74 



NATURE 



[Nov. 26, 1874 



3. It is still found wild in Western Asia, Northern 

 Africa, and Sardinia, and apparently also in parts of 

 Spain, likewise in Greece, and perhaps also in the 

 Cevennes and parts of Dauphiny. 



4. The size and strength of the antlers, as well as the 

 dimensions of the skull, have decreased in the course of 

 time. Skulls of the existing Fallow Deer as well as their 

 antlers are smaller than those of the prehistoric period. 



[P.S.— Lord Lilford, whose knowledge of the larger 

 mammals of Southern Europe is very extensive, tells me 

 that he has himself met with Fallow Deer wild in many 

 parts of Sardinia, in Central Spain near Aranjuez, and 

 in the province of Acarnani in Greece. 



In December 1S64 the Zoological Society received from 

 Mrs. Randal Callander a small dark-coloured Fallow 

 Deer from the Island of Rhodes, where, however, it may 

 have been introduced by the Knights. 



Lastly, I have lately received from Mr. P. J. C. Robert- 

 son, H.B.M. Vice-consul at Bussorah, the skin and horns 

 of a " Spotted Deer," found wild in that part of Mesopo- 

 tamia, which must belong cither to the Fallow Deer or to 

 a very closely allied species. — P. L. S.] 



THE LATE SIR WILLIAM JARDINE 



ORNITHOLOGISTS will learn with regret that Sir 

 William Jardine, Bart., died, afcer a few days' 

 illness, at Sandown, in the Isle of Wight, on Saturday 

 last, the 2 1 St of November, aged 74. The labours of the 

 deceased baronet extend over nearly half a century. In 

 1825 he commenced, in conjunction with the late Mr. 

 Selby, of Twizell, the publication of the " Illustrations of 

 Ornithology," which seems to have been his earliest con- 

 tribution to natural history, and almost immediately 

 became recognised as one of the leading zoologists in 

 Scotland, if not in the L'nited Kingdom. In 1S33 he 

 undertook a still more important work, " The Natural- 

 ist's Library," forty volumes of which appeared ia the 

 course of the next ten years, and served to popularise in 

 a most remarkable manner zoological knowledge among 

 classes to whom it had hitherto been forbidden through 

 the high price of illustrated works. With this publica- 

 tion, though its value may have been impaired by the 

 progress of science, Sir William's name will always be 

 identified ; for, having as contributors Selby, Swamson, 

 Hamilton Smith, Robert Schomburgk, Duncan, William 

 Macgillivray, and others, he was yet not only the author 

 of a large proportion of the volumes, but to each he pre- 

 fixed the life of some distinguished naturalist. Of his 

 labours, however, we cannot now speak in detail ; it is 

 sufficient to notice his excellent edition of Alexander 

 Wilson's "American Ornithology," the establishment of 

 the "Magazine of Zoology and Botany" (afterwards 

 merged in the " Annals of Natural History"), and of the 

 " Contributions to Ornithology." Sir William's expedi- 

 tion, with his fiiend Selby, in 1834, to Sutherlandshire — a 

 country then less known to naturalists than Lapland — 

 gave a great impulse to the study of the British fauna and 

 flora, and almost marks an epoch in the history of biology 

 in this island. I'hough ornithology was his favourite 

 pursuit throughout hfe. Sir William was not merely an 

 ornithologist — other classes of the animal kingdom had 

 a fair share of his attention, and he was a recognised 

 authority on all points of ichihyology. Botany and geo- 

 logy were also studied by him to advantage, and the 

 science last named he enriched by his splendid " Ichno- 

 logy of Annandale," the chief materials of which were 

 found on his own ancestral estate. Wiih all this he was 

 keenly addicted to field-sports, and a master equally of 

 the rod and the gun. Sir William married first a daughter 

 of Mr. David Lizars, of Edinburgh, and by her had a 

 numerous family, of whom the eldest daughter was mar- 

 ried to the late Hugh Edwin Strickland, F.R.S. After 



Lady Jardine's death he married the daughter of the Rev. 

 W. Symons, the well-known geologist. Sir William 

 Jardine was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, as well as of many oOv-r 

 learned bodies, and, until the last few years, was a ojn- 

 stant attendant at the meetings of the British Association, 

 in the affairs of which he had interested himself from its 

 foundation. 



LECTURES TO WOMEN ON PHYSICAL 



SCIENCE 



II. 



Prof. Chrschtschonovitsch, Ph.D. "On the C. G. S.^ system 



of Units:' Remarks submitted to the Lecturer by a 



Student. 



Prim Doctor of Philosophy 



From academic Heidelberg ! 

 Your sum of vital energy 



Is not the millionth of an erg. ' 

 Your liveliest motion might be reckoned 

 At one tenth-metre-' in a second. 



" The air," you said, in language fine 



Which scientific thought expresses — 

 " The air (which with a megadyne •* 



On each square centimetre presses) — 

 The air, and, I may add, the ocean, 

 Arc nought but molecules in motion." 



Atoms, you told me, were discrete. 



Than you they could not be discreeter, 



Who know how many millions meet 

 Within a cubic millimetre ; 



They clash together as they fly. 



But you ! you dare not tell me why. 



Then, when, in tuning my guitar, 

 The intervals would not come right, 

 " This string," you said, " is strained too far, 

 Tis forty dyues,^ at least, too tight." 



And then you told me, as I sang. 



What over-tones were in my clang. " 



You gabbled on, but every phrase 



Was stiff with scientific shoddy ; 

 The only song you deigned to praise 



Was " Gin a body meet a body ;" 

 And even there, you said, collision 

 Was not described with due precision. 



" In the invariable plane, ' 



You told me, "lay the impulsive couple ;"' 

 You seized my hand, you gave me pain. 



By torsion of a wrist too supple. 

 You told me, what that wrench would do ; 

 " 'Twould set me twisting round a screw." * 



^ C. G. S. system— the system of units founded on the cenllinetre, 

 gramme, and second. See Report of Committee on Units : liril. Ass. 

 Report for 1873, p. 222. 



- Erg — the energy communicated by a dyne acting through cenlinictre. 

 See Note 5. 



•■* Tenth-metre = i metre x 10 ~ ***. 



* Meaadyne = i dyne X 10". See Note 5. 



fi Dyne — the force which, acting on a gramme for a second, would generate 

 a velocity of one centimetre per second. The weight of a gramme is about 

 980 dynea. 



" bee " Sound and Music," by Sedley Taylor, p. 8g, 



' See Poinsot, " Theorie nouvelie de la rotation des corps." 



' See Prof. Bali on the Theory ol Screws : Phil. Trans. , 1873. 



