NA TURE 



[May 12, 1904 



comitant labours) as in itself comprising archaeology. 

 This cannot be; the excavator supplies the materials, 

 and it rests with him to supply them in a scientific 

 and workmanlike manner ; but the years of study 

 •which they often demand must be the lot of the student, 

 •who, we can assure our author, would often be only 

 'too grateful if he had the chance of combining both 

 functions. 



The subject is distributed 

 beginning with the qualifi 

 himself, the e.xperience o; 

 identifving sites or finds 



tained in these chapters, but the book will be found 

 eminently readable even by those who cannot hope to 

 wield the spade. 



We cannot, however, lay it down without a feeling 

 that the author is throughout too prone to disregard 

 the work of other archzeologists ; for instance, on p. 

 123, where he complains that no one since Montfaucon 

 (whose work, by the bye, is singularly useless) has 



itions of 

 or instinct 

 and three chapters dealing 



the excavator 

 necessary for 



fourteen chapters, | attempted the collecting of series of objects in a corpus. 

 Has he never heard of M. Reinach's invaluable 

 repertoires of Greek sculpture and vases? Is he not 

 aware that the German Archaeological Institute is 

 issuing a magnificent publication of Greek terra- 

 cottas? And is not a corpus of coins under con- 

 sideration ? We purposely pass over the grow- 

 ing number of museum catalogues of all kinds, 

 which if not corpora, are still a step in that direc- 

 tion. 



The book is illustrated by sixty-six photo- 

 graphic or outline reproductions, of sites, opera- 

 tions, and monuments, the titles of which are at 

 times somewhat oddly arranged (e.g. Figs. 

 36-37), but they are clear, well chosen, and 

 instructive. We have selected for reproduction 

 the frontispiece, representing the clearing of the 

 Osireion at Abydos by a chain of boys with 

 baskets, extending more than forty feet down. 

 The index errs if anything on the side of re- 

 dundancy; such headings as "carefulness, 

 means of securing"; "chain of boys"; 

 " choice of facts "; " finest lines in drawing "; 

 " list of plates " ; " red paint " ; " wet squeezes," 

 are not only superfluous, but contrary to all the 

 rules of good indexing. H. B. W. 



cle.iring of th. 



AiiyJ N EL;ypt. 



-with the actual work in the field — the labourers, 

 methods of turning and raising earth, and recording 

 on the spot. Then follow successive chapters on copy- 

 ing and drawing, photography, preservation of objects, 

 packing, and finally publication. The last four are of 

 a. more general nature, dealing with the systematising 

 of results, the nature of archseological evidence, the 

 ethics of archseology, such as the rights of the State, 

 and lastly, the fascination of history by way of 

 epilogue. Space forbids a detailed description of the 

 many interesting points and valuable suggestions con- 



NO. 1802, VOL. 70] 



PROF. A. W. WILLIAMSON, F.R.S. 



ON Friday last. May 6, there passed away, 

 full of years and of honour, Alexander 

 William Williamson, one of the most notable of 

 British chemists, and one who, in the heyday of 

 his intellectual activity, exercised a remarkable 

 influence on the development of chemical theory. 

 He had been in failing health for some years 

 past, and such was the seclusion in which he 

 lived of late that his tall manly form and strik- 

 ing features were practically unknown to the 

 younger generation of chemical workers. 

 Indeed, after his retirement, in 1889, from the 

 position of Foreign Secretary of the Royal 

 Society, which he held for some sixteen years, 

 and after the termination of his active connec- 

 tion with the British Association for the .Advance- 

 ment of Science, of which he was treasurer for 

 many vears, he rarely visited London, and unless 

 on an occasion when it was represented to him 

 that his influence and the weight of his authority 

 were needed in support of some reform, it was 

 difficult to induce him to revisit the scenes of 

 scientific activity in which he had himself played 

 so strenuous and so eminent a part. Until 

 within the last few years, when his mental 

 powers were obviously failing, he continued to 

 take a keen interest in the progress of science, and it 

 was easy to engage his attention on the broad general 

 lines of its development. 



Williamson's mind was cast in a large mould, and, 

 although at times he could occupy himself with even 

 small details if he recognised that these were signi- 

 ficant or possibly fruitful of theoretical consequence, 

 he was apt to be impatient of the somewhat tiresome 

 minutise with which modern chemical literature 

 abounds. He was probably never a great reader of 

 such literature at any period of his career, and his 



