366 



NATURE 



[June 29, 19 16 



discharge of his many official duties. He probably 

 never left the Office with an official letter un- 

 answered. Perhaps it was his methodical habits 

 which led to a number of rather serious feuds 

 in the small meteorological circle. Certainly they 

 did exist, though Scott himself was a kindly and 

 thoroughly clubbable man. He was a recognised 

 leader of the Royal Society Club and took a 

 leading part in the incorporation therewith of the 

 Philosophical Club. He retained his connection 

 with the Athenaeum to the last. He was an 

 energetic and useful member of the governing 

 body of the South-Western Polytechnic. 



Shortly after his retirement he had the great 

 misfortune to lose his wife, who was a womaji of 

 strong personality and character, and very active 

 in the management of workmen's dwellings in 

 Chelsea. She was a daughter of the Hon. W. 

 Stewart, Island Secretary, Jamaica. Shortly 

 after her death Dr. Scott had a severe 

 fall on the stairs of the Meteorological 

 Society and injured the base of his skull, 

 grimly remarking when he was recover- 

 ing that if he had not been Irish the accident 

 would have been fatal. But he never completely 

 recovered from the effects, and for the later years 

 of his life, though he preserved all the outward 

 forms of business, he was not able to take an 

 active part in it. He was buried at Peper Harrow, 

 the seat of the Brodrick family, near Godalming, 

 on Wednesday, June 21. Napier Shaw. 



NOTES. 



The adjourned extraordinary general meeting of the 

 Chemical Society, called to consider the question of 

 the removal of the names of nine alien enemies from 

 the list of honorary and foreign members, was held 

 on June 21, Dr. Alexander Scott, president, in the 

 chair. Prof. W. H. Perkin's amendment, which was 

 carried on May 11, "That judgment be suspended 

 until after the war, in accordance with the resolution 

 of the. former council," was the motion before the 

 meeting. As an amendment to this it was proposed 

 by Mr. J. L. Baker, and seconded by Mr. F. F. Ren- 

 wick, "That the fellows of the Chemical Society 

 hereby record their detestation of German malpractices 

 in connection with the war, and whilst they refrain 

 at the present time from attaching personal respon- 

 sibility for the initiation of these to individual 

 chemists, they desire to mark their protest by resolv- 

 ing that the names of the following alien enemies : — 

 A. von Baeyer, T. Curtius, E. Fischer, C. Graebe, 

 P. H. R. von Groth, W. Nernst, W. Ostwald, O. 

 Wallach, and R. Willstatter, shall not appear in the 

 list of honorary and foreign members so long as the 

 war shall last, after which their position shall be 

 reconsidered." After considerable discussion, this 

 amendment was put to the meeting and was declared 

 lost. Mr. John Hodgkin then proposed a second 

 amendment in the following terms: — "The Chemical 

 Society considers that it is neither compatible nor con- 

 sistent with its loyalty to the Crown, whence the 

 royal charter under which it works was derived, to 

 retain any alien enemies upon its list of honorary and 

 foreign members. It is therefore resolved that the 

 names of A. von Baeyer, T. Curtius, E. Fischer, C. 

 Graebe, P. H. R, von Groth, W. Nernst, W. Ostwald, 

 O. Wallach, and R. Willstatter, who were elected 

 under happier conditions in recognition of their 



NO. 2435, VOL. 97] 



eminent services to chemical science — for which the 

 society still retains an undiminished appceciation and 

 regard — be, and are, hereby removed from the list of 

 honorary and foreign members." This was seconded 

 by Dr. S. Russell Wells, and put to the meeting, and 

 the president declared it as carried by 94 votes to 76- 

 The amendment was afterwards carried as a sub- 

 stantive motion, and the meeting then ended. 



Dr. J. G. Andersson, until lately head of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Sweden, has accepted the task of 

 organising, as director, a Geological Survey for China. 



Prof. H. Th6el has retired from his post as intendant 

 of the collection of invertebrate animals at the Riks- 

 museum, Stockholm. Dr. E. W. Dahlgren, the State 

 Librarian, has also retired on the completion of a 

 specially extended term of service. 



The special correspondent of the Times at Port Stan- 

 ley (Falkland Islands), in a message dated June 26,| 

 says : — " Sir Ernest Shackleton returned here yesterll 

 day. The relief ship got to about twenty miles off 

 Elephant Island, but was unable to make its way 

 further through the icebergs and floating masses of 

 ice which surrounded the island. Winter conditions 

 in the Antarctic this year are peculiarly severe, and a 

 more powerfully equipped ship than that lent by the 

 Uruguayan Government is needed to force a way to 

 Elephant Island, and relieve the twenty-two men 

 stranded there." 



The death of Mr. Frederick Enock removes a figure 

 well known to the public as a popular lecturer on 

 natural history. Few, however, realised the immense 

 amount of time he devoted to original research, chiefly 

 into the life-histories of insects. Of recent years he 

 devoted himself largely to the study of the Mymaridae, 

 or "fairy flies," a group of very minute liymeno- 

 pterous parasitic insects. In this group he discovered 

 many new genera and species, and traced out the 

 life-histories of not a few. Unfortunately, the results 

 of most of these investigations have not yet been 

 published. Mr. Enock's powers of manipulation, 

 whether as draughtsman or mounter of microscopical 

 objects, were of a high order. Originally intended 

 for the engineering profession, his innate passion for 

 Nature soon asserted itself, and his life was practically 

 all devoted to work in natural history. He had 

 suffered for some time from pernicious anaemia, and 

 passed away at his home at Hastings in his seventieth 

 year. 



Those who are interested in rites of initiation will 

 be attracted by a paper by the Rev. Noel Roberts on 

 " The Bagananoa or Ma-laboch : Notes on their 

 Early History, Customs, and Creed," published in 

 the issue of the South African Journal of Science for 

 last February. It contains a very complete account 

 of the practice of circumcision, which is the leading 

 part of the tribal initiation rite. A remarkable feature 

 in the beliefs of the tribe is the cult of an image of 

 the sacred crocodile, carved out of a block of wood 

 and kept in a secret mountain cave. A goat is 

 sacrificed, and after it is cooked the soup is poured 

 into a rude trough hollowed out in the underside of 

 the image. The crocodile is known as " the father 

 of the snake." The writer, on obviously insufiicient 

 grounds, compares this rite with the Egyptian legend 

 of the contest between Horus, god of light, and Sut, 

 god of darkness. The correct interpretation is prob- 

 ably to be found in a further study of the tribal myths, 

 which is obviously desirable. 



In the issue of Man for June Mr. V. Giuffrida- 

 Ruggeri discusses the relation of the Neolithic 



