December 26, [91! 



NATURE 



33i 



such a plague swept over the face of the world; 

 never, perhaps, has a plague been more stoically ac- 

 cepted. In India alone more than 3,000,000 deaths 

 occurred. Bombay had 15,000 of these; Delhi, with a 

 llatton of onl. 200,000, li.nl 800 deaths a day; the 



I'unjah lost 250, persons. "south Africa suffered 



rely." 



The death is announced, at eighty-three years of 

 of Dr. Artemas Martin, of the l s l oast and 

 Geodetic Survey. From an obituary notice in Science 

 we learn that earl) in life Dr. .Martin began con- 

 tributing problems and solutions to various magazines. 

 In 1877, while engaged in market-gardening for a 

 livelihood, he began the editing and publishing of the 

 Mathematical Visitor, and in i.'sSj he followed this up 

 with the Mathematical Magazine, lie also contributed 

 numerous papers to other mathematical journals in 

 America and abroad'. He was an authority on earlj 

 mathematical textbooks, and collaborated with Dr. 

 Greenwood in the "Notes on the History of American 

 I ext-books on Arithmetii I $85 Dr. Martin was 



appointed librarian of the U.S. ('oast and Geodetic 

 Sui v ey, where his wide know ledge of mathematics 

 made him of great service. In 1898 he was made com- 

 puter in the Division of Tides, which place he held 

 until his death. Honorary d< grees were conferred 

 upon him by several American universities, and he 

 1 member of numerous learned societies. Dr. 

 Martin's memory is to be perpetuated in the Artemas 

 Martin Library of the American University at Wash- 

 ington, D.C., and at the same university there is to 

 be an Artemas Martin lectureship in mathematics and 

 endowed by Dr. Martin. 



We regret to record the death of Col. William 

 Vincent Legge, who was born in Tasmania in 1840, 



and died then on March 25, 1918. Educated in 

 England, France, and Germany, Col. Legge entered 

 the military academy at Woolwich, and received a 

 commission in the RoyaJ Artiller) in 1862. He early 

 evinced his partiality for ornithology, and finally 

 .1 notable authority on that science. Of his 

 thirty-five scientific papers, the tirst is to be found in 

 the Zoologist, to which journal, in [865, he com- 

 municated a paper on birds found nesting in Essex. 

 From 1868 to i >7 7 he was stationed in Ceylon, and 

 it was during this period that he laid the foundations 

 ..i what was to be his magnum opus, namely, "The 

 Birds of Ceylon," a large quarto volume of 123S pages, 

 with thirty-four hand-coloured plates depicting the 

 1 ndemic species, and a map showing the faunal areas. 

 I his valuable work was issued in parts between 1S78 

 and 1880, and was largely based upon specimens which 

 its author had collected. In 1883 Col. Legge returned 

 to the family estate in Tasmania, and published a 

 ■ hiellv on Australian birds. In 1884 

 he was president of the Australian Association, and 

 1 suggestive address on the zoogeographical 

 relations of the Ornts ol the Australian sub-regions. 

 II. u.is one of the founders) and the first president, 

 of the Royal Australasian < >rnithologists' Union, a 

 member of the Royal Society of Tasmania, and a 

 lial member of the British Ornithologists' Union. 



Dk. William G. Smith, Combe lecturer in general 

 and experimental psychology in the Universitv of 

 Edinburgh, died on November 22, one of the manv 

 victims of the influenza epidemic. Dr. Smith was 

 horn on August 25, 1866, the youngest son of the 

 Rev. Walter Smith, Half Morton, Dumfriesshire. 

 Entering the University of Edinburgh in 1883, In- 

 graduated with first-class honours in philosophv in 

 and afterwards acted for two years as assistant 

 to the professor of moral philosophv. The founda- 



.\o. 2565, VOL. I02] 



tions of a broader si tdi ol psychology in this country 



had just been laid by Prof. Ward's treatise in the 

 "Encyclopaedia Britannica" and William. James's 

 " Principles of Psychology," and the experimental 

 methods of approach developed in Germany were also 

 attracting the younger men. Dr. Smith "spent fully 

 two years in Germany studying experimental psycho- 

 logy, chiefly in Wuridt's laboratory at Leipzig.' He 

 graduated Ph.D. in 1894 w 'th a tin sis on "Mediate 

 Association," the substance of which appeared in an 

 article in Mind in the same year. This was followed 

 by another in 1895 on "The Relation of Attention 

 to Memory 1 ," based partly on his Leipzig studies and 

 partly on further investigations carried out in the 

 physiological laboratory, Oxford, under Burdon 

 Sanderson. In 1895 Dr. Smith went to America, 

 and, after working some time with Miinstrrberg in 

 the Harvard psychological laboratory, was appointetl 

 professor in Smith's College, Northampton, Mass. 

 lie held this position for some years, but eventually 

 preferred to return to this country, where he became, 

 successively, lecturer on psycho-physics in King's Col- 

 li ge, London, and assistant lecturer in physiology in 

 the University of Liverpool. During these years Dr. 

 Smith contributed a number of papers, based on ex- 

 perimental investigations, to the Psychological Review, 

 the Archives of Neurology, Mind, and the British 

 Journal of Psychology, in several of which he con- 

 tinued and extended his researches on memory. When 

 an independent lectureship in psychology was estab- 

 lished in the University of Edinburgh in 1906, he 

 was chosen to be its first occupant, and his main 

 energies since that time have been devoted to the 

 equipment and organisation of the department. This 

 he had carried through with marked success, and 

 under his guidance the subject has taken an important 

 place in the university curriculum. 



The Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia (second series, vol. xvi., part 4, 1918) 

 contains a finely illustrated monograph by Mr. 

 Clarence B. Moore entitled "The North-Western 

 Florida Coast Revisited." The aborigines of Florida 

 were in the habit of "killing" the vessels interred 

 with the dead bv breaking a hole in the base, thus 

 freeing their souls to accompany those of their owners 

 to the life beyond. Doubtless the more thrift) 

 mourners regretted this destruction of serviceable pot- 

 terv, and hence arose a refinement of the custom, 

 the manufacture of mortuary vessels of inferior ware, 

 and provided with a basal perforation made before 

 the firing of the clay. A large collection of these 

 interesting vessels made by Mr. Moore is illustrated 

 and described in this interesting monograph. 



In Folk-lore (vol. xxix., No. 3, September, 191S) 

 Dr. W. Crooke discusses the tales of the prentice pillars 

 and the architect and his pupil. We have in this 

 countrv instances of such pillars at Roslin Abbey and 

 Melrose, and windows in Rouen Cathedral, where the 

 stor) is current that the master, through envy, is 

 said to have killed his pupil who constructed the 

 work. In a second form of the tale the builder or 

 architect is said to have fallen a victim to the jealousy 

 of his emplover, who feared that he might lose his 

 reputation if the workman transferred his services 

 to another master. Of this type of story numerous 

 instances are quoted from India and other parts of 

 the East. It has been suggested b) Mr. H. A. Rose 

 that the legend is based on, the idea of a foundation 

 sacrifice, the most appropriate victim being the person 

 responsible for the work. But this does not easily 

 explain some forms of the story, and further examples 

 must be collected before the problem can be finallv 

 solved. 



