yc. 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1905 



addresses, as well as numerous reviews and articles, 

 all written in a characteristic style ; apart from the 

 two editions of his well known " Atlas," and the 

 revised and extended editions of Huxley and Martin's 

 " Elementary Biology " (in collaboration with Prof. 

 D. H. Scott). He also edited the translation by 

 Bernard of Wiedershcim's " Bau des Menschen," and 

 had undertaken to prepare a new edition of Huxley's 

 "Anatomy of Vertebrated .Animals," which he had 

 mapped out in his mind, but never actually began. 

 His original work deals mainly with vertebrate com- 

 parative anatomy, and all shows the same thorough- 

 ness and accurate knowledge. 



Considerable and important as his direct contribu- 

 tions to science have been, they only represent a part 

 of his life's work in this direction, for he considered 

 it his duty to devote much time to the business of 

 scientific societies and in helping any serious workers 

 who applied to him ; he spared no trouble in assisting 

 others. 



Never a robust man, Howes's power of work was 

 extraordinary. He never seemed to be in a hurry, 

 and did not give one the impression that he spent an 

 excessive amount of time in reading the current 

 literature of his subject, although his knowledge and 

 memory in this direction were quite unique. His 

 mind was of a remarkable type, and was, one may 

 say, almost overburdened with details, though he 

 never lost sight of the main issue, and was always 

 clear and stimulating. He absorbed everything which 

 had the remotest bearing on his science, and would 

 talk by the hour on almost every branch of zoology ; 

 one had only to ask him some question and he would 

 either have the point at issue at his finger-ends, or 

 would at once give references to the most recent 

 papers on the subject. When giving a lecture or an 

 address, he would put so much into an hour's dis- 

 course as to make his hearers marvel at his memory 

 and grasp of the subject. His presidential address 

 to the zoological section of the British Association in 

 1902 contains no less than i86 references to original 

 authorities, and its preparation must have cost" him 

 an enormous amount of labour at a time when he w^as 

 already over-fatigued. 



Howes was a man of high moral standard and 

 ingenuous nature, generous and unselfish in all he 

 did, and his death is mourned bv a wide circle of 

 scientific friends, who will long cherish the memorv 

 of his friendship and hospitalitv. He carried out his 

 own belief that " higher ambition than that of adding 

 to the sum of knowledge no man can have; wealth 

 influence, position, all fade before it; but we must 

 die for It if our work is to live after us." 



W. X. P. 



The following fifteen candidates have been selected bv the 

 council of the Royal Society to be recommended for election 

 into the society :— Mr. J. G. Adami, Mr. W. A. Bone, 

 Mr. J. E. Campbell, Mr. W. H. Dines, Capt. A. Mostvri 

 Field, R.N., Mr. M. O. Forster, Mr. E. S. Goodrich, Mr. 



F. G. Hopkins, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Mr. E. W. MacBride, 

 Prof. F. W. Oliver, Lieut.-Col. D. Prain, I. M.S., Mr! 



G. F. C. Searie, Hon. R. J. Strutt, and Mr. E. T. Whittaker.' 

 The piercing of the Simplon Tunnel was completed at 



7.20 a.m. on February 24. At the time of piercing, the 

 north gallery was inaccessible on account of the accumulation 

 of water. The south gallery is on a lower level than the 

 north, and the final connection was made by the explosion of 

 h.'jrgcs placed in holes driven into the roof of the south 

 ;ery, which left a large hole on a level with the floor of 

 XO. 1844, VOL. 71] 



the north gallery. No sooner was the piercing effected than 

 the accumulated water flowed rapidly away down the 

 southern side, and was discharged into Italy without doing 

 damage. It is unnecessary again to direct attention to the 

 particulars of this triumph of engineering skill, for a 

 detailed account of the difficulties with which the engineers 

 have had to contend, and the expedients utilised to surmount 

 these obstacles, will be found in an article by Mr. Francis 

 Fox in N.^TLRE for October 27, 1904 (p. 628, vol. Ixx.). The 

 work that now remains to be done is to put in place the 

 masonry arching, to cover over the water channel beneath 

 the floor of the tunnel, and to lay the permanent way. It 

 is expected that within three months trains will be running, 

 and the railway will prove a vital link in the line of com- 

 munication between the Italian cities and mid-Europe. 



On Friday, March 17, Senor Manuel Garcia, the inventor 

 of the laryngoscope, will complete his hundredth year, and 

 the anniversary will be celebrated by a meeting of laryngo- 

 logists at the rooms of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, 

 Hanover Square. We learn from the British Medical Journal 

 that the Spanish Ambassador will attend to congratulate 

 the illustrious centenarian in the name of the Government 

 of his native country, and among the addresses will be one 

 from the Royal Society, before which Senor Garcia read his 

 paper entitled " Physiological Observations on the Human 

 \'oice " just fifty years ago. The Berlin, Vienna, French, 

 Dutch, Belgian, and South and West German Laryngological 

 Societies will send special deputations. Most of the addresses 

 will be taken as read, and the proceedings w-ill conclude 

 with the presentation of a portrait of Senor Garcia, painted 

 by Mr. John Sargent, R.A., together with an album con- 

 taining the names of all the subscribers. In the evening a 

 banquet will take place at the Hotel Cecil, at which it is 

 hoped that Senor Garcia himself will be present. 



The death is announced, on February 6, of Father Timoteo 

 Bertelli_. Father Bertelli was born in Bologna in 1S26, and 

 was the son of the professor of astronomy at the University 

 of Bologna. At eighteen he joined the Order of the 

 Barnabites, and taught physics in various colleges of the 

 Order. In 1S71 he joined the College de la Ouerce in 

 Florence, with which institution he appears to have been 

 associated continuously until the time of his death, except 

 for the three years 1895-7, when he was called to Rome 

 by Leo XIII. to succeed Father Denza at the Vatican 

 Observatory. But his state of health did not permit him per- 

 manently to accept this position, and in 1897 he returned to 

 Florence. Father Bertelli first devoted himself to meteor- 

 ology, and later was attracted by the study of seismic 

 phenomena, inventing the tromometer to assist in his ob- 

 servations. He gave much attention to researches into the 

 history of the sciences and especially to that of the mariner's 

 compass. The results of his life's work are contained in 

 some sixty memoirs, the first of which is dated 1859. 



Dr. a. S. P.ackard, professor of zoology and geology at 

 Brown University, died on February 14, at the age of 

 sixty-si.x years. The death occurred, on February 22, of 

 Dr. Ernst F. Diirre, formerly professor of metallurgy at 

 Aix-la-Chapelle, and author of several important treatises on 

 the metallurgy of iron and steel. Dr. Guido Hauck, professor 

 of mathematics at the Berlin Technical College, died on 

 January 14. The deaths are also announced of J. C. V. 

 Hoffmann, founder and editor of the Zeitschrift jiir mathe- 

 malischcn und naturwisscnschafllichcn Unterriclil, Dr. 

 T. H. Behrens, professor of niicrochemistry at Delfdt, Prof. 

 Ludwig von Tetmeyer, principal of the Vienna Technical 

 College, .ind Prof. Ditschciner, of Vienna. 



