4o6 



NATURE 



[July 13, 1916 



he directed the publication of the volumes of the 

 official "Catalogue," which were compiled by 

 English, French, and German experts; he edited 

 thei?ecMei7 de Travaux, the Annales du Service, the 

 " Memoires " of the French archaeological mission 

 in Cairo, and the Bibliotheque Egyptologique, and 

 still found time to write his new books and to 

 revise and re-edit long Egyptian texts. His 

 management of the museum was broad-minded 

 and liberal, and he did a great deal to popularise 

 the collections in it by means of his "Guide," of 

 which, alas ! edition after edition has been pub- 

 lished without an index ! 



Maspero's knowledge of Egyptology was 

 colossal, and he was always ready to place it at the 

 disposal of the expert as well as of the layman. 

 He broke through the old rule of only allowing 

 favoured investigators to excavate in Egypt, and 

 often supported personally applications to dig 

 made to the committee by comparatively unknown 

 individuals. He was courteous and helpful to 

 every honest inquirer, and, oddly enough, seemed 

 to go out of his way to help most those who 

 exploited his works and who most reviled his 

 methods and belittled his learning. During the 

 last two or three years of his career in Egypt his 

 action in respect of the native dealers in antiquities 

 was much criticised, and it provoked much angry 

 comment both among natives and Europeans. But 

 his friends knew that the mistakes he made were 

 not due to incapacity or ignorance, but to failing 

 health and overwork. He did his own work well, 

 but in doing that of half a dozen other men he 

 did some of it badly. No French official in Egypt 

 was ever more liked and respected by the natives 

 than Maspero, for they trusted him and regarded 

 him as a friend, and they greatly appreciated his 

 justness. In private life he was a delightful com- 

 panion, and his stories of Oriental life and char- 

 acter were drawn from a fund of knowledge of 

 the East which seemed to be literally inex- 

 haustible. The charm of his conversation was 

 great. His words were carefully chosen, though 

 his expressions were often archaic and quaint, 

 whilst the little mannerisms and gestures by which 

 they were accompanied well suited the genial 

 nature, the warm sympathy, and the kind-hearted- 

 ness of the man. In both hemispheres his death 

 will, be greatly regretted. Maspero received the 

 D.C.L. from Oxford in 1886, an honorary 

 K.C.M.G. in 1909, and he was elected perpetual 

 secretary of the Academic des Inscriptions et 

 Belles-Lettres in 1914. E. A. W. B. 



NOTES. 

 The King has been pleased to approve of the 

 appointment of the Earl of Crawford to be President 

 of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. 



The Harben lectures for 1916, on " Rivers as 

 Sources of Water Supply," will be delivered by 

 Dr. A. C. Houston at the Royal Institute of Public 

 Health, 37 Russell Square, W.C., on July 13, 20, 

 and 27, at 5 p.m. 



Prof. Arthur Smithells, F.R.S., professor of 

 chemistry in the University of Leeds, has received a 



NO. 2437, VOL. 97] 



special appointment for scientific service on the Staff 

 at General Headquarters (Home Forces) with the ' 

 rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and graded for pay as a 

 Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General. 



The medical committee of the British Science 

 Guild, under the chairmanship of Sir Ronald Ross, 

 passed the following resolutions at a recent meeting : 

 (i) The medical committee of the British Science 

 Guild views with disfavour the suggestion that has ' 

 been made by certain district councils to cease water- 

 ing the streets as a war economy, and is convinced 

 that such a step would be prejudicial to the public 

 health. (2) The medical committee also views with 

 great disfavour the pollution of the streets of London, 

 and of most cities and big towns, by dogs, and 

 considers that the attention of the Government and 

 of municipalities should be called to the possibility 

 of reducing the evil by increasing the tax on dogs 

 and by enforcing by-laws. The committee considers 

 that in towns the tax on one dog should be doubled 

 and a large progressive increase imposed on each 

 additional dog. 



The Times announces the death from wounds 

 received in action of Lieut. C. G. Chapman, R.E., 

 at the age of twenty-four. Lieut. Chapman, who 

 had served in more than one of the theatres ot war, 

 was the son of Prof. R. W. Chapman, of Adelaide 

 University. He was formerly in the Irrigation Branch 

 of the Survey Department of the Australian Govern- 

 ment, and had been in charge of surveying parties 

 which did good work in the Northern Territory and 

 the Daly River country. Since the outbreak of war, 

 when he enlisted as a private, he took part in the 

 survey of Lemnos for the Headquarters Staff, and 

 afterwards passed through the Royal Engineers' 

 School at Chatham. 



Attention is directed to the confusion that may be 

 caused by the Summer Time Act in the Meteorological 

 Ofifice Circular, No. i. In accordance with the Act, 

 the use of Greenwich mean time is not interfered 

 with for meteorological purposes, yet it is inevitable 

 that, unless the standard of time used is always 

 indicated in the record of observations, mistakes will 

 occur, especially as the expression " local time " is 

 often erroneously used as a synonym for the new 

 "Summer Time." The scheme of hours of observa- 

 tion at meteorological stations is international in 

 usage, and alternative schemes for winter and summer 

 were never contemplated. The eight sets of observing 

 hours are given in the Circular, and observers who 

 cannot continue at the old hours are strongly recom- 

 mended to select from the eight alternatives one which 

 will be convenient both for summer and winter, and 

 to change to that scheme once for all. A list is given 

 of the observatories in the British Isles which have 

 changed their hours of observation since the Act 

 came into force. 



A conference organised by the Bread and Food 

 Reform League on the national importance of utilis- 

 ing whole cereals in time of war was held in London 

 on July 4. The Government was urged to make 

 the use of whole cereals, especially whole wheat meal 

 and 80 per cent, wheat flour, i.e. meal from which 

 the less digestible woody fibre has been removed, 

 much more general than it is at present. In this 

 way it is claimed that not only would the national 

 bread supply be considerably increased, but the public 

 would be provided with a more substantial and 

 nutritious food. The Government was further asked 

 to take action to prevent the abstraction from cereal 

 foods of the germ of wheat and of the strong gluten 



