JUNE 3, 1915] 
NATURE 
379 


able mention of Stonehenge is Henry of Huntingdon 
(twelfth century). He refers to it as the second 
wonder in England, and calls it Stanenges. Geoffrey 
of Monmouth (A.D. 1138) wrote of it about the same 
time, as did also the Welsh historian, Giraldus Cam- 
brensis. The outer circle of thirty upright stones has 
a diameter of about ft. These stones formerly 
stood 14 ft. above the surface of the ground. Within 
this peristyle there was originally an inner structure 
of ten stones arranged in the shape of a horseshoe 
formed of five (but some think seven) huge trilithons, 
which rose progressively in height from north-east 
to south-west, the loftiest uprights being 25 ft. above 
the ground. About one-half of these uprights have 
fallen; during the operations connected with the 
raising of one of the uprights in 1901 numerous flint 
axe-heads and large stone hammers were found at 
a depth of from 2 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. underground—all 
tending to prove the great antiquity of the monument. 
From his investigations of the orientation of Stone- 
henge, upon the assumption of the structure having 
been erected as a solar temple, Sir Norman Lockyer 
concluded that the date of its foundation 
1680 B.C. 
100 
was 
WE regret to learn of the death of Dr. Aksel S. 
Steen, director of the Norwegian Meteorological In- 
stitute, and fellow of the Norwegian Academy of 
Sciences. Dr. Steen was for many years assistant 
director of the Norwegian Institute, and he succeeded 
the veteran Prof. Mohn in the directorship in Sep- 
tember, 1913. He contributed many papers to meteoro- 
logical literature on the climate and weather of Nor- 
way, but he is perhaps best known for his compre- 
hensive report on the observations made at the Nor- 
wegian station at Bossekop in connection with the 
international exploration of the polar regions during 
the years 1882-83, and for his report on the terres- 
trial magnetic results of the second Norwegian Arctic 
Expedition in the Fram in 1898-1902. The latter 
report was supplemented by an interesting discussion 
on the diurnal variation of terrestrial magnetism in 
the northern hemisphere. Dr. Steen’s visit to Eng- 
land in 1904 as a member of the International Solar 
Commission which met at Cambridge in that year, 
is pleasantly remembered by those who met him on 
that occasion. He was born at Christiania in 1840, 
and died there on May to. 
In this country it is unfortunately so rare to find 
young men, equipped by a scientific training with 
the exact habit of mind essential to all historical 
studies, willing to turn their attention to art-history 
and museum-management, that the loss of such a 
promising recruit as Second-Lieutenant Percy Herman 
Charles Allen (3rd attached to 2nd Battalion East 
Lancashire Regiment), killed in action in France on 
May 9, is much to be deplored. Educated as a mathe- 
mathical exhibitioner of Christ’s Hospital, and scholar 
of Caius College, Cambridge, Mr. Allen became for a 
time an assistant in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
and in January, 1914, was appointed assistant keeper 
in the fine art department of the Ashmolean Museum, 
Oxford. His natural taste and exactitude of percep- 
NO. 2379, VOL. 95| 

tion were beginning to find true scope in the com- 
plicated task of determining questions of states and 
copies amongst the early engravings forming part of 
the vast collections bequeathed by Francis Douce to 
the University. In a short time he did much valuable 
work. A remarkable memory and grasp of the nature 
of facts gave his judgment the sureness only acquired 
as a rule by long experience. It seemed safe to pre- 
dict that his career, cut short at twenty-five years, 
showed promise of a future of much brilliance. 
Tue late Captain S. A. Macmillan, attached to the 
58th (Vaughan’s) Rifles, Indian Army, whose death 
at the front has recently been reported, had been 
engaged for about a year on the work of the survey 
of the mammalian fauna of India, Burma, and Ceylon. 
This survey was started in 1g1t by the Bombay 
Natural History Society with the object of carrying 
out, in conjunction with the British Museum (Natural 
History), a systematic study of the Indian mammal 
fauna. Early last year the society secured the ser- 
vices of Capt. Macmillan as a collector in Burma to 
work with another of their collectors, Mr. Guy Short- 
ridge, who is now serving in France as an officer of 
the 29th Bengal Lancers. Capt. Macmillan had been 
on a rubber estate in Tenasserim, and was not only a 
keen hunter, but also possessed a local knowledge of 
languages, etc., which proved of great value to both 
collectors whilst in Burma. They were doing splendid 
work for the survey, and had made a very fine col- 
lection of mammals from Monywa and Kindat in 
Upper Chindwin and elsewhere in Burma when the 
war broke out, and abruptly put a stop to their efforts 
in this direction, the activities of both being transferred 
to the military. Before leaving India Mr. Shortridge 
and Capt. Macmillan exhibited their specimens at a 
meeting of the Bombay Natural History Society, the 
fine series of different squirrels particularly creating 
much interest. The Society has lost in Capt. Mac- 
millan a keen worker of the highest efficiency, who. 
promised to accomplish still more valuable 
towards bringing the survey to a completion. 
By the recent death of Prof. D. A. Louis, at fifty- 
eight years of age, the technical Press has lost one 
of its most gifted representatives. A Londoner by 
birth, he studied at the Royal School of Mines in the 
year 1876 and 1881, devoting most of his attention to. 
chemistry, metallurgy, and physics. From 1882 to 
1886 he was employed at Rothamsted on agricultural 
research, and there carried out important experiments. 
for Sir John Lawes. His connection with mining 
and metallurgy is to be traced to an appointment he 
had in Colorado, where he gained practical experience 
in mining. From 1891 he practised as a consulting 
mining engineer and metallurgist in London, making 
periodical visits abroad to most of the European and 
American mining districts. In 1893 he became an 
assistant examiner in mining to the Board of Educa- 
tion, and in 1900 was appointed professor of mining 
at the Yorkshire College at Leeds. In 1907 he took 
a prominent part in the third International Petroleum 
Congress at Bucharest. In 1910 he was hon. secre- 
tary of the metallurgical section of the seventh Inter- 
national Congress of Applied Chemistry; and as a 
work 
