390 
At the same time lived another small animal, A/zolophus, 
known only from a fragment now at York. It differs from 
most ungulates in having only a single inner cusp to the 
molars, so causing it to resemble a typical pre-molar, 
Another form, Micrecherus erinaceus, is very aberrant, 
and its position is doubtful. 
TESTIMONIAL TO DR. BENCE FONES 
We regret very much to hear that Dr. Bence Jones 
has been compelled on account of his health to 
resign the office of Secretary to the Royal Institution, a 
post which he has filled for so many years with equal 
honour to himself and advantage to the Institution. 
His conviction of the value of original research, and of 
the special vocation of the Royal Institution to continue 
diligent in promoting it, was with him an unceasing 
stimulus to exertion. His attention to every detail left 
nothing neglected in the performance of his duties. His 
own scientific attainments have been of signal effect 
in maintaining respect for the Institution, and in pro- 
curing the co-operation of eminent men in the laboratories 
and lecture theatre. His love of the place and its 
memories has been shown by the pains he took to collect 
its early annals ; including in this work an account of the 
discoveries of Young and Davy, and by his becoming the 
historian of Faraday. 
The services of Dr. Bence Jones have been given under 
the pressure of important professional engagements, and 
latterly under the additional difficulties of failing health ; 
and until now, when he has been reluctantly compelled 
to resign, he has never relaxed in the active prosecution 
of his honourable task. 
We trust with the managers, however, that the aid of 
Dr. Bence Jones may not be altogether lost to the Insti- 
tution ; but that he will still afford to it the benefit of his 
counsels and experience. It is hoped that he may in 
future occupy a seat at the Board of Management ; and 
further, that he will remain associated with the Institu- 
tion by doing it the favour of accepting the position of 
Honorary Assistant-Secretary. 
It has very naturally been proposed to present Dr. 
Bence Jones with atestimonial to be raised by subscrip- 
tion, and we feel confident that to so worthy a purpose 
there will be no lack of willing contributors. Individual 
subscriptions are limited to 3/. 3s. as a maximum. 
It has been ascertained that the form of testimonial 
most agreeable to Dr. Bence Jones would be a bust of 
himself to be placed in the Royal Institution. Subscrip- 
“tions to this testimonial may be paid either at the Royal 
Institution, or to “The Dr. Bence Jones Testimonial 
Account,” at Messrs. Drummonds, the bankers, Charing 
Cross, who are authorised to receive the same. 
CAPTAIN M. F. MAURY 
MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, whose death, 
on Feb. 1, we recently recorded, was of French 
descent, and was born in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, 
Jan. 24, 1806. While still a child, his parents, who weré 
in moderate circumstances, removed to Tennessee, 
where young Maury was sent to school. In 1825, when 
nineteen years old, he entered the service of the United 
States as midshipman, circumnavigating the globe in 
the Vincennes, during a cruise of four years. During this 
cruise Maury began his well-known “Treatise on Navi- 
gation,” which was finished some years afterwards, and 
was for a long time used as a text-book in the U.S. navy. 
In 1836 he was made lieutenant and was gazetted astro- 
nomer to an exploring expedition, 
In 1839, while travelling on professional duty, Lieut. 
Maury met with an accident which resulted in permanent 
‘NATURE 
lameness and unfitted him for active service afloat. What — 
appeared then as a great misfortune to the lieutenant re- 9 
Pr, 
< 
[Aar. 20, 1873 
ae 
Sates 
sulted indirectly in an increase of his fame, and in the 
performance of services of high value to science and 
humanity. The lame lieutenant was placed in charge of 
the Dépot of Charts and Instrunfents, out of which have _ 
grown the Naval Observatory and the Hydrographic — 
Office of the United States. He laboured assiduously — 
from the first day of his appointment to organise this — 
dépot more efficiently than formerly. 
he succeeded is well known. : 
While sailing around the globe in the Vincennes, — 
Maury made many observations as to the winds and cur- 
rents. These he continued in his subsequent cruises. — 
When he became superintendent of the Hydrographic — 
Office he determined to do something towards eluci- — 
dating the intricate subject of ocean meteorology, The 
beginnings of this great undertaking were small. 
Maury obtained at first copies of such log-books as he 
or his friends could command. He noted the direc- 
tion of the wind, the currents, &c., on the maps which he 
nas 
How completely 
a 
had prepared. As the information came in, districts were _ 
filled up and places pointed out for investigation. In 
1842 the system had taken such consistency in his own 
mind that the lieutenant communicated to the U.S. Naval 
Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography a plan for supply- 
ing model log-books to the commanders of vessels in the 
naval and. merchant marine service. 
are so arranged that a systematic series of observations 
might be registered. The plan succeeded so well that in 
eight or nine years he had thus collected a sufficient num- 
ber of logs to make 200 manuscript volumes averaging 
each about 2,500 days’ observations each: These materials 
were digested by a board of officers appointed for that 
purpose, and the more immediate result of their labours 
was to show the necessity for combined action on the 
part of the maritime nations in regard to ocean meteoro- 
logy. 
i order that his labours might lead to some practical 
result, Maury wrought zealously to bring abouta meeting — 
of meteorologists belonging to all maritime nations; this — 
led to the conference which met at Brussels in 1853, at 
which England, France, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, Hol- 
land, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were represented, 
These log-books  — 
and which produced the greatest benefit to navigation, — 
as well as indirectly to meteorology. One of its most 
eminent and practical results was the establishment in 
London of the Meteorological Department of the Board 
of Trade. It recommended a model log-book for all 
vessels, in which a brief and uniform register of the prin- 
cipal meteorological phenomena are entered. The British 
Admiralty, the Royal Society, and the British Association — 
entered heartily into Maury’s plans, and aided him in 
every possible way ; though we are ashamed to say that 
England is almost the only civilised country in the world 
that did not confer on this great benefactor of humanity 
some mark of honour; other countries loaded him with 
well-deserved tributes of admiration and gratitude for his 
services. 
At the outbreak of the American civil war in 1861 
Maury threw in his lot with the South, and did much to 
strengthen its maritime defences and enable it to hold out 
for so long as it did. He afterwards retired to England, 
where he lived for many years, and where he was pre- 
sented with a handsome testimonial raised by subscrip-— 
tion, he having lost nearly his all through his attachment — 
to the unfortunate South. Having offered his services to 
the ill-fated Maximilian, of Mexico, the latter appointed — 
him Imperial Commissioner of Emigration ; and after the 
fall of that short-lived empire, Maury returned to the 
United States, taking up his residence in Virginia, where — 
he lived until his death, on February 1 last. During his 
later years he devoted his time and efforts to urging his 
fellow-citizens of the south to leave politics alone and 
