January 14, 1909] 



NA TURE 



;i5 



were in full swing in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, 

 and Seeley was to the fore in bringing to light what 

 was to a great extent a new Mesozoic vertebrate fauna, 

 albeit one of which the remains were for the most 

 part in a sadly fragmentary condition. 



This was, in fact, the first of Seeley's two great op- 

 ])i)rtunilies in this field of research, and he undoubtedly 

 made the most of it, for it is to him that we owe 

 t!ie first discovery of birds in Cretaceous strata — birds 

 wliich. as Prof. Marsh subsequently showed, retain 

 evidence of reptilian affinity in the possession of a 

 full series of teeth. Much information was likewise 

 acquired at the same time in regard to the structure 

 of ptirodactyles, of which numerous remains were 

 obtained in the coprolite workings. The results of 

 ihfse >ludies were published in a somewhat bald form 

 in a preliminary " index " to the remains of Mesozoic 

 birds and reptiles in the Cambridge Museum. 



-Although entered as a student at Sidney Sussex 

 College, Seeley never took a degree, and toon after 

 .Sedgwick's death he left Cambridge for London, 

 where in 1876 he was appointed to the chair of geo- 

 graphy at King's College. In the same year he was 

 chosen professor of geography and geology at Queen's 

 CclUge, London, while five years later he was ap- 

 pointed dean of the college. In i8go he commenced 

 lecturing on mineralogy and geology at the Royal 

 Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill, and a 

 year later was appointed to fill the post previously 

 held by Prof. Martin Duncan. Finally, in i8q6, he 

 became professor of geology and mineralogy at 

 King's College. As if all this was not work enough 

 fur .iny man, he likewise conducted for many years 

 the excursions of the London geological field class. 



In 1862 Prof. Seeley was elected a Fellow of the Geo- 

 logical Society, and in 1879 he was admitted to the 

 feUowship of the Royal Society, while in 1905 a 

 fellowship at King's College was awarded him. He 

 £;crved on more than one occasion on the council of 

 the Geological .Society, from which bodv he also 

 received a medal. The honorary memberships of 

 loreign scientific bodies accorded in honour of his 

 labours are too numerous to mention on this occasion. 



The second great opportunity in his career came 

 in 1889, when, under the auspices of the Royal Society, 

 Seeley started for South Africa in order to collect anti 

 study the remains of the marvellous anomodont rep- 

 tiles which render that country of such intense interest 

 lo the paleontologist. On his return, he spent a 

 large ;miount of time and labour on working out his 

 collections, many of the results of these studies being 

 published by the Royal .Society in its Transactions. 

 .\s each section of the work was completed, such 

 specimens as were his own property were presented 

 to the natural history branch of the British Museum, 

 where they form some of the most prized treasures of 

 the fossil reptile gallery. 



In this investigation Prof. Seeley definitely recog- 

 nised the intimate relationships existing between the 

 anomodont reptiles and the lower mammals, a matter 

 on which previous writers had displayed some degree 

 of hesitation and wavering. If he had done nothing 

 else, his claims to a high place in the records of 

 pala;ontolog>" would have been fully established bv 

 the recognition of this one great fact. For the trend 

 of all subsequent work has been to emphasise the 

 intimacy of this relation between mammals and the 

 .-inomodonts. 



In several respects Prof. Seeley was unlike 

 other men, so that his work can scarcely be judged 

 by the ordinary standards, and the time for a final 

 judgment has not yet arrjved. That palaeontological 

 (to say nothing of geological) science has lost a student 

 with an almost superhuman store of knowledge is, 

 however, admitted bv all. R. L. 



NO. 2046, VOL. 79] 



On December 31, 1908, Mr. H. B. Woodward, F.R.S., 

 retired from the Geological Survey of Great Britain, aflor 

 more than forty years' service. His post as assistant to 

 the director has been taken by Dr. A. Strahan, F.R.S., 

 and the vacancy in the district geologists thus created has 

 been filled by the promotion of Mr. George Barrow. 



A POLL has been taken of the proprietors of the London 

 Institution in connection with the proposal to amalgamate 

 the institution with the Royal Society of .Arts. The result 

 shows that the majority of the proprietors are in favour 

 of the scheme for the amalgamation of the two societies. 

 .A meeting of the board of management of the London 

 Institution is therefore being held as we go to press to 

 consider the next step to be taken. 



Prof. J. Arthur Tuomson, of .Aberdeen University, 

 has been invited by the lecture committee of the Soiilli 

 .African .Association for the Advancement of Science to give 

 the ■■ South .African Lectures " for 1909. The lectures are 

 to be delivered in .August and September in Johannesburg, 

 Pretoria, Bioemfontein, Kimberley, Cape Town, Grahams 

 town, and Durban, and at the request of the commillee 

 they will have special reference to the Darwin centenary. 

 The previous lecturers were Prof. Raleigh, Magdalen 

 College, Oxford, and Mr. Herbert Fisher, New CoIlegi% 

 Oxford. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times reports that on 

 January b the driver of the C6te d'.Azur express was 

 attacked by an eagle while the train was proceeding from 

 Chalon sur Sa6ne to Fontaines station. The bird, which 

 measured 2 metres across the wings, flew into the cab of 

 the engine, and was only overcome after a severe struggle'. 



We regret to notice in Science the announcement of 

 the death on December 19, 190S, at the age of fifty-eight 

 years, of Prof. Thomas Gray, professor of dynamics and 

 engineering at the Rose Polytechnic Institute, and dis- 

 tinguished for his work in these subjects. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, on 

 December 25, 190S, of Major Percy B. Molcsworth, R.E., 

 in the fort)-second year of his age. He died at Trinco- 

 mali, Ceylon, where he had been stationed for some years. 

 Major Molesworth was one of the most careful and 

 assiduous of planetary observers, especially of Jupiter and 

 Mars. He published in the Monthly Notices of the Ro)^al 

 Astronomical Society a long series of observations of 

 Jupiter made in 1903-4, and recorded what appears to be 

 a unique instance of perceptible change on the planet's 

 surface, in the course of a few minutes. He made a series 

 of observations, amounting to many thousands, of transits 

 of spots on the planet, the results of which were published 

 in the Memoirs of the British Astronomical Association, 

 of wliich he was one of the most devoted members of the 

 observing sections. He made a fine series of observations 

 and drawings of Mars, extracts from which were published 

 in the Monthly Notices, the full report being placed for 

 reference in the library of the Royal .Astronomical Society, 

 of which society he had been a fellow since 1898. He 

 was a member of the British .Astronomical .Association 

 from its foundation. 



A MEDICAL congress, due to the initiative of Sir George 

 Clarke, the Governor, is to be held in Bombay, and will 

 begin on February 22. On the opening day Sir George 

 Clarke will deliver the presidential address, and the sec- 

 tional meetings will last during the next four days. There 

 will be an exhibition of medical, surgical, and sanitary 



