io6 



NA TURE 



[June 2, 1904 



T 



THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 

 ACADEMIES. 

 HE delegates of the International Association of 

 Academies met at the Royal Society on Wednes- 

 day, May 25, and Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., was 

 elected president of the general assembly. A number 

 of resolutions were adopted at that and other business 

 meetings, and are incorporated in the official report 

 of the proceedings, but this has not yet reached us. 



The ddegates were received by the King at Windsor 

 on May 25, and attended a conversazione at the 

 University of London on May 27. Throughout the 

 evening many objects of scientific interest were on 

 view, but, with a few exceptions, the exhibits were 

 the same as those shown at the recent conversazione of 

 the Royal Society, and already described (May 19, 

 p. 70). Among the additional exhibits were the follow- 

 ing : — Horse face-pieces and other ornaments from the 

 trappings of cart-horses. Miss L. Eckenstein ; pre- 

 historic Egyptian stone vases, Mr. Randolph Berens ; 

 (i) Japanese paintings (Kakemono), (2) photomicro- 

 graphs of iron and steel. Prof. W. Gowland ; series of 

 Egyptian beads, Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. ; 

 mimetic resemblance of the different forms of a single 

 species to two or three different models. Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton, F.R.S. ; seed-bearing plants from the Coal- 

 measures, Mr. E. .A. Newell Arber, Miss M. Benson, 

 Mr. R. Kidston, F.R.S., Prof. F. W. Oliver, and Dr. 

 D. H. Scott, F.R.S.; paradoxical shadows in a non- 

 homocentric beam of light. Prof. Silvanus P. Thoinp- 

 son, F.R.S.; freshwater phytoplankton from various 

 parts of England and Ceylon, Dr. F. E. Fritsch ; series 

 of rubbings of brasses, Hilda Flinders Petrie; stone 

 implements and model of raft from the lowlands of 

 eastern Bolivia, Dr. J. W. Evans; (i) model of steam 

 ship Titrbinia, (2) (a) 4 kilowatt turbine-driven dynamo, 

 (b) model of 4000 kilowatt turbine-driven alternator, 

 (3) turbo-blowing engines, the Parsons Marine Steam 

 Turbine Company, Limited. 



On Saturday the foreign delegates visited Oxford 

 and Cambridge in two parties, and the honorary de- 

 grees referred to elsewhere (p. 115) were conferred by 

 the universities. A complimentary banquet to the 

 delegates was given at the Mansion House on Monday 

 bv the Lord Mavor of London. 



ROBERT McLACHLAN, F.R.S. 



THE death of Robert McLachlan, familiarly known 

 to his friends as " Mac," removes from our 

 midst one of the most prominent characters in the 

 London entomological world during the last half- 

 century. He joined the Entomological Society as long 

 ago as 1858, and always interested himself greatly in 

 its welfare, having successively filled the offices of 

 secretary and president, and still holding (as he had 

 done for many years past) the office of treasurer at the 

 time of his death. Till the last few months, when 

 failing health compelled his absence, he was most 

 regular in his attendance at the meetings. He was 

 also one of the five original founders of the Entomo- 

 logists' Monthly Magazine (in 1864), and up to the 

 last was still one of the acting editors — the last of 

 the founders — the other four having all died or retired 

 many years ago. 



Mr. McLachlan was the son of a ship's-chandler on 

 Tower Hill, whose instruments were very highly 

 esteemed by the mercantile community. Being pos- 

 sessed of independent means, he devoted his life to 

 entomology, though, as a child, he tells us, in some 

 autobiographical notes in his Presidential Address to 

 the Entomological .Society, in January, 1887, he had 



NO. 1805, VOL. 70] 



taken most interest in botany. He made one voyage 

 to the Southern Seas in 1855, and finally settled 

 himself at Lewisham, near his intimate friend 

 Stainton, occasionally visiting various parts of the 

 British Isles, and the Continent' of Europe; especially 

 when any entomological congresses were on foot, 

 which he was verv fond of attending. Like most of 

 his contemporaries, Mr. McLachlan commenced his 

 entomological studies with British Lepidoptera, as we 

 learn from the list of entomologists in the Entomo- 

 logists' Annual for 1858, where his name first appears, 

 at which time he was living at Forest Hill; but 

 he soon turned his attention to Neuroptera, the study 

 of which order in England received a great impetus 

 just then bv Dr. Hagen's papers in successive 

 Annuals. McLachlan especially attached himself to 

 the Trichoptera, or caddis-flies, which he studied 

 largely from an anatomical standpoint, often, in later 

 years, speaking contemptuously of coloured figures 

 of butterflies as being only fit for children. He con- 

 tributed many important papers on British and foreign 

 Neuroptera and Trichoptera to entomological journals, 

 and being in constant communication with the lead- 

 ing neuropticists at home and abroad, was able to 

 bring together one of the finest collections in the 

 world in his special groups, part of which, at least we 

 hope, will find a permanent home at the Natural 

 Historv Museum, South Kensington. Part of the 

 national collections of Neuroptera, previously cata- 

 logued bv Walker, were rearranged and annotated by 

 McLachlan. He compiled (with the exception of the 

 Ephemeridae, which were undertaken bv the Rev. 

 A. E. Eaton) the catalogue of British Neuroptera 

 published by the Entomological Society of London in 

 1870, and he also compiled the reports on" Neuroptera 

 and Orthoptera for the Zoological Record from 

 1869 to 1S85. His most important scientific work was 

 his " Monographic Revision and Synopsis of the 

 Trichoptera of the European Fauna " (1874-1884), but 

 his sn^aller publications are extremely numerous. 

 Mr. McLachlan was never married. He died at his 

 residence at Lewisham at the age of sixty-seven, on 

 May 23, to the regret of a wide circle of entomological 

 friends and acquaintances. W. F. K. 



iMILE SARR.W. 



'T'HE great advance in modern artillery and 

 ^ ballistics is due principally to the efforts of the 

 French Government, determined not to be caught a 

 second time at a military disadvantage. The progress 

 has been made in the most rapid and economical 

 manner by the appointment of committees, composed 

 of experts chosen for their exact scientific knowledge, 

 such as Sebert, Berthelot, Vieille, to investigate the 

 problem and to solve the details by a judicious com- 

 bination of theory and experiment. 



Chief among these scientific experts, Sarrau was 

 also the director of the Government factories of 

 modern explosives, and at the same time professor of 

 the theory at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and 

 the School of Application at Fontainebleau. 



We can follow the general course of his lectures by 

 his published books on the theory of explosives , 

 these will emphasise the lead taken by the French, and 

 their contempt for any secretiveness about the laws of 

 nature involved in the corresponding phenomena. 



His books and other practical achievements serve to 

 show his success in design and invention ; at the same 

 time the obituary notices by his colleagues tell us how 

 highly he was appreciated and esteemed as a teacher 

 by his classes of pupils. 



