of the 

 Albert Nyanza, the size of which he considerably over-esti- 

 mated. He did not return to London until 1866, and found 

 his fame as a traveller established. He received many 

 honours, including that of knighthood and the gold 

 medals of the Royal Geographical Society and the Paris 

 Geographical Society ; but in the following year, again 

 accompanied by Lady Baker, he returned to Africa. 

 The story of his first journey is recorded in two fascinat- 

 ing books — "The Albert Nyanza Great Basin of the Nile," 

 in 1866, and "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," in 

 1867. In 1 869 he commenced the occupation of the upper 

 White Nile provinces for the Egyptian Government, at 

 the head of a body of Egyptian troops, and for five years 

 laboured at the heavy task of restraining the slave-deal- 

 ing Arabs and keeping in order his apathetic and often 

 disaffected Egyptian subordinates. He established steam 

 navigation on the Nile to the equator, and in his 

 " Ismailia," published in 1874, told the story of the ex- 

 tension of Egypt. This completed his career as a 

 pioneer and explorer ; but a traveller he remained to the 

 very end of life, and until last year he spent almost 

 every winter either in Egypt or in India. He took a keen 

 interest in the geography of Africa, and at critical m.o- 

 ments in the course of recent developments in that 

 continent he did not fail to give the benefit of his advice 

 for the guidance of the country. 



In 1879 he visited every part of the island of Cyprus, 

 recording his impressions in " Cyprus as I saw it in 

 1879." The many reminiscences of his hunting adven- 

 tures in every continent made his last book, " Wild 

 Beasts and their Ways," a most valuable contribution to 

 that liberal form of natural history which studies the 

 lower animals as mankind is studied by the sociologist or 

 historian rather than by the anatomist or physiologist. 

 Baker was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869, 

 and received the official recognition of several govern- 

 ments and innumerable learned societies in all countries 

 for his services to geography and to humanity. His 

 health kept up to within a month of his death, and to the 

 last he remained a keen sportsman. He died in his 

 residence at Sandford Orleigh, Newton Abbot, in Devon- 

 shire, and his funeral takes place at Woking to-day. 



NOTES. 

 The list of New Year honours contains the names of two 

 men of science in the public service — Mr. Norman Lockyer, 

 F. R. S. , Professor of Astronomy in the Royal College of Science, 

 and Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., Engineer-in-chief to the 

 General Post Office — upon both of whom have been conferred 

 Companionships of the Bath. 



"We note with much regret that Prof. Milnes Marshall, F.R. S., 

 of the Owens College, Manchester, met with a fatal accident 

 while ascending Scawfell, on Sunday, December 31. A notice 

 of his life and work will appear in our next issue. 



We have to record the death of Mr. R. Bentley, Emeritus 

 Professor of Botany in King's College, on December 24, at the 

 age of seventy-two. Mr. Bentley became botanical lecturer at 

 King's College in 1859, and three years later he was appointed 

 professor of botany at the London Institute. He was twice — 

 in 1866 and 1867 — elected president of the Pharmaceutical 

 Conference, and was well known for his works on pharma- 

 ceutical botany. 



The death is announced of Mr. R. Spruce, the well-known 

 botanist and explorer, in his 67th year. Rather more than forty 

 years ago Mr. Spruce visited South America on behalf of the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew, and successfully carried out some very 

 Important scientific investigations. He explored the river 

 NO. 1262, VOL. 49] 



Amazon, and crossed the continent from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. The introduction of the cultivation of cinchona into 

 India was very largely the result of Mr. Spruce's work, and his 

 fine collection of plants have done good service to commerce 

 and to botanical science. 



The chair of Agricultural Chemistry in the University of 

 Tokio has been accepted by Prof. Loew, of Munich. 



Mr. Smith Hill has been appointed Principal of the 

 Aspatria Agriculture College, in succession to the late Dr. 

 Webb. 



We understand that the Queensland Government, in pursu. 

 ance of their policy of retrenchment, have abolished the post 

 of Government botanist hitherto held by Mr. F. M. Bailey. 



^ Prof. W. H. Corfield has been appointed President, and 

 Dr. P. F. Moline secretary, of the English committee of the 

 International Congress of Hygiene and Demography to be held 

 at Budapest this year. 



Dalziel's correspondent at Copenhagen states that the time 

 of Central Europe was adopted throughout Denmark on the 

 first day of this year. 



A prize of 1250 francs is offered by the Natural History 

 Society of Dantzic for the best means of destroying the 

 poisonous insects in the forests of Western Prussia. 



We learn from the Times that the sum of ;!^6oo a year has 

 been bequeathed to the trustees of the Mason College, Birming- 

 ham, by the late Mr. Aubrey Bowen, of Melbourne. In making 

 the bequest the testator stipulates that the trustees shall apply 

 the sum in founding six scholarships of ,^100 a year each in con- 

 nection with the college, to be called respectively the first, 

 second, and third Bowen scholarships, for the promotion of the 

 study of metallurgy, and civil, mechanical, and electrical en- 

 gineering ; and the rest Priestley scholarships, for the promotion 

 of the study of chemistry. 



The refusal of the S.P.C.K. to withdraw a book by Prof. 

 Percy Frankland because in it experiments on living animals 

 were approved, has led Lord Coleridge to address a letter to the 

 secretary of the Society, in which he says : " I have learned 

 from what seems unquestionable authority that those who ad- 

 minister the affairs of the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge have finally determined to range the society in the 

 number of those favouring the practice of vivisection and advo- 

 cating its horrors. It is my duty, as I regard it, to separate 

 myself at once from such a body, and I have accordingly directed 

 Messrs. Childs not to pay any further subscription to the society. 

 As I informed you of what I should feel bound to do in the 

 events which have happened, I shall not occasion the society 

 any inconvenience." 



The following officers'of sections have been appointed for the 

 meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, to be held at Brisbane this year : — Section A — 

 Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics : Vice-presidents, Mr. 

 Clement Wragge and Mr. John Tebbutt ; secretary, Mr. J. P. 

 Thomson. Section B — Chemistry : Vice-president, Mr. J. B, 

 Henderson ; secretary, Mr. G. Watkins. Section C — Geology 

 and Mineralogy : Vice-president, Mr. W. H. Rands ; secretary, 

 Mr. Hargreaves. Section D — Biology : Vice-presidents, Dr. 

 A. Dendy, Mr. F. M. Bailey, and Mr. J. J. Fletcher ; secretary, 

 Mr. J. H. Simmonds. Section E — Geography: Vice-presi- 

 dent, Mr. D. S. Thistlethwayte, C.E. ; secretary, Major A. J. 

 Boyd. Section F — Ethnology and Anthropology : Vice-presi. 

 dents. Rev. James Chalmers and Mr. F. M. Curr ; secretary, 

 Mr. Archibald Meston. Section G — Economic Science and 

 Agriculture : Vice-presidents, Mr. G. A. Coghlan and Mr. 



