Jury 255 ToT? | 
touched nothing that he did not master. He 
possessed critical genius, the native acumen that 
penetrated to the heart of a subject, be it crystal- 
gazing, exogamy, or the Casket Letters. 
His delicate taste as a poet and critic attracted 
me long before I came face to face with him in 
the ruder matters of primitive sociology. But in 
both, as also in the history of cricket and of golf, 
he always hit the mark. His touch for crucial 
points was infallible. In one line he gives us the 
essence of Artemis the huntress— 
“And through the dim wood Dian ‘threads her way ’ ; 
in one sentence he exposed the central problem of 
exogamy, the bisection of the tribe. 
Unnoticed before, this’ last proposition served 
him as the basis of his most fruitful work as an 
anthropologist. His exposition of his cousin's 
“Primal Law” will always remain a classic. 
His “Myth, Ritual and Religion” was the first 
book to oppose academic sociology with the facts 
of modern savage life. With its simple but irre- 
sistible logic, he was able to check for ever the 
extravagances of Max Miiller’s school. Ceaseless 
criticism, invaluable in its results, was carried on 
in this department of science. As a polemical 
writer he was urbane, though apt to be diffuse. 
Asa historian, in spite of his hatred of modernism, 
he was modern in his logical fairness and his grip 
of essentials. 
Few things are more charming than some of 
his poems and short stories. The latter are often, 
as witness “In the Wrong Paradise,” both 
humorous and scholarly. His love of Greece and 
of the past was perhaps a defect of his quality. 
But Lang’s mind was great, Homeric. It made 
him both critic and artist, and as either he is a 
loss. A. E. Craw ey. 
THE 250th ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
S the celebrations in connection with the anni- 
versary of the Royal Society were in progress 
at the time of our going to press last week, we 
were unable on that occasion to do more than 
print the names of the foreign delegates and those 
of the British Dominions beyond the seas, and to 
give extracts from some of the speeches delivered 
at the reception and the City banquet. The pro- 
gramme arranged was carried through without 
alteration, and passed off satisfactorily. The 
garden party at Syon House was largely attended, 
and about 1000 persons were present at the con- 
versazione, which was held in the rooms of the 
society on Wednesday night, when _ several 
interesting historical instruments were exhibited, 
among which mention may be made of the 
chronometer by Arnold used by Captain James 
Cook on his second and third voyages, an elec- 
trical machine constructed by Dr. Joseph Priestley, 
the original model of Sir Humphry Davy’s miners’ 
safety lamp, a pair of compasses which belonged 
to Sir Christopher Wren, and Newton’s original 
account of his reflecting telescope. 
NO. 2230, voL. 89] 
NATURE 
533 
At the garden party given by the King and 
Queen at Windsor on Thursday, the President, 
other officers of the Society, members of the Coun- 
cil, and the delegates were introduced to. their 
Majesties. 
We are glad to know that the delegates are 
returning home full of appreciation of the hos- 
pitalities which had been extended to them and 
their wives and daughters. The latter were the 
especial care of a ladies’ committee: although the 
members of this committee are not named in the 
official programme, we are informed that Lady 
Bradford, Lady Crookes, Lady Lockyer, Lady 
Parsons, and Lady Ramsay were among the most 
active among them. 
The proceedings were appropriately brought to 
a conclusion on Friday by the conferment of the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Science on eleven 
of the delegates from abroad by the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge, the recipients being— 
at Oxford—Prof. J. O. Backlund, director of the 
Imperial Observatory, Pulkowa; Dr. W. C. 
Brogger, professor of mineralogy and geology in 
the University of Christiania and rector of the 
university; Dr. W. B. Scott, Blair professor of 
geology and paleontology in Princeton University ; 
Dr. W. Waldeyer, professor of anatomy and 
director of the Anatomical Institute in the Uni- 
versity of Berlin; Dr. P. Zeeman, professor of 
physics in the University of Amsterdam; and—at 
Cambridge—Prof. E. B. Frost, director of the 
Yerkes Observatory; the Marchese Emanuele 
Paterno di Sessa, professor of chemistry in the 
University of Rome; Prof. Pavlov, St. Petersburg 
University; Prof. Picard, University of Paris; 
Geheimer Regierungsrat Rubens, University of 
Berlin; and Dr. Warming, formerly professor of 
botany at Copenhagen. 
Dr. G. Lippmann, president of the Academy of 
Sciences, Paris, would also have received the 
degree at Oxford but for his enforced return to 
Paris in consequence of the death of Prof. 
Poineare. 
After the degree ceremony, the company 
assembled at All Souls’ College, where a large 
party were entertained at lunch by the Warden 
and Fellows. In the afternoon a garden party 
was given in the grounds of Wadham College. 
Wadham College being the scene, during the 
Commonwealth, of some of the -meetings 
from which the Royal Society afterwards took 
origin, an exhibition of portraits, books, and 
other objects of interest illustrating the early 
history of the society and its connection with 
Oxford had been arranged in the hall, and was 
inspected by many of the visitors, each of whom 
was also presented with a short statement, drawn 
up by Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S., containing notices 
of the distinguished members of Wadham College 
(Wilkins, Wren, Seth Ward, Rooke, Sprat, 
Sydenham, Mayow, &c.) who were instrumental 
in the foundation of the society and in the general 
scientific movement of the time. 
The following is the text of the speeches 
delivered at Cambridge by the Public Orator, Sir 
