88 
individual a law-abiding citizen. Presumably such 
a man may be trained to lawlessness also. He 
has the capacity for both. In which case the 
special “proclivity” or “diathesis” of criminals 
can be nothing more than mere stupidity, mere 
incapacity to be trained. As expressed by Sir 
Bryan Donkin :— 
‘They are, it seems, innately unable to acquire the 
complex of characters which are essential to the 
average man, and, according to their surroundings, 
they follow the path of least resistance. This path is 
more often than not, but by no means always, the 
path of unsocial or criminal action” (p. 7). 
In conclusion Dr. Goring states :-— 
‘Our tables of figures spealx for themselves, we 
have said; but we do not claim that they utter the last 
word... . A long intimacy with the material dis- 
cussed in the present Report leads us to believe that 
better material could, with the experience now 
attained, be procured; but we are convinced that, at 
least to a first approximation, our data represent the 
fundamental  interrelationships of criminality” 
(p. 373). Ina note he adds :—‘ The inquiry, which of 
all others is most urgently needed, must not be limited 
to an examination of prisoners and their official re- 
cords; but must extend beyond the prison walls, and 
into the homes and haunts of the offenders when at 
large; and into that wide and most interesting field 
of research where the experiments of the modern 
reformatory system are dealing with the child-criminal 
of the race” (p. 373). 
SR OLN IM WARIR AY. KC. Bis Clos. 
HE tragic accident by which Sir John Murray 
lost his life on March 16 has deprived the 
world of one ot the foremost naturalists of the 
day, and has sent a thrill of sorrow through the 
hearts of all who knew him. Though he had 
passed the allotted span of threescore years and 
ten, he still so abounded in youthful spirits and 
enthusiasm, was so active alike in body and mind, 
so full of work and of plans for further enter- 
prise, that it is hard to believe that a career so 
distinguished in its past and bearing such con- 
tinued promise for the future, has been suddenly 
brought to a close. 
Of Scottish parentage, he was bori in Canada 
in 1841, and received there the early part of his 
education. But in his youth he came to Edin- 
burgh, and at the University there, under J. H. 
Baliour- PG.’ Tait, VG. J. Allman, and Avge: 
Brown, he received the training in physical and 
natural science that formed the groundwork of 
his lifelong labours. He soon showed the bent 
of his disposition towards marine studies, and at 
the same time his love of personal adventure, by 
taking, in the year 1868, a voyage in a Peterhead 
whaler to Spitsbergen and the Arctic seas. In 
the same year there began that series of pioneer- 
ing cruises in the Lightning and Porcupine, by 
which, during the summers of 1868, 1869, and 
1870, Wyville Thomson and W. B. Carpenter 
obtained so much new information regarding the 
distribution of life in the ocean. Deep-sea explora- 
tion became then a leading preoccupation among 
the naturalists of this country. 
NO. 22577 VOL. 93) 
NATURE 
{Marcu 26, 1914 
Eventually the general interest in this subject 
found vent in an application to the Government 
for a vessel and funds to prosecute the study of the 
ocean all over the globe. The memorable expedi- 
tion of the Challenger was accordingly organised, 
which lasted from 1873 to 1876. Wyville Thom- 
son, who had been elected in 1870 to the Chair of 
Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, 
was appointed director of the civilian scientific 
staff of the expedition. Recognising the brilliant 
promise of John Murray, he chose him to be one 
of the three naturalists on his staff. To this 
momentous choice the young aspirant to scientific 
distinction owed the opening which led to all the 
varied labours which have made his name so 
widely known. 
When Wyville Thomson died in 1882, Murray, 
who had proved his remarkable qualities during 
the course of the expedition, was charged with 
the editorship of the scientific results of the cruises 
of the Challenger. This was a task the greatness 
of which is probably not generally appreciated. 
No ordinary skill, knowledge, tact, and patience 
were required to allocate the vast pile of collections 
to the different specialists all over the globe, to 
keep these writers up to their engagements, and, 
within reasonable limits of time, to see that the 
printers and engravers were supplied with 
material, to supervise the masses of proof-sheets, 
and, by no means least of all, to battle with an 
unsympathetic Treasury that grudged the heavy 
expense necessarily required for the publication of 
the work of the most completely organised ex- 
pedition that had ever sailed the seas. Year after 
year the labours of the editor went on, until some 
fifty massive quarto volumes were issued. That 
Murray should have emerged with triumphant 
success from so prolonged and so trying an ordeal 
was a striking proof of the strength of his char- 
acter and the vigour of his scientific enthusiasm. 
Besides taking an active part in the dredging 
and the general biological work of the expedition, 
Murray specially devoted his attention to the 
working out of certain parts of the materials 
obtained. He was more particularly interested 
in the investigation of the deposits that are 
accumulating on the floor of the ocean. The 
ample store of materials which he succeeded in 
gathering together was subsequently carefully 
studied by him in concert with the late Prof. 
Renard, of the University of Ghent, and the con- 
joint work of the two observers was published as 
one of the thick quartos of the Challenger Reports. 
This monumental volume possesses a high scientific 
value, coupled with the historical interest that it 
eave to the world the first detailed revelation of 
the nature and distribution of the deposits that are 
gathering on the floor of the deep sea, and the 
impressively slow rate at which some of these 
deposits are being formed. 
A further inquiry arising out of the operations 
of the Challenger expedition was the question of 
the origin of coral islands. The fascinating ex- 
planation of these islands proposed by Darwin had 
| been generally accepted by men of science, though 
