Feb. 8, 1872] 



NATURE 



291 



Natural History. He was one of the founders of the Pathologi- 

 cal and Cavendish Societies. 



The name of Colonel Chesney, F.R. S., of the Royal Artillery, 

 who died on Tuesday, the 30U1 ult., at his residence near Kilkeel, 

 Co. Down, Ireland, in the Sjrd year of his age, was almost more 

 familiar to the last generation than to this. Among his various 

 titles to eminence as traveller, savan, and military critic, he will 

 be chiefly known as " the pioneer of the overland route to 

 India." It is now nearly forty years since General, then Captain, 

 Chesney returned from his exploratir^ns of the Euphrates for the 

 purpose of establishing steam communication with India -vid 

 Egyot and Asia Minor, to ask the Government to give him the 

 command of an expedition. The demand was granted ; two 

 vessels, the Tigris and ihe Eiiplinitcs, were placed at his disposal. 

 The indefaiigalile manner in which he prosecuted his scheme, in 

 the face of many disappointments and discouragements, is well 

 known. He has himself written the history of his travels and 

 adventures; and the lines of communication now in existence 

 bear witness to the practical value of his projects. General 

 Chesney has fen- many years back enjoyed the repose which *as 

 the fitting reward of much arduous toil ; and now leaves behind 

 him the record of a useful, honourable, and well-spent life. 



Dr. William Baird, F.R.S., whose draih we recorded last 

 week, after a long and painful illness was born at Eccles, in 

 Berwickshire, i:i the year 1S03, educated at Edinburgh, and 

 received in 1823 an ap;jnintment as surgeon from the Ejst India 

 Company. Whi'e in 'his office he visited Ind a, China, and 

 many odier coimtri s the nitu^al hisory of which he carefully 

 studied. In 1S31 hcpublihed a paper " On the Luminosity of 

 the Sea, " in Loii ion's Magazine 0/ Natural History, and from 

 that time beca-ne a frequent con'ributor to the scientific journals, 

 more es; ecially to the "Transactions" of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club. In 183S he compiled a Cyclopedia of the 

 Natural Sciences. In September 1841 he was appointed 

 an Assi>tant in the Zoological Department of the British Mu- 

 seum, which office he filled till his death. In 1851 his mono 

 graph on the British Entomostrac ms Crustacea, a work of greai 

 ability and r-search, was published by the Ray Society. Between 

 the years 1S3S an i 1S63 he contributed a number of papers on 

 the Eatomostraca to the " Annals of Natur.al History," and the 

 "Proceedings" of the Zoological Society. During thelat'er years 

 of his life his attention was principally given to the Entozoa, of 

 the then known S|)ecies of which he had as early as 1S43 drawn 

 up a catalogue, which was published by the trustees of the 

 British Mu-eum. Numerous papers on the same subject were 

 also contributed by him to the " Proceedings " of Ihe Zoological 

 Society, the "Transactions" of the Linnean Society, &c. Latterly 

 he was engaged in preparing a general catalogue of the Entozja, 

 for which he had accumulated a vast amount of material. His 

 knoiiledge of some other branches of natural history was equally 

 exten-ive and profound, and his death will leave a gap am nj; 

 those who were a' quainted with his varied acqu remen's, and 

 the courtesy and readiness to assist displayed to all who sought 

 his help or advice. 



The Academy records the death of Prof. Trendelenburg, ol 

 Berlin, who had attained a two-fold eminence as a philologist 

 and Aristotelian commentator, and as an original thinker. 



The Waynflete Professorship of Chemistry at the University 

 of Oxford, will shortly become vacant by the resignation, 

 through ill-health, of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., M..A. 

 The Waynflete Professorship of Chemistry was directed by 

 the ordinance of the University Commissioners of 1854, re- 

 lating to Magdalen College, to be founded in that college in 

 lieu of certain prrelector^hips menioned in its ancient statutes, 

 and to be maintained by a stipend of 600.'. per annum. The 

 Professor is elected by the Chancellor of the University, the 



Visitor and President of the College, and the Presidents of the 

 Royal Society and of the College of Physicians. Prof Brodie 

 was elected in 1865, and was the first professor under the new 

 ordinance, having previously resigned the Ahlrichian Pro- 

 fessorship of Chemistry, which he had held since the resignation 

 of the late Dr. Daubeny, and which chair was suppressed in 

 1866, the revenues being applied to the payment of a salary 

 of a Demonstrator, and to the purchase of chemical apparatus 

 or other means towards the study of chemistry in the University. 



In the Gazette of India is the following tribute to the memory 

 of the late Archdeacon Pratt: — "The Governor-General in 

 Council has received with deep regret official intimition of the 

 death of the Venerable the Archdeacon of Calcutta, die Reverend 

 J. H. Pratt, on the 28th ultimo, at Ghazfcpore, m the North- 

 western Provinces. The Governor General in Council cinnot 

 adow the death of Archdeacon Pratt to pass unnoticed by the 

 Government which he served so long and so well. Mr. Pratt 

 entered the service in the year 1838, and was appointed 

 Archdeacon of Calcutta by the late Bishop Wilson on the 6th 

 October, 1S49. Under the ordinary ru'es of the service, Mr. 

 Pratt would hive retired in October, 1S67, but so efficiently had 

 he filled his high office in the Church, thit he wis solicited by 

 Government, with the full approval of Her Majesty's Secretary 

 i>f State, to continue to hold ft. In adopting this course the 

 Government was moved no' only by its own ai'prf-ciation of the 

 Archdeacon's services, but the str^ing recommemlati'.'n of the late 

 B shop Cott m, who bore testimony t'l A'chdeacon Pr.att'» emi- 

 nentscientific attainments and university d slinctions, to the active 

 pa''t which he had taken in the marwgement of the diocese, and 

 m the promotion of all good works, and to his personal pi'-ty and 

 high Christian character. At a later date Her Majesty's .Sccre- 

 tiry of State, in sanctioning the retention of .Archdeacon Pratt in 

 the service un'il OcMber 1872, remarked: — 'I canncit refrain 

 from expressing the high sense I en ertain, in comm m wiih Ihe 

 present Bishop of Calcufa, the L'entenini-Governor of Bengd, 

 and your Excellency in Council, of the zeal and ability with 

 which he has for so many years faithfully and laboriously dis- 

 charged the duties of his Offict:.' The G.)vernor-General in 

 Councd feels assured that the death of the Venerable Archdeac n 

 will be mourned by the entire Christian community in India." 



It is announced that Professor Flower will commence his 

 annual Hunterian Lectures on Comparative Anatomy in the 

 Theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons on Friday, the i6th 

 inst., at four o'clock. The lectures will be continued at the 

 same hour every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until the 

 27th of March. The subjects to be embraced by the present 

 course are the modifications of the organs of digestion, includ- 

 in>,' the mouth, tongue, salivary glands, alimentary canal, liver, 

 and pancreas. These will be treated of in detail in the various 

 animals composing the class Mammalia, and if time should per- 

 mit, a review of the principal variations of the same parts in the 

 other Vertebrata will follow. Theiectureswillbeillustated as fully 

 as possible by specimens from the Museum, and by diagrams, 

 and it should be added, are open without fee to any gentleman 

 presenting his card at the door. 



The Times of India calls attention to the very scant recogni- 

 tion which literary or scientific merit has received in conferring 

 the distinction of the Star of India. Although the Order of the 

 Star of India was established for the reward of good service of 

 every kind, and the soldier, the civilian, the diplomatist were not 

 considered, on the insti'u'ion of the Order, to have any better 

 claim to the decoration than the man o science or the man of 

 letters, yet on the list there is at the present time scarcely a 

 single representative of literature, science, or art. The Times 

 strongly commends the claims of Dr. Forbes Watson and Dr 

 George Smith to this disiincdon, for the admirable work done in 

 bringing the English public face to fa?e with the arts and manu- 



