OBITUARY. 281 



Hatman Horace Wilson, Boden Professor of Sanscrit, and historian of India, 

 one of our few really great Oriental scholars. 



Andreas Retzius, the distinguished Swedish anatomist and ethnologist, Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Royal Caroline Institute, Stock- 

 holm. He was the son of Professor Ketzius, of Lund, graduated in 1819, 

 and soon after was attached as Anatomical Lecturer to the Veterinary Insti- 

 tution in Stockholm. He received the appointment which he held to the 

 period of his decease, at the Caroline Institute, in 1830. He is the author 

 of numerous anatomical and physiological monographs; among which, the 

 one descriptive of the Crania of Ancient Scandinavian Races, in which the 

 attention of ethnologists is especially called to the modifications of the skull, 

 defined by Professor Retzius as " dolichocephalic " and " brachycephalic," 

 has, perhaps, made his name most generally known in scientific and literary 

 circles in this country. 



M. Retzius (it is stated in the Athenaum) died in the full pursuit of science. 

 On his dying bed he made his observations on the progressing dissolution of 

 his own body. " This struggle of death is hard," he said to those about 

 him ; " but it is of the highest interest to note this wrestle between life and 

 death : now the legs are dead ; now the muscles of the bowels cease their 

 function ; the last struggle must be heavy, but for all that it is highly in- 

 teresting." These were his last words. 



Sib Charles Barry, R. A., the architect of the New Houses of Parliament. His 

 own preferences and tastes would have led him to adopt the Italian style of 

 architecture for the New Palace of Westminster ; but as the instructions to 

 the competitors limited the choice of styles to Gothic or Elizabethan, he 

 chose the former as the more suitable for such a building. From the moment 

 he commenced his arduous undertaking, until the day of his death, a period 

 extending over more than twenty-four years, this work occupied his thoughts 

 night and day. The manner in which his professional services were requite d 

 by " a Government proverbially indifferent to the claims of Art," is a dis- 

 grace to the country, which the bare honour of knighthood can ill conceal. 

 We sympathize in reading history with the ill-treatment of Sir Christopher 

 Wren, and the cabal and controversy by which he was assailed ; but, in the 

 present day, we have an equally glaring instance of meanness and injustice 

 to merits of the highest order. Sir Charles Barry was elected a Royal 

 Academician in 1812 ; he was also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British 

 Architects, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of the Royal Commis- 

 sion for the Exhibition of 1851 ; and a member of many foreign academies, 

 including those of Rome, Belgium, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden. 



ChablksE. Mat, C.E., F.R.S., inventor of the compressed wooden fastening 

 for railway chairs, and who constructed some of the most important astro- 

 nomical instruments for the Greenwich Observatory. 



Robekt Hcghes, Assistant t . j the Eugiueer-in-Chief to the Admiralty (steam 

 branch), where he aided to work out the great improvements which have 

 taken place in machinery duriug the last fifteen years. 



JosEpn Locke, C.E., M.P., Engineer of the Grand Junction Railway, and the 

 South Western line, " whence he accomplished the extension of the system 

 to France ; where, in the construction of the Paris and Rouen, and Rouen 

 and Havre lines, he introduced English capital, English workmen, and 

 English contractors, and initiated the Continental Railway System. He was 

 thus the first who promoted the establishment of the present rapid commu- 

 nication between the great commercial capital of Great Britain, and Paris, 

 the fashionable metropolis of the Continent." — Mechanics' Magazine. 



The main characteristic of Mr. Locke's genius as an engineer was his 

 uniform adherence to the significance of financial results in the great works 

 which he carried out. It was not that he feared engineering difficulties, for 

 when they were inevitable he encountered and overcame them with skill ; as 

 for instance in the works of the Manchester and Sheffield Railway. But his 

 great anxiety, and which secured for him the confidence of a large body of 

 capitalists, was to attain his object by avoiding difficult and expensive works, 

 from a desire that all the works on which he engaged should be commercially 

 successful. The abnegation of professional renown, arising from the con- 

 struction of monumental works, whilst establishing his reputation as an eco- 

 nomical engineer, induced him to turn to the locomotive engine, and to tax 



