July 13, 1916] 



NATURE 



405 



of the Lewis gun, the chief armament of our 

 present military machines. 



As General Henderson remarks at the close of 

 his preface, Mr. Lanchester's book is well worth 

 reading, and there is much in it worthy of study 

 and reflection. 



(2) The book by Mr. Robson can in no sense 

 of the word be called a scientific work. It is a 

 book for the " man in the street " who wishes to 

 know a little about aircraft and about the organ- 

 isation of our present-day air services. A great 

 part of the discussion of the importance of the 

 new aeronautical arm follows Mr. Lanchester's 

 argument verj' closely, often in almost identical 

 terms. There are many extravagant phrases in 

 the book, as an example of which may be given 

 the author's statement, in treating of the courage 

 and resource of British airmen : " Germany could 

 not wrest from us our ascendancy in the air even 

 if she had ten times as many aeroplanes as we 

 have." This is obvious exaggeration. Mr. Rob- 

 son foresees the time, after peace is established, 

 when aerial travel and transport will be the order 

 of the day, and everyone of moderate means will 

 possess his own private aeroplane. This seems 

 to be going too far at the present stage of develop- 

 ment, and only future experience can justify the 

 prediction of such a brilliant future for aero- 

 nautics. The book can in no w'ay be compared 

 with Mr. Lanchester's work on the same subject, 

 but it may prove useful to those who want a 

 non-technical and popularly written outline of the 

 present, and possible future, position of aero- 

 nautics in warfare. E. F. R. 



SIR GASTON MASPERO, K.C.M.G. (Hon.). 



THE receipt of the news of the sudden death of 

 Sir Gaston Maspero, whilst attending a meet- 

 ing of the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles- 

 Lettres in Paris on Friday, June 30, has been 

 received with keen regret not only by Egypto- 

 logists, of w-hose science he was the ablest and 

 most competent living exponent, but also by 

 archaeologists generally throughout the world. To 

 his personal friends his death was not wholly unex- 

 pected, for during the last two years he suffered 

 severely from acute illnesses at intervals, and his 

 usually bright and cheery outlook on life was 

 clouded by the bitter grief he felt at the loss of his 

 nearest and dearest during the war. His brave 

 spirit, however, clung to his work, and the last 

 parts of the Annales du Service and Recueil de 

 Travaux prove by his contributions to them that 

 his great mental faculties and powers of work 

 remained in effective condition to the end. 



Maspero was born in Paris on June 23, 1846, 

 and his family appears to have been of Italian 

 origin. Little is known of his early years, but 

 whilst still a boy he devoted himself to the study 

 of Egyptology as exp>ounded in the works of 

 Chabas and de Rouge. His first important pub- 

 lication was a copy of the hieratic text of an 

 Egvptian hymn to the Nile, edited from papyri in 

 the British Museum, and accompanied by a French 

 NO. 2437, VOL. 97] 



translation; it appeared in Paris in 1868, when he 

 was about twenty-two years old. He was greatly 

 encouraged in his work by Mariette, who in 1854 

 had been commissioned by Said Pash^ to found 

 a museum of Egyptian antiquities at Bulak. In 

 1873 Maspero took the degree of Docteur-es- 

 Lettres, and soon after succeeded de Rouge 

 as professor of the Collie de France. In 

 1878 Mariette proposed to the French Govern- 

 ment to found an archaeological mission, and, 

 on the proposal being accepted, Mariette suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining the apf)ointment of director 

 for Maspero, who took up his duties in Cairo in 

 1880. 



In the following year (January 17, 1881) 

 Mariette died, and Maspero became director of 

 the Bulak Museum. In a very short time he 

 arranged the objects in the museum on a definite 

 system, and the catalogue of them w-hich he pub- 

 lished formed a most valuable compendium of 

 Egyptian archaeology. That the book may still 

 be read with pleasure and advantage is a great 

 testimony to the literary skill and knowledge of 

 its writer. Having arranged the museum, 

 Maspero devoted himself to developing, through- 

 out the country, the system of excavations which 

 Mariette had begun, and to the completion of 

 Mariette's unfinished editions of papyri, etc. The 

 discovery of the royal mummies and of the necro- 

 pKjlis of Panopolis, and the clearing of the royal 

 pyramids at Sakkarah and of the Temple of Luxor 

 are evidences of the activity of Maspero during 

 the first period of his rule at Bulak. In 1886, for 

 private reasons, Maspero resigned his directorship 

 at Biilak and returned to Paris, where he devoted 

 several of the best years of his life to the com- 

 pilation of his monumental "Histoire Ancienne des 

 Peuples de 1 'Orient Classique," which appeared in 

 three portly quarto volumes in 1895-99. A smaller 

 work, bearing almost the same title, was pub- 

 lished by him in 1875, ^nd the number of editions 

 through which it has passed attests its utility and 

 popularity. 



After Maspero's departure from Cairo in 1886 

 the management of the Egyptian museum fell into 

 weak hands, and the scandal that attended the 

 removal of the collections from Bulak to the Gizah 

 Palace will not soon be forgotten by all who are 

 interested in Egyptology. Matters went from bad 

 to worse until British public opinion in Elgypt 

 demanded a change of director, and another 

 Frenchman was brought to Egypt to preside over 

 the Ser\'ice des .\ntiquit^s. After two years it 

 became evident that the scandals connected with 

 the administration of the museum were increasing 

 in frequency and magnitude, and at length 

 Maspero was induced to return to Egypt and to 

 resume the directorship of antiquities. This he 

 did in 1899. 



From 1899 to 1914 Maspero worked with a con- 

 stancy and vigour which were marvellous. He 

 directed and visited the excavations carried out 

 by the Egyptian Government ; he inspected the 

 temples, and tombs, and other ancient buildings 

 each year, spending some months in the process ; 



