October 13, 19 10] 



NATURE 



467 



That one who knows and loves his subject so 

 thoroughly as does the author of this volume should 

 furnish a mine of information about the Broads, is 

 onlv what might be expected; but Mr. Ready is also 

 possessed of a pleasant and readable style, although it 

 may be noted that on the very first page he writes 

 "Peninsular" when he means "Peninsula." Perhaps 

 the three most interesting chapters out of the twelve 

 which form the volume are those on birds' nests and 

 fishing; and attention may be specially directed to the 

 account of the nests of the great grebe — locally known 

 as loon — and the buzzard, the former being illustrated 

 bv an excellent reproduction from a photograph. In 

 the chapters on fishing much space is devoted to eels 

 and eel-spearing; and it may be noted that in the 

 author's opinion the old-fashioned spear on which 

 eels were impaled is less cruel than the modern weapon 

 in which thev merelv become entangled between the 

 prongs. For while the former meant death, the latter 

 allows a number of mangled fish to escape. 



The illustrations, in addition to the one of the 

 grebe, depict broadland scenery, Wrexham Hall and 

 Church, various implements connected with eel-fishing, 

 and other local subjects. 



R. L. 



DR. JOHX PEILE. 



THE death of the Master of Christ's College, Cam- 

 bridge, has removed from the University a striking 

 figure, and from the college over which for twenty- 

 three years he presided so successfully a great master. 

 Dr. Peile came of a well-known Cumberland family. 

 His father was Mr. ^^"illiamson Peile, of Whitehaven, 

 a geologist of repute. The late master was born in 

 iS.?8, and was educated at Repton, whence he pro- 

 ceeded to Christ's College in 1856. 



Dr. Peile had a distinguished university career, 

 being bracketed .Senior Classic in i860, and winning 

 the Craven .Scholarship the year before, and being 

 bracketed Chancellor's Classical Medallist in i860. 

 Soon after taking his degree, he became a fellow and 

 lecturer of his college, and in 1870 he began his most 

 successful career as a college tutor. This lasted until 

 1884, in which vear he was elected reader in com- 

 parative philologv in the Universitv. In 1887 he suc- 

 ceeded Di'. Swainson as master of the college, and 

 four years later, becoming vice-chancellor, he resigned 

 his readership. 



Dr. Peile took a large part in university matters. 

 He was alwavs on the side of progress, and, together 

 with Henry Jackson and Henry Sidgwick, led many 

 of the movements which have done niuch to advance 

 learning in all its aspects at Cambridge during the 

 last fortv years. He was for an unprecedented time 

 a member of the council of the Senate, and he took 

 a foremost part in the movement for granting degrees 

 to women, for the abolition of compulsor\' Greek, for 

 the further provision of universitv buildings for 

 science and other subjects, in the work of University 

 Extension, and in the rearrangement of triposes and 

 other examinations. He was in university affairs 

 and politics a Liberal in the best sense of the word. 

 His lifelong work in the cause of the higher educa- 

 tion of women was recognised in the earlv "nine- 

 ties." when he succeeded the late Prof, .\dams as 

 chairman of the council of Newnham College ; and it 

 was a great pleasure to him and to his wife to learn 

 that the new building, opened only this term, was to 

 be called the Peile building. 



Dr. Peile's services to philology were those of the 



teacher rather than tl)e discoverer. He was one of 



the first to introduce the studv into England, and his 



manual of comparative philology and the little 



NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



primer long held the ground practically unchallenged. 

 These books showed a touch of taste and literary 

 charm which are not often found in comparative 

 philologists, perhaps rarely in any branch of science. 

 When Brugmann's " Grundriss " summed up the re- 

 sults of twenty years' brilliant discoveries, Peile's books 

 ceased to be useful, though they could not cease to 

 be interesting. He never revised them. All through 

 the period of transition, however, he was keeping 

 abreast of the new discoveries, and acting on them. 

 He brought a critical mind to bear on these ; he took 

 nothing on authority, and verj' often suggested 

 a way of his own to meet the case. What 

 struck the hearer was his humorous common 

 sense. He had a sense of the fitness of 

 things that kept him from pedantry. And 

 th? dullest details were illuminated by some chance 

 remark, • as when he lectured on the moods, he said 

 one day, " Now you .have Delbriick's view and my 

 view ; but I confess that I feel some misgiving when 

 I see that we prove two contrary theories by the same 

 examples." The lectures on comparative syntax 

 probably contained his most original work. These 

 were never published. Peile's infectious enthusiasm 

 never failed to influence his hearers, and the 

 impression is still quite strong after a quarter of a 

 century. 



In his own college. Dr. Peile was singularly suc- 

 cessful in promoting the study of science in its widest 

 sense. Christ's, which was the first college to award 

 open scholarships in the natural sciences, has ever 

 since maintained a high standard in science. Amongst 

 Dr. Peile's pupils were the late Prof. Jtlarshall Ward 

 and the late ProL H. Newell Martin, ProL S. H. 

 Vines, Prof. E. W. Hobson, Dr. W. J. Sell, Dr. 

 H. J. H. Fenton, Prof. Liversidge, Prof. Percy Gard- 

 ner the president of Oueen's College, Dr. Rouse, 

 ProL J. G. Adami, Dr. A. C. Haddon, Prof. E. W. 

 Brown, of Yale L^niversitv, Prof. Graham Kerr, Dr. 

 E. A. T. W. Budge, Dr.' C. A. Barber. Dr. A. W. 

 Rogers, of the South African Geological Survey, Prof. 

 I. GoUancz, Mr. A. Hutchinson, .Mr. R. H. Rastall, 

 Mr. A. W. Clayden, Dr. F. H. A. Marsh.all; ProL 

 Gwynne-Vaughan, Mr. C. Warburton, and many 

 others who are holding up the lamp of science in 

 all its forms in many parts of the world. 



The master \vas an untiring worker, and devoted 

 his energies, which were great, whole-heartedlv to the 

 services of the L'niversitv and of his college. During 

 his mastership, Christ's College has been greatly 

 enlarged, and to a great extent rebuilt. The "chapel 

 and the hall have been decorated bv the late Mr. 

 Bodlev, and the same architect rebuilt and rearranged 

 the library. .\ third court has been opened up, and 

 contains a handsome building, with sets of students' 

 rooms, and a more recently constructed pile of lecture- 

 rooms erected at the time of the quatercentenary of 

 the college. John Peile was a wise counsellor, a loyal 

 colleague, absolutely unselfish and unself-seeking. 

 He has left an impress on his L^niversity and on his 

 coller>-e which can never be effaced. 



NOTES. 

 By the bequest of the Lite Mr. F. Tendron, for many 

 years chairman of the St. John Del Rev Mining Com- 

 pany, the trustees of the British Museum have recently 

 acquired a few choice mineral specimens. Conspicuous 

 among them is a magnificent, and probably unique, crystal 

 of pyrrhotite, measuring as much as fourteen centimetres 

 across. The suite also includes smaller specimens of 

 pyrrhotite, two specimens of the rare mineral chalmersite, 

 some well-crystallised gold, &c. 



