Oct. 20, 1 881] 



NATURE 



579 



The Society has shown itself remarkably liberal in the 

 distribution of its medals ; out of the 109 which have 

 been awarded since its foundation, 37 have been given 

 to foreign explorers and geographers. Mr. Markham 

 gives a brief and interesting sketch of the great advances 

 in geographical knowledge which have been made since 

 the Society was founded, but shows at the same time how 

 much remains to be done, even when we have obtained 

 a rough knowledge of the whole of the earth's surface, 

 while deep-sea research is yet only in its infancy. The little 

 volume also contains an admirably-arranged list of papers 

 in ihe Journals and Proceedings of the Society, covering 

 nearly fifty pages ; this, we believe, is the work of the 

 librarian, Mr. Rye, and will be of the greatest value for 

 reference. 



Altogether it is evident that in recent years geography 

 not only has made immense advances in the knowledge 

 it has acquired of the "world and they that dwell 

 therein," but has acquired a character which entitles it 

 distinctly to be regarded as a department of science. 



THE LATE A. H. GARROD'S SCIENTIFIC 

 PAPERS 

 In Memoriam. The Collected Scientific Papers of the 

 late Alfred Henry Garrod, M.A., F.R.S. (London: 

 R. H. Porter, 1881.) 



FEW customs are gaining greater ground at the present 

 day than that of making the death of any man who, 

 by his energy or talents, has raised his name a little above 

 that of the unknown crowd, a reason for opening a sub- 

 scription and calling upon all his friends and admirers to 

 tax themselves to found a memorial commemorative of 

 his career. It is first decided that there shall be a 

 memorial, and then the question usually arises as to the 

 form that it shall take. It very often happens that some 

 person or some institution has a need at hand. The pro- 

 sperity of a school, and indirectly of all connected with it, 

 will be promoted if it has scholarships attached to it 

 which will attract needy students. A window is wanted 

 to complete the ornamentation of a church. Those in- 

 terested in the church or school eagerly seize upon the 

 opportunity which the hand of death has afforded, and 

 suggest a fitting method of bearing testimony to the 

 memory of the departed. Such memorials generally, 

 after a few years, retain wonderfully little personal con- 

 nection with him they are supposed originally to honour. 

 The name remains, but the person is forgotten, unless 

 preserved in remembrance for other and more cogent 

 reasons. 



Personal memorials of really eminent men, of those who 

 have done good service to mankind,are of inestimablevalue. 

 True records of their lives, their character, their works, 

 their words, even of their features, afford encouragement 

 and example to all who come after. By such memorials 

 the whole world is enriched and its progress ensured. 

 Among such we scarcely know of any more appropriate 

 to its subject than that which has just been carried out 

 by the Garrod Memorial Committee. It is a handsomely 

 printed large octavo volume of 527 pages, containing an 

 excellent portrait, a memoir, and a reproduction of all 

 the important contributions to science made during the 

 short but fruitful career of the extremely talented biolo- 



gist whose loss we deplored almost exactly two years ago. 

 The work contains, in a most convenient form for refer- 

 ence, a vast number of facts relating chiefly to the anatomy 

 of birds and mammals, together with all the figures with 

 which the several memoirs were originally illustrated, and 

 a copious index. It has been ably edited, evidently as a 

 labour of love, by Prof. Garrod's successor in the post of pro- 

 sector to the Zoological Society, Mr. W. A. Forbes, with the 

 assistance forthe physiological portion of Prof. E. A. Schafer. 

 Mr. Garrod was all his life favourably circumstanced to 

 a remarkable degree for pursuing biological research. 

 He had from his earliest age the advantage of scientific 

 associations and the best of educations, and was soon 

 placed in an independent position, which enabled him to 

 make the occupation of his life that which almost all 

 others, even those holding most of the existing scientific 

 appointments, can only do in snatches of time saved from 

 the educational or administrativeduties connected with their 

 offices. Of all these advantages he fully availed himself; 

 but considering he was only thirty-three years old at 

 the time of his death, the amount of his already-published 

 work when collected together is surprising, and causes 

 the greater regret that he was not spnred to continue 

 what he had so well begun, especially as his editor tells 

 us of the immense amount of material in notes and 

 drawings which he had accumulated, besides that which 

 was in a sufficiently finished state to see the light. 



In these days, when so much is being said about the 

 encouragement of scientific research, and so many experi- 

 ments are being tried, both with public and private money, 

 as to the best means of promoting this end, we cannot 

 help making the reflection, before concluding our notice 

 of this volume, on the great results that may follow a 

 small expenditure judiciously and steadily devoted for a 

 series of years to one object. If the Zoological Society 

 had not in 1S65 established its prosectorship, we should 

 have seen little of the really solid advances in our know- 

 ledge of the anatomy of the two higher classes of verte- 

 brated animals contained in the valuable memoirs of Dr. 

 Murie, those collected in the present volume, and those 

 now in the course of publication by Mr. Garrod's successor 

 in the office. 



THE DIAMONDS, COAL, AND GOLD OF 



INDIA 



The Diamonds, Coal, and Gold of India. By V. Ball, 



F.G.S. i2mo. (London : Triibner, 1881.) 

 T N this handy little volume the author presents us with 

 ■L a compendium of the facts known concerning the 

 occurrence and distribution of the three principal mineral 

 products of India. The work being so designed that it 

 may be used as a handbook to the detailed accounts 

 published by the Geological Survey of India and by other 

 authorities in numerous scattered publications to which 

 full references are given. In the first chapter the different 

 localities producing diamonds, including both active and 

 abandoned mines, are noticed in some detail. These are 

 grouped into three areas, the most southerly being that to 

 which the name of Golconda is usually applied, although, 

 as the author points out, that town is not actually in a 

 diamond producing district, but was the staple place 

 where the product of the district was bought and sold. 



