fULY S, 1922] 



NA TURE 



49 



carried out, but Prof. Donner tested the method at 

 Helsingfors, sending the plates to Kapteyn for measure- 

 ment ; he deduced parallaxes for 246 stars, but 

 realised that direct parallax measures were insufficient 

 to gauge more than a small fraction of the universe. 

 He then set to work to deduce distances from the 

 proper motions, incidentally giving a new method 

 of deducing the solar apex by making the sum of the 

 resolved proper motions in the direction of the antapex 

 a maximum, that in the perpendicular direction zero. 

 From this work he deduced formulae connecting parallax 

 with magnitude and proper motion, which, with some 

 modifications, have been found very serviceable. To 

 the end of his life he entertained a certain distrust for 

 spectroscopic parallaxes, though this scarcely seems 

 to be justified. 



In the course of his studies on proper motion Kapteyn 

 made the notable discovery of the two star -drifts, 

 which has played a great part in all subsequent work 

 on stellar motions. It has been interpreted in various 

 ways — as the separate motions of two interpenetrating 

 star-clouds — as radial motions, respectively inward 

 and outward, of stars oscillating through the centre — 

 as rotational movements in opposite directions about 

 the centre. Kapteyn himself favoured the latter view. 

 He saw the necessity of obtaining more statistics about 

 the faint stars, and planned the " Selected Areas " 

 uniformly distributed over the sky ; in these restricted 

 regions all available information should be obtained 

 about all the stars down to the faintest visible ; from 

 the results statistics for the whole sky could be formed. 

 One of his last wishes was that astronomers should 

 continue to investigate these regions after his death, 

 and his wish will doubtless be realised. 



Of late years Kapteyn spent a good deal of time at 

 the great American observatories, and took the keenest 

 interest in the physical investigations there in progress. 

 His last paper on the configuration and motion of the 

 stellar system was published in the Astrophysical 

 Journal a few days before his death. 



A. C. D. Crommelin. 



John Ward. 



The National Museum of Wales and the cause of 

 archaeology in the Principality have sustained a serious 

 loss by the death, on June 18, of Mr. John Ward. Born 

 in 1856 at Derby, he started in life as a pharmacist, but 

 all his leisure time was devoted to the examination of old 

 buildings and other objects of antiquarian interest. It 

 was this work which in 1893 led to his appointment as 

 curator of the Cardiff Municipal Museum in succession 

 to the late Mr. John Storrie. Here he carried on the 

 same lines of research, which resulted in the publication 

 of several papers in the Transactions of the Cardiff 

 Naturalists' Society and the Archaologia Cambrensis, 

 of which probably those on the Roman fort at Gellygaer 

 and the St. Nicholas chambered tumulus were the most 

 important. In addition he wrote for Methuen's series 

 of " Antiquaries' Books " two volumes on " The Roman 

 Era in Britain," and " Romano-British Buildings and 

 Earthworks." 



He naturally took a deep interest in the establish- 

 ment of the National Museum of Wales, and when the 

 < ardiff Museum was absorbed in that Institution he was 

 appointed to the dual post of Keeper of its Archaeo- 



NO. 274.9, VOL. I 10] 



logical Department and Curator of the Cardiff Collec- 

 tions ; these duties he discharged with energy and 

 success until failing health necessitated his retirement 

 two years ago. 



A conspicuous service which Mr. Ward rendered to 

 the Museum was the accumulation of a large series of 

 obsolete and obsolescent appliances from farms and 

 rural homesteads. These were arranged by him in a 

 temporary " Exhibition of Welsh Byegones," for which 

 he prepared a valuable and interesting handbook. The 

 book found a ready sale and was soon out of print. It 

 was his intention (now, alas, impossible of accomplish- 

 ment) to prepare an enlarged edition of it, illustrated by 

 drawings from his facile pencil. 



One of his striking characteristics was the exquisite 

 finish of every piece of work which left his hands. A 

 conspicuous example of this is the series of models 

 illustrating geological structures, which gained him a 

 silver medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1900. 



Mr. Ward had been for many years a Fellow of the 

 Society of Antiquaries, and in 1918 the University of 

 Wales conferred upon him the honorary degree of 

 Master of Arts. Unfortunately the state of his health 

 prevented him from attending the graduation ceremony. 

 He was a keen and enthusiastic student, a man of 

 enlightened views on Museum policy, a loyal colleague, 

 and a warm friend. W. E. II. 



Sir George R. Parkin, K.C.M.G. 



Born in New Brunswick in 1846, George Robert 

 Parkin was one of many notable men whom 'the Mari- 

 time Provinces have given to the Empire ; but few 

 have had so clear a vision of what Empire means, or 

 have devoted their lives with such ardour to its service. 

 Life in Lower Canada in his early days was strenuous. 

 Farm work, study when body and brain were tired, a 

 meagre living earned by teaching in the common 

 schools, a B.A. degree secured by the practice of severe 

 economy, the Douglas gold medal for proficiencv in 

 science. In after days Parkin attributed his in- 

 tellectual awakening to the influence of a teacher who 

 had been a pupil of Agassiz, although his own bent, 

 after he left the University of New Brunswick, was 

 for the humanities. In 1874-75 he was so fortunate 

 as to spend a year as an unattached student at Oxford, 

 where his eloquence gained for him the office of secretary 

 to the Union at a time when Asquith, Milner, and 

 Thomas Raleigh were its leading speakers. But most 

 notable of the friendships consolidated at Oxford, 

 although it originated through correspondence before 

 he left Canada, was that with Edward Turing, the 

 strength of which is evidenced by the request in 

 Thring's will that Parkin would write his biographv. 

 In 1875 ne returned to Canada as headmaster of the 

 school at Fredericton. 



Parkin was a great talker. His ebullient enthusiasm 

 overflowed in speech ; and, just as his enthusiasm was 

 the product of fervid conviction, so also was his talk 

 sincere. He had no conscious mission. His advocacy, 

 in consequence, was irresistible. In 1S89 the Imperial 

 Federation League induced him to make a tour through 

 Canada and Australasia. That he should be chosen 

 by the Rhodes Trustees, in 1902, as their first organising 

 secretary, was a proof that it was generally recognised 



