678 
when he settled in business in Belfast in 1868, he 
brought the healthy and tolerant atmosphere of his 
upbringing to his new surroundings in the north. For 
a very long period of years Wright’s daylight hours 
had to be at,the disposal of firms for which he worked, 
and only on occasional holidays could he make excur- 
sions into the country. He was a warm supporter of 
the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society 
and of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club. During his 
years in Cork he had made a fine collection of Carboni- 
ferous fossils, which is now in the British Museum ; in 
Belfast he devoted himself mainly to the study of fora- 
minifera, fossil and living, and was especially successful 
in extracting forms preserved in hollow flints or in 
friable chalk from the Cretaceous beds of northern 
Ireland. He was able to recognise forms derived from 
these beds in detrital deposits of the district, and he 
remained convinced that the occurrence of Pleistocene 
foraminifera in the glacial deposits studied by him 
necessarily implied an incursion of the sea over 
northern Ireland. 
Wright joined, as a recognised expert, dredging 
expeditions in the Irish Channel and off the western 
coast, the latter being organised by the Royal Irish 
Academy. His judgment became sought by naturalists 
throughout our islands and abroad, and many of his 
correspondents, while appreciating the fulness of his 
knowledge, must have remained ignorant of the life of 
hard work and devotion in the intervals of which his 
researches were carried on. Those who became person- 
ally acquainted with him in his home could not fail to 
recognise his truly lovable personality. 
Wright was elected a fellow of the Geological Society 
of London in 1866, and in 1896 received the honour of 
the award of the proceeds of the Barlow-Jameson fund. 
He contributed numerous papers to scientific journals, 
and his unique collection of foraminifera, mounted by 
his own hand, is now among the treasures of the 
National Museum in Dublin. 
An excellent account of Wright’s life and work, to 
which we are indebted for some of the details given 
above, appeared in the Belfast Telegraph for April 7. 


Mr. Sipney H. WELLs. 
Mr. Sipney H. WELLs, who died at St. Leonards on 
March 28, was formerly Director-General of Technical, 
Industrial, and Commercial Education in Egypt. Born 
in 1865, he was educated for the engineering profession 
at Birkbeck and King’s College, London, and in 1885 
he won a Whitworth Scholarship. Four years later 
he founded the Institution of Junior Engineers, of 
which he was chairman for five sessions. In 1889 he 
became a master at Dulwich College on the science 
and engineering side. Two years later he removed to 
the University of Leeds as senior assistant in the 
engineering department, and in 1893 he returned to 
London at the age of twenty-eight to become the first 
principal of the Battersea Polytechnic. 
In 1906 Mr. Wells was requested by Lord Cromer 
to visit Egypt and report on technical education, certain 
branches of which had been previously entirely 
neglected. As a result of this visit, Mr. Wells was 
offered in 1907 the newly created post of Director- 
General of Technical, Industrial, and Commercial Educa- 
tion, a position which he held until his retirement 
NO. 2794, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 


[May 19, 1923 
eighteen months ago owing to continued ill-health. 
His fifteen years’ work in Egypt was that of a pioneer, — 
and the agricultural, commercial, and industrial schools 
which are to-day flourishing in all the larger towns of 
that country and in many of the provinces owe their 
existence entirely to Mr. Wellsis untiring energy and 
far-seeing wisdom. 
For his War work as Director of Civilian Employment 
for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in 1917-19 Mr. 
Wells was made C.B.E. ; he was twice mentioned in des- 
patches, and held the second-class orders of the Medjidieh 
and the Nile. He was vice-chairman of the Egyptian 
Commission of Commerce and Industry, 1916-18. 
Mr. Wells was an Assoc. M.I.C.E. and an original 
member of the Faculty of Engineering of the University 
of London, of which he was afterwards secretary, and 
also secretary of the Board of Studies. He was 
formerly a member of council of the Headmasters’ 
Association, a member of council and for four years 
honorary secretary of the Association of Technical Insti- 
tutions, and a member of the Examinations Board of 
the City and Guilds Institute, of the Teachers’ Registra- 
tion Council, and of the Consultative Committee of the 
Board of Education. He was the author of various 
text-books. 

GENERAL E. A. LENFANT. 
By the death of General E. A. Lenfant at the age of 
fifty-eight, France has lost one of the most noteworthy 
explorers of her African empire. He began his work in 
Africa in 1898, when he studied the course of the Senegal, 
and later the floods of the Niger. In 1901-2 he twice 
traversed the middle and lower Niger, passing the 
rapids successfully and collecting much useful informa- 
tion on the regime of the river and the geography of its 
valley. In 1903 Lenfant was again sent to Africa to 
investigate the possibility of water transport from the 
coast to Lake Chad. On this occasion he explored the 
Logone, a tributary of the Shari ; the Kabi, a tributary 
of the Benue ; and Lake Tuburi, which lies between the 
two. Between 1906 and 1908 Lenfant’s explorations 
were in the western part of the Ubanghi-Shari country, — 
around the head waters of the Shari. He showed that 
the Bara-Shari is a branch of the Shari, and that the 
Pende, which is the same as the Logone, provides the 
best route from the Sanaga to the Shari, and so to 
Lake Chad. Lenfant was the author of several works 
on Africa, including ‘“‘ Le Niger’’ (1903), “ La grande 
route duTchad” (1g05), and “La découverte des grandes 
sources du centre de |’Afrique ” (1909). 

WE regret to announce the following deaths : 
Prof. J. Cox, lately professor of physics in McGill 
University, Montreal, on May 13, aged seventy-two. 
Dr. G. H. Hume, for many years lecturer on 
physiology in the University of Durham College of 
Medicine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on May 8, aged 
seventy-seven. af 
Prof. C. Niven, F.R.S., lately professor of natural 
philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, on May 11, 
at seventy-eight years of age. 
Colonel G. F. Pearson, formerly Inspector-General — 
of Forests in India, on April 25, aged ninety-six. 
Lieut.-Colonel J. C. Robertson, according to the 
Times, director of hygiene and pathology at Army 
Headquarters, Simla, and in 1912 sanitary com- 
missioner with the Government of India, on May 14. 
