62 



NATURE 



[Nov. 20, 1884 



Georgina Bengough, daughter of the English director of 

 the Vienna gas-works. A visit in 1863 to Vesuvius was 

 followed next year by the appearance of the " Geology 

 of New Zealand" and of the " Palaeontology of New 

 Zealand," both of great scientific value, and forming his 

 main contributions to the extensive series of the Novara 

 publications. 



About the same time Hochstetter was commissioned to 

 explore the lacustrine basins in Carinthia and other parts 

 of Austria, where he discovered numerous remains of 

 kitchen-middens and prehistoric lake dwellings similar to 

 those found in the lakes of Switzerland. In 1867 he was 

 elected President of the Imperial Geographical Society of 

 Vienna, a position which he held till compelled by his 

 failing health to resign it in 1S82. He now commenced 

 the publication of a whole series of geological and mine- 

 ralogical text-books for higher schools, which were intro- 

 duced into many parts of the Austrian Empire, and one 

 of which, on crystallography, was especially distinguished 

 by its clearness and thorough grasp of the subject. Time 

 was now also found to complete his geological essays on 

 the Cape of Good Hope, the Island of St. Paul, the 

 Nicobars, and Java, for the Novara series, and also to 

 publish an interesting account of the great earthquake 

 and sea-wave of 1868, in the southern hemisphere, 

 including a calculation of the mean depth of the Pacific 

 deduced from the known velocity of the waves across that 

 ocean. The appointment of Consulting Geologist to the 

 Turkish Great Railway Company brought him in 1869 to 

 the Balkan Peninsula, the results of which journey soon 

 after appeared, partly in the Proceedings of the Vienna 

 Geographical Society, partly in the Year-Book of the 

 Imperial Geological Institute, and in Petcrmann's Mittheil- 

 ungen. For these important geological surveys he was 

 decorated by the Sultan with the order of the Mejidie". 

 Notwithstanding the loss of his eldest daughter Julia in 

 1871, and a chronic affection of the throat, his scientific 

 writings and surveys were now continued with unflagging 

 zeal, including a handbook of geology which formed part 

 of the " Allgemeine Erdkunde " ; an atlas of twenty-four 

 geological pictorial views, with letterpress ; much harass- 

 ing work in connection with the Viennese International 

 Exhibition of 1873 ; and lastly, an arduous journey of 

 over two months in the summer of 1872 to the Urals 

 and Siberia as consulting geologist to a large mining 

 association. Then came his honourable appointment as 

 teacher of science to Crown Prince Rudolph in 1872, fol- 

 lowed in 1875 by his election to the Rectorship of the 

 Technical University, and in 1876 to the position of 

 Imperial Intendant (Chief Curator) of the Imperial 

 Austrian Museum of Zoology, Ethnology, and Natural 

 History. He had hoped to witness the completion of this 

 magnificent building, which has been in progress for 

 many years ; but, although it was nearly ready for occu- 

 pation as early as the summer of 188 1, he did not live to 

 see it opened to the public. In the interests of the 

 Museum he visited Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and 

 North Germany in 1876, and was soon after busily engaged 

 superintending excavations in Carinthia, Bohemia, and 

 other parts of the empire, which resulted in the discovery 

 of rich palaeontological and archaeological treasures, pre- 

 historic burial-places, skeletons of the extinct cave bear, re- 

 mains of fossil man, a large number of bronze ornaments, 

 weapons, and implements. Towards the end of 1879 his 

 health began to decline. He suffered much about this 

 time from pains in the legs and arms, accompanied by 

 sleeplessness and other symptoms which later developed 

 into an incurable attack of diabetes, terminating on 

 July 21 last a laborious and blameless life devoted entirely 

 to the advancement of the natural sciences. Indefatig- 

 able to the last, he found time in the midst of his multi- 

 farious labours to issue a report in 1883 on some Mexican 

 antiquities discovered by him in the Ambrose Collection 

 in Tyrol, and which had originally been sent by Fernando 



Cortez to the Emperor Charles the Fifth. His last 

 contribution to science was a paper read in February of 

 the present year before the Vienna Geological Institute, 

 giving an instructive account of the celebrated minera- 

 logical collection now removed to the New Imperial 

 Museum. Hochstetter's life may thus be described as an 

 epitome of the history of the natural sciences in Austria 

 during the last quarter of a century. Dr. von Haast's 

 appreciative memoir concludes with the appropriate lines 

 from Goethe : — 



" Fest steh' dein Sarg in wohlgegonnter Ruh ; 

 Mit lockrer Erde deckt ihn leise zu, 

 Und sanfter als des Lebens, liege dann 

 Auf dir des Grabes Biirde, guter Mann !" 



NOTES 

 Prof. G. H. Darwin, of Cambridge, and Prof. Daniel 

 Oliver, of the Royal Gardens, Kew, have been nominated by 

 the Council of the Royal Society for the award of the two Royal 

 Medals conferred by the Crown. The Copley Medal is to be 

 given to Prof. Carl Ludwig, of Leipzig, in recognition of the 

 great services which he has rendered to physiological science. 

 Prof. Tobias Robertus Thalen, of Upsala, is to have the Rumford 

 Medal for his spectroscopic researches ; and the Davy Medal is 

 awarded to Prof. A. W. If. Kolbe, also of Leipzig, for his 

 researches in the isomerism of alcohols. The two Leipzig Pro- 

 fessors are Foreign Members of the Society. Prof. Darwin and 

 Prof. Oliver are Fellows, the former well known for his mathe- 

 matical investigations on the rigidity of the earth and on tides i 

 the latter for his investigation of the classification of plants and 

 for the important services which he has rendered to taxonomic 

 botany. 



In speaking recently at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia 

 to a large audience on the wave-theory of light, Sir William 

 Thomson made the following remarks on the employment of 

 the metrical system : — " You, in this country, are subjected to the 

 British insularity in weights and measures ; you use the foot, 

 and inch, and yard. I am obliged to use that system, but I 

 apologise to you for doing so, because it is so inconvenient, and 

 I hope all Americans will do everything in their power to intro- 

 duce the French metrical system. I hope the evil action per- 

 formed by an English Minister whose name I need not mention, 

 because I do not wish to throw obloquy on any one, may be 

 remedied. He abrogated a useful rule, which for a short time 

 was followed, and which I hope will soon be again enjoined, that 

 the French metrical system be taught in all our national schools. 

 I do not know how it is in America. The school system seems to 

 be very admirable, and I hope the teaching of the metrical system 

 will not be let slip in the American schools any more than the use 

 of the globes. I say this seriously. I do not think any one 

 knows how seriously I speak of it. I look upon our English 

 systen as a wickedly brain-destroying piece of bondage under 

 which we suffer. The reason why we continue to use it is the 

 imaginary difficulty of making a change and nothing else ; but 

 I do not think in America that any such difficulty should stand 

 in the way of adopting so splendidly useful a reform." 



It is stated that Lord Rayleigh has resigned the Cavendish 

 Professorship of Experimental Physics. The electors are Sir 

 W. Thomson, Sir William (Justice) Grove, Profs. Liveing, 

 Stokes, Darwin, R. B. Clifton (Oxford), and Stuart, and Mr. 

 W. I >. Niven. 



Dr. Thomas Wright, F.R.S., of Cheltenham, died on the 

 night of Monday last. This sad announcement will be received 

 with much regret by all who take interest in the progress of 

 geology and palaeontology. We hope to give some account of 

 the deceased naturalist next week. 



