November 9, 1905] 



NA TURE 



33 



In i860 he furthered his military studies at the Staff 

 College at Sandhurst, passing the examinations in 

 iSor. At this date geology was taught in the Royal 

 Military College by Prof. T. Rupert Jones, and 

 Hutton, who had taken up the subject with 

 enthusiasm, contributed in 1862 to the Journal of the 

 Royal United Service Institution (vol. vi.) an essay 7 

 on " The Importance of a Knowledge of Geology to 

 .Military Men." The importance, strange to say, does 

 not appear to be so fully recognised nowadays. 

 Hutton became captain in 1862, and served for a 

 time as Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General al 

 Dublin ; but in 1866, having retired from the Army, 

 he emigrated to New Zealand, and devoted himself 

 to the study of natural history, and especially to 

 zoology and geology. In 1871 he was appointed 

 assistant geologist on the Geological Survey of New 

 Zealand, in 1873 provincial geologist of Otago and 

 curator of the Otago Museum, and in 1877 professor 

 of natural science in the Otago University. In (880 

 he sciiled at Christchurch, having become professor 

 of biology and geology in the University of New 

 Zealand, a post which he held until 1893, when he 

 became curator of the Canterbury Museum at Christ- 

 church. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 in 1892. 



One of his earliest geological papers, a sketch of 

 the physical geology of Malta, was published in the 

 Geological Magazine (1866). From this date his 

 work related mainly to the country of his adoption. 

 He prepared official reports on the Lower Waikato 

 district and on the Thames gold-field in 1867, and a 

 report on the geology and gold-fields of Otago (with 

 (■. II. F. Ulrich) in 1875. To the Geological Society 

 11I London he contributed in 1885 an excellent sketch 

 of the geology of New Zealand, which gave a com- 

 prehensive summary of the knowledge attained at 

 that time, and in 1887 he sent to the same society an 

 account of a recent eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 

 North Island. He contributed many other geological 

 papers to the ecological Society and Geological 

 Magazine. While distinguished as a geologist, the 

 importance of his researches on zooI<>e\ was early 

 recognised, and he was elected a corresponding 

 member of the Zoological Society in 1872. 



He contributed articles on the fauna and flora of 

 \. w Zealand, on the land mollusca, the fishes, and 

 the birds, including the extinct moas. Some of these 

 articles were printed in the Transactions "I tin- New 

 Zealand Institute, the Proceedings »/ the Linnean 

 Society <>j New South Wales, in the Proceedings of 

 Ihf Zoological Society, in Ibis, and other journals. 



lie was an ardent student of evolution, and 

 among oilier works issued in 1899 " Darwinism and 

 Lamar'ckism, Old and New," and in 1902 " The 

 Lesson of Evolution." 



After an absence of nearly forty years he paid a 

 visit to this country, and received a hearty welcome 

 from his many scientific friends. He was returning 

 to his home at Christchurch when the announcement 

 of his death on October 27 was received by telegram 

 from the Cane. We are indebted to an obituary 

 in the Times for some of the above particulars. 



H. B. W. 



NOTES. 

 I 111 Royal Society has this year made the following 

 .u\. nils 1,1 medals. The awards of the Royal medals have 

 received the King's approval: — The Copley medal to Prof. 

 I> I- Mrndeleeff, of St. Petersburg, for his contributions 

 (o chemical and physical science; a Royal medal to Prof. 

 .1 II- Poynting, F.R.S., for his researches in physical 

 science, especially in connection with the constant of 

 NO. 18. O, VOL. y$] 



gravitation and the theories el electrodynamics and radi- 

 ation; a Royal medal in Pro! 1 . S. Sherrington, F.R.S., 

 for his researches on the central nervous system, especially 

 in relation in reflex action; the Davj medal to Prof. A. 

 Ladenburg, of Breslau, for his researches in organic 

 chemistry, especially in connection with the synthesis of 

 natural alkaloids; the Hughes medal In Prof. A. Righi, of 

 Bologna, on the ground of his experimental researches in 

 electrical science. 



fur following is a list of those who have been recom- 

 mended by the president and council of the Royal Society 

 for election into the council for the yeai 1906, at the 

 anniversary meeting on November 30 : — President, Lord 

 Rayleigh, O.M. ; treasurer, .Mr. A. B. Kempe ; secretaries, 

 Prof. Joseph Larmor and Sir Archibald Geikie ; foreign 

 secretary, Mr. Francis Darwin ; other members of the 

 council. Dr. Shelford Bidwell, Sir T. Lauder Brunton, 

 Prof. J. Norman Collie, Prof. W. R. Dunstan, Prof. J. B. 

 Farmer, Prof. F. Gotch, Dr. S. F. Harmer, Sir William 

 Huggins, K.C.B., O.M., Prof. E. Ray Lankester, Dr. 

 J. E. Marr. Mr. G. B. Mathews, Mr. H. F. Newall, Sir 

 W. D. Nivi-n, K.C.B., Prof. John Perry, Prof. E. H. 

 Starling, Prof. \Y. A. Tilden. 



At a meeting of the council of the British Association 

 on November 3 it was derided that, in consequence of 

 strong representations by the local committee, the meeting 

 at York next year shall be opened on Wednesday, 

 August 1, which is earlier than the usual date of the 

 opening meeting. 



The council of the British Association has received a 

 gift of 30/. from Mrs. John Hopkinson, to be devoted to 

 some investigation which may be suggested at the next 

 meeting by the committee of recommendations. 



The Paris Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has 



awarded a prize of the value el I. to Dr. Calmette, of 



Lille, in recognition of his wink in bacteriology and 

 preventive medicine. 



\\'i regret to see the announcement of the death, at 

 forty-five years of age, el Prof. Walter F. Wislicenus, 

 professor of astronomy in the Universit) el Strasburg and 

 editor of the " Astror.omischer Jahresbericht. " 



A Christmas course of lectures, adapted to a juvenile 

 auditory, will be delivered at the Royal Institution by 

 Prof. H. H. Turner, F.R.S., on astronomy, from 

 December 28 of this year to Januar) 9, 1906. 



Dr. Maurits Snellin informs us that he has resigned 

 the directorship of the section of terrestrial magnetism and 

 seismology at the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Meteorologisch 

 Instituul. Dr. Snellin's private address is now Apeldoorn, 

 Holland, and any papers intended for him personally 

 should be sent to this address. 



At the inaugural meeting of the eighty-seventh session 

 of the Institution of Civil Engineers, held on Tuesday, 

 November 7, Sir Guilford Molesworth, K.C.I.E., the re- 

 tiring president, formall) introduced to the members his 

 successor in the chair, Sir Alexander Binnie, who delivered 

 an address to the members, in which he traced the in- 

 fluence of scientific thought and investigation upon the 

 development of engineering pen rice. The president sub- 

 equentl) presented the medals and premiums awarded by 

 the council for papers deall with at the institution in the 

 course of the past session. 



