64 
NATURE 
[May 15, 1902 
GEORGE GRIFFITH. 
Jp news of the sudden death of Mr. George 
Griffith, Assistant General Secretary to the 
British Association, came as a shock to all who were 
acquainted with his vigorous personality. On_ the 
afternoon of May 7 he left the office of the British 
Association apparently in his usual health, and took 
his place in the train from Baker Street Station for 
Harrow. Scarcely had the train started when he 
was seized with an attack which ended fatally in a 
few minutes. 
Griffith’s career was divided into three periods—his 
Oxford life, his long tenure of an assistant mastership at 
Harrow School, and the last twelve years of his life 
occupied with his duties as assistant general secretary of 
the British Association. 
His career at Jesus College, Oxford, was a brilliant 
one. After taking honours both in classical and mathe- 
matical moderations, his name appears, alone, in the 
first class in the final school of natural science in 1856. 
For the next eleven years he resided at Oxford, where he 
married a daughter of Mr. A. H. D. Acland Troyte. 
Toward the latter end of this period he was appointed 
deputy for the professor of natural philosophy, from which 
position he was summoned in 1867 by Dr. Butler to 
inaugurate the teaching of natural science at Harrow. 
The task before the new-comer was by no means easy. 
The teaching of science, which had been forced on the 
attention of reluctant governing bodies by the recom- 
mendations of the Endowed Schools Commission, was 
regarded with scant favour by the majority of school- 
masters, while among the boys it was frankly disliked. 
At Harrow there was at that time neither laboratory nor 
special class-room ; Griffith was allowed the use of a 
room when it was not being used by another master, but 
all apparatus had to be cleared away after each lecture 
before the entrance of the legitimate tenant. This state 
of things continued until about 1874, when properly 
equipped laboratories were erected. For twenty-six 
years (1867-93) Griffith taught at Harrow, in his earlier 
years taking physics, chemistry. geology and biology, 
according to the demand; latterly he confined himself 
almost exclusively to physics. In 1871 he entered into 
possession of a “ Small House” (a boarding-house for nine 
boys), which he held until, in 1887, he succeeded Mr. 
Holmes as the master of “ Druries,” a larger and more 
responsible charge. In 1893 he retired from his master- 
ship, having already been appointed (in 1890) assistant 
general secretary to the British Association for the 
second time. 
His active connection with the British Association 
began at a much earlier date. We find him acting as 
local secretary at the Oxford meeting of 1860, memorable 
for the Huxley-Wilberforce battle over Darwin’s works, 
while in 1862 he entered on his first term of office as 
assistant general secretary. Having resigned in 1878, 
he was prevailed upon to take charge of the work for the 
year 1881, during a temporary vacancy. In 1890 he was 
re-appointed, and carried on the work of his office with 
full vigour until an hour before his death. 
During his latter years he threw himself with character- 
istic energy into the Royal Society’s scheme for an | 
international catalogue of scientific literature, a task 
for which he was singularly well fitted by wide 
learning, both scientific and linguistic, his unfailing 
memory and his fastidious accuracy of thought and 
expression. 
He was laid to rest, on May 13, in the old churchyard 
of Harrow-on-the-Hill, above the little town that had 
been his home for thirty-five years, and the old school 
into which he had been the first to introduce the 
systematic teaching of science. Ba bela. 
NO. 1698, VOL. 66] 
NOTES. 
M. T. MoureAux, who has for twenty years been connected 
with the magnetic work of the Parc Saint-Maur Observatory, 
has been appointed to succeed the late M. Renou as director of 
the Observatory. 
Pror. T. C. CHAMBERLIN, of Chicago, Dr. T. Thoroddsen, 
of Reykjavik (Iceland), and Prof. S. W. Williston, of. the, 
University of Kansas, have been elected foreign correspondents 
of the Geological Society. 
THE Prince of Wales has consented to become an honorary 
member of the Linnean Society. The following gentlemen have 
been elected foreign members of the Society :—MM. A. Giard, 
H. J. Hansen, C. S. Sargent, F. E. Schulze and J. Wiesner. 
ON Tuesday next, May 20, Prof. Karl Pearson will deliver 
the first of three lectures at the Royal Institution on ‘‘ The 
Laws of Heredity, with Special Reference to Man.” The 
Friday evening discourse on May 30 will be delivered by Mr. 
G. Marconi, on ‘‘ Electric Space Telegraphy,” and that on June 
6 by Sir Benjamin Baker, on ‘‘ The Nile Reservoirs and Dams.’ 
THE new botanical laboratories, presented to University 
College, Liverpool, by Mr. W. P. Hartley, were opened by Sir 
William Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., on Saturday last. 
The new Institute is an imposing building and the accommoda- 
tion it affords will facilitate the advancement of the science of 
botany in Liverpool. The teaching of large classes of University 
students of botany is now not only possible, but easy; and in 
view of the probable early realisation of a University for Liver- 
pool, this is a matter of some importance. Not only does Mr. 
Hartley’s gift provide ample room for all probable increase in 
number of students, but the laboratories are equipped with the 
necessary appliances, both for elementary and advanced work. 
A special laboratory is set apart for investigations in plant 
physiology and another for anatomical research. The labora- 
tories will thus not only become centres of teaching, but of work 
carried on with the view of contributing knowledge which will 
assist the progress of botanical science. We hope to givea 
description of the new Institute in a later issue. 
LIVERPOOL has often given evidence of its appreciation of 
the men of light and leading whose activities bring honour to 
the city. Thereturn of Prof. Herdman from Ceylon, where he 
has recently spent several months in the investigation of the 
Pearl Oyster Fisheries, on behalf of the Government, provided 
Liverpool biologists and others with an opportunity of express- 
ing their esteem for his work. A large company, including the 
Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, assembled at a complimentary 
dinner given to Prof. and Mrs. Herdman last week under the 
auspices of the Liverpool Biological Society. In responding to 
the toast proposed by Sir William M. Banks, Prof. Herdman 
was prevented from speaking on the principal object of the ex- 
pedition, namely, his work on the pearl oyster, because the 
Government report had not been presented, but he gave an 
interesting account of other sections of his work and of visits 
to places of interest in and about Ceylon. 
Tue annual conversazione of the Society of Arts will be held 
on June 24 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent’s Park. 
A MEETING of delegates representing a number of natural 
history and photographic societies was held at Croydon on 
Friday, May 9, Mr. W. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., being in the 
chair, to consider and set in motion a photographic survey of 
Surrey. It was resolved that a society be formed to be called 
“¢The Photographic Survey of Surrey,” and that its object be to 
preserve a record in permanent photographs of buildings of 
