NATURE 



[November 28, 1912 



His numerous restored figures of the fishes he 

 described are especially important, combining- 

 artistic style with the most minute accuracy, and 

 left incomplete wherever there is the least doubt 

 as to structure. Both in writing and in drawing, 

 indeed, he always aimed at such precision that his 

 publications were often delayed for a long period 

 by hesitation, and his correspondents were accus- 

 tomed to regard his dilatory methods with im- 

 patience. Even so unique a fossil as the Lower 

 Devonian Palaeospondylus was in his possession 

 upwards of ten years before he ventured upon its 

 description, and he only published an account of it 

 when specimens seemed likely to fall into less 

 competent hands. Dr. Traquair was, in fact, a 

 genuine student, anxious only to make sure of the 

 truth, and a large circle of friends will mourn the 

 loss of one whose kindly spirit endeared him to all 

 who came in close contact with him. 



Dr. Traquair was elected a fellow of the Royal 

 Society in 1881, and received the honorary dey'ree 

 of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 

 1893. He was awarded the MacDougall-Brisbane 

 medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and also 

 the Lyell medal of the Geological Society of Lon- 

 don, in 1901, and a Royal medal of the Royal 

 Society of London, in 1907. A list of his writings 

 and an excellent portrait of him accompany a 

 biographical notice published in The Geological 

 Magazine for June, 1909. A. S. W. 



W. F. KIRBY. 



WILLAM FORSELL KIRBY, whose death on 

 November 20 we regret to announce, was 

 the eldest of the five sons of Samuel Kirby, banker, 

 of High Street, Leicester. He was born at 

 Leicester, January 14, 1844. When a boy of seven 

 Kirby was taken to London, and saw the British 

 Museum and Gould's collection of humming birds, 

 and, while still very young, when the family moved 

 to a house two or three miles from Leicester, his 

 mother suggested that he should collect butterflies, 

 and thus aroused his first interest in entomology. 



Kirby was privately educated by tutors. He 

 always believed that exclusion from the life and 

 experiences of a public school was a permanent 

 disadvantage to him. 



.Samuel Kirby died in 1854, and the family moved 

 to Burgess Hill and to Brighton (1857-60). 

 Kirby, although still quite a boy, joined the Brigh- 

 ton and Sussex Natural History Society, and began 

 to publish notes in The Entomologisi's ]Vcekly 

 Intelligencer. He went to London in i860, joined 

 the Entomological Society in t86i, and soon became 

 acquainted with all its leading members — with 

 AVestwood, Hewitson, .Stainton, Knaggs, and 

 Perceval Wright. In 1866 he married Johanna 

 Maria Kappel, daughter of J. W. Kappcl, of 

 Hildcn, near Dijsseldorf. Their only child, now 

 W. Egmont Kirby, M.D. , was born in 1867. Mrs. 

 Kirby interested herself in all her husband's work, 

 helping him in every possible way, and her death 

 in 1903 darkened the last years of his life. 



From 1867 to 1879 Kirby was an assistant in 

 XO. 2248, VOL. 90] 



the museum of the Royal Dublin Society, after- 

 wards the National Museum of Science and Art. 

 On the death of Frederick Smith, in 1879, he 

 moved to London, and entered the zoological de- 

 partment of the British Museum. 



It is impossible on the present occasion to do 

 more than allude to the series of volumes by which 

 W. F. Kirby helped to stimulate and spread an 

 interest in natural history. Among the numerous 

 works which he wrote for the student of insect 

 systematics special inention must be made of the 

 " Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera " 

 (1871). Few books have done more for their sub- 

 ject than this careful and accurate work, w/hich 

 was suggested to the author by the sight of H. W. 

 Bates's MS. lists. 



Between 1869 and 1884 Kirby wrote the reports 

 on Lepidoptera, and later on the greater part of 

 the insects for the " Zoological Record " — a work 

 for which he was specially qualified by his wide 

 knowledge of languages. Kirby 's publications 

 also deal with Scandinavian and Finnish folklore, a 

 subject which deeply interested him. He was fo'- 

 a time one of the hon. secretaries of the Entomo- 

 logical Society, and was honoured by foreign scien- 

 tific societies. He was ever ready to put his great 

 knowledge at the disposal of other workers. 



E. B. P. 



NOTES. 

 The anniversary meeting of the Royal Society for 

 the election of council and officers will be held on 

 .Saturday next, November 30, at 4 o'clock p.m. There 

 will be no meeting of the society to-day. 



Full particulars of the meeting, held at the Man- 

 sion House on October 23 last, to consider the whole 

 question of the nronosed memorial to Lord Lister were 

 given in an article in the issue of Nature for October 31 

 (vol. xc, p. 254). The meeting unanimously decided 

 that the most suitable form of memorial would be : — 

 (i) A tablet with medallion and inscription in West- 

 minster Abbey ; (2) the erection of a monument in a 

 public place in London ; (3) the establishment of an 

 International Lister Memorial Fund for the advance- 

 ment of surgery, from which either grants in aid of 

 researches bearing on surgery, or awards in recogni- 

 tion of distinguished contributions to surgical science, 

 should be made, irrespective of nationality. To carry 

 out these proposals a large sum of money will be 

 required, and the executive committee is appealing 

 for donations to all persons who wish to pay a tribute 

 to the memory of a great man of science and a great 

 surgeon. Before the issue of this appeal subscriptions 

 had been received amounting to something like 2700Z., 

 and we notice that the first list of donations includes 

 SooZ. each from Lord Iveagh and Mr. VV. F. D. 

 Smith, 250!. from Mr. Otto Beit, 100 guineas each 

 from Lord Northcliffe and Sir James Whitehead, 

 Bart., and ioo2. each from the Duke of Bedford, 

 K.G., Sir Ernest Cassell, G.C.B., Sir W. Watson 

 Chcync, Bart., F.R.S., and Lord Rothschild, 

 G.C.V.O. It is proposed to form committees in the 

 provinces, in the dependencies of the Empire, and in 



