374 
NATURE 
[JANUARY II, 1917 
to Edward Burnett Tylor in honour of his 75th 
Birthday, October 2, 1907’: ‘‘The extent of his 
reading, his critical acumen, his accuracy, his 
power of exposition, his open mind, and _ his 
scientific caution make this book no passing essay, 
but a possession for ever.” 
Ten years later Tylor published’ a most 
excellent little book, “Anthropology: an Intro- 
duction to the Study of Man and Civilization” 
(1881), which still remains a valuable and sugges- 
tive guide for those who desire: to know the 
significance of what Max Miller termed ‘ Mr. 
Tylor’s science.”’ 
On looking through the compendious ‘ biblio- 
graphy of Tylor from 1861 to 1907 compiled by 
Miss Freire-Marreco for the above-mentioned 
Essays, it is obvious that, apart from his four 
books, his activity largely manifested itself in 
lectures, reviews, and addresses. His papers, 
even when descriptive, were always marked by a 
breadth of view and an endeavour to drive home 
the lessons to be garnered from the facts. The 
most important of these papers is that “On a 
Method of Investigating the Development of 
Institutions, applied to Laws of Marriage and 
Descent,” in which it was his ‘“‘aim to show that 
the development of institutions may be investi- 
gated on a basis of tabulation and classification.” 
In order to indicate the wide range of his studies, 
the following are some of the subjects of his 
papers: Games, Australian marriage laws, the 
origin of the plough and wheel-carriage, the 
Asiatic relations of Polynesian culture, the winged 
figures of the Assyrian and other ancient monu- 
ments, charms and amulets, the Tasmanians as 
representatives of Paleolithic man, and totemism. 
Indeed, there were few aspects of anthropology 
which he had not investigated, and he enriched 
all those with which he dealt. 
Although Tylor illustrated his theses with a 
wealth of references, he never permitted himself 
to be swamped by them. He will always be 
regarded as the first and foremost exponent of 
the comparative method in this country, and 
though, as was natural for a contemporary of 
Darwin and Huxley, he was imbued with the 
principle of development, yet he was fully alive 
to the borrowing of culture and to cultural drifts; 
thus, ever since 1874 he repeatedly drew atten- 
tion to the direct cultural influence of Asia on the 
higher civilisations of the New World and the 
spread thence of certain elements of that cul- 
ture among more barbarous tribes. Tylor was 
always interested in method, and it was mainly by 
his efforts in this direction that ethnology can now 
claim to be a science. A. C. Happon. 
CAPT. F.C. SELOUS: 
HE late Capt. Frederick Courteney Selous, 
whose death in action against the remaining 
German forces in East Africa has just come as a 
painful shock to his many friends in the two hemi- 
spheres, was born in London on the last day of 
1851. His surname—pronounced in the French 
manner—indicated his French ancestry on the 
NO. 2463, VOL. 98] 
father’s side, but his main composition was Eng- 
lish and Scottish, and his appearance almost 
Scandinavian in his blondness and his Nordic 
violet eyes—perhaps the most striking feature in 
a very charming face. As a young man he was 
exceedingly good-looking, and always reminded 
me—after I had been to South Africa—of a not 
uncommon type of Boer (which, indeed, is a very 
common type in Holland), similarly blond and 
with the like violet-grey eyes. I first met him 
in the early ‘eighties at the house of his near 
relatives, the Garrods, of Harley Street. The 
great comparative anatomist, Alfred Garrod, was 
his cousin, .and similarly of Huguenot-French 
origin, 
Selous was educated first at Rugby and after- 
wards in French Switzerland and in Rhenish Ger- 
many, so that he entered on his African explora- 
tions with a well-filled mind and a trained power 
of observation. I rather fancy his decided bent 
for natural history and the pursuit of big game 
must have arisen from his Garrod connections and. 
the consequent deep interest he took in the Zoo- 
logical Gardens (Prof. Garrod was_prosector 
there). _ 
He was an African pioneer of the very best type. 
Always a total abstainer, there was never any- 
thing rowdy about him, yet he won the respect 
and frank liking of the roughest types of men of 
all races. He was greatly esteemed in the United 
States. Only three days before the announce- 
ment of his death I received a note from the secre- 
tary of the New York Zoological Society, recount- 
ing a talk with Prof. H. F. Osborn and Colonel 
Roosevelt about the war, winding up with the 
question: “Have you any news about Selous? 
We are all so anxious about him.” 
Selous was not a systematist in zoology, but 
he was a close and accurate observer of the life- 
habits of birds and beasts, and in his branch of 
natural history he contributed much valuable lore 
to science. If all his contributions were removed 
from the galleries and drawers of the British 
Museum, our examples of the African fauna— 
especially its spectacular fauna—would indeed be. 
poor. Moreover, he added very greatly to our 
knowledge of birds’ eggs, especially the eggs and 
nests of Palearctic (and Mediterranean) birds. 
His loss will be a source of grief to many, not 
only here and in the United States, but also in 
Africa. I should think he was one of those few 
notable and active men who never made an enemy, 
not even when he took a strong, almost vehement, 
line in the matter of the protection of birds from 
the ravages of the plumage trade, on which sub- 
ject he made terse and most effective speeches. | 
H. H. Jounston. - 
NOTES. 
Tue question of closer co-ordination between scien- 
tific research and practical design in aeronautics has | 
been mentioned more than once in these columns, and 
it now appears that such co-ordination will be one of 
the good results following the reorganisation of the 
Air Board. The inclusion of two representatives of 
the Ministry of Munitions and of a technical director 
