December q, 1922J 



NA TURE 



781 



greatest. Fascinated by the study of trees, he brought 

 out the greatest work on arboriculture that has been 

 published since Loudon's monumental book, which 

 appeared in 1838. He did much for the establishment 

 and maintenance of the School of Forestry at the 

 University of Cambridge, the fine building and wonder- 

 ful collection of timbers in it owing much to his 

 munificence. 



Mr. Elwes was a man of splendid physique, endowed 

 with great powers of observation and organisation ; 

 and he was a fine naturalist. His influence was always 

 cast in favour of scientific methods. His many friends 

 mourn the loss of a splendid and stimulating personality. 



J. H. Gurney. 



The death of Mr. John Henry Gurney will be greatly 

 deplored by all who knew him, for he was of a singularly 

 lovable nature, and thought no ill of any one. By 

 this sad event, Norfolk loses her foremost naturalist — 

 one who by work and patronage has for many years 

 done much to advance the study of Nature in his 

 native county. Mr. Gurney, who was seventy-five 

 years of age, died at his residence, Keswick Hall, near 

 Norwich, after a short illness, on November 9. 



Mr. Gurney came of a family intimately associated 

 for some generations with public affairs in Norfolk, 

 which has been noted also for its philanthropy, and in 

 some of its branches for a love of natural history. 

 This devotion to the study of Nature was developed 

 in a remarkable degree in John Henry Gurney and in 

 his father. The latter was, in his day, the greatest 

 authority on the birds of prey ; and the son at an early 

 age commenced to follow in his father's footsteps by 

 devoting his attention to the study of birds, which 

 eventually became one of the main interests of a useful 

 life. Since the days of that remarkable man, Sir Thomas 

 Browne (1605-1682), Norfolk has been pre-eminent 

 among English counties for its succession of distinguished 

 naturalists interested in local faunal investigations. 

 Many have shared in the advance of its ornithological 

 knowledge, including such outstanding names as Alfred 

 Newton, Stevenson, Southwell, and the Gurneys, father 

 and son. The latter was indefatigable in his researches 

 and made more than 100 literary contributions to the 

 county avifauna, including 28 annual reports, each of 

 which brought the knowledge of the subject up-to-date; 

 of these, the last, dealing with 1921, appeared only a 

 few months ago. 



We are indebted to Mr. Gurney for several books, 

 the chief of which was " The Gannet, a Bird with a 

 History " — a valuable and exhaustive contribution 

 which will always remain a classic on its subject. 

 Another interesting volume was entitled " The Early 

 Annals of Ornithology." This concerns largely the 

 British aspect of the subject, and includes much 



information of interest relating to birds culled from the 

 le Strange household accounts for the years 1519-1578. 

 In quest of bird-lore he visited Spain, Algeria. Switzer- 

 land, and Egypt, and the results of his observations 

 appeared in the Ibis and the Zoologist, or. in the case 

 of the last-named country, in book form under the 

 title " The Rambles of a Naturalist." 



Mr. Gurney was one of the original members of the 

 Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, founded in 

 1869, and was its president in 1881-2, 1888-9, 1898-9, 

 and in 1919-20 ; he was also chairman of the Norfolk 

 Wild Birds Protection Committee, and a member of 

 the committee of the Norwich Museum, to which 

 institution he was a generous donor. He was a 

 Fellow of the Linnaean and Zoological Societies . and a 

 member of the British Ornithologists' Union. 



W. E. ('. 



Canon Edmund McClure, whose death occurred 

 on November 18, at the age of eighty-five years, was 

 editorial secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian 

 Knowledge from 1875 to 1915, during which period he 

 controlled the great mass of publications issued by the 

 Society. He graduated in honours both at the old 

 Queen's University, Belfast, and at Trinitv College, 

 Dublin. He held a curacy at Belfast for ten years, 

 and was then collated to an honorary canonry at Bristol. 

 Among his scientific and historical works he published 

 a Star Atlas, adapted from the German of Klein ; 

 translations of Hommel's " Hebrew Tradition," and 

 Kind's ''Babylonian Excavations"; he also had a 

 share in a history of the society which he served so 

 long, and in " British Place Names." Though he did 

 little original work, his influence on scientific and 

 historical literature was important. 



It is announced in the Chemiker Zeitimg of November 

 21 that Prof. Leo Tschugaeff died from typhus on 

 September 26 last. Dr. Tschugaeff. who was fifty years 

 of age, was professor of inorganic chemistry at Petro- 

 grad. He was well known for his researches, including 

 the dimethylglyoxime reaction for nickel. The issue 

 of November 16 reports the death on November 4 of 

 Prof. Alfred Moller, since 1896 director of the Forestry 

 Academy of Eberswalde, who was known for his work 

 on mvcoloary. 



We much regret to announce the death on November 

 30, at sixty-nine years of age, of Sir Isaac Bayley 

 Balfour, K.B.E., F.R.S., late professor of botany in the 

 University of Edinburgh and Regius Keeper of the 

 Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh ; also on the same 

 day, at seventy-five years of age, of Sir Norman Moore, 

 Bt., sometime Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital 

 and president of the Royal College of Physicians. 



At the anniversary dinner of the Royal Society 

 it is customary to include among the guests some 

 public men of distinction in other fields than those 

 with which scientific men are concerned. Among 

 such guests this year, at the dinner held on November 



NO. 2771, VOL. I io] 



Current Topics and Events. 



30, were Mr. Justice Darling, who proposed the toast 

 of " The Royal Society," and Mr. L. S. Amery, 

 First Lord of the Admiralty, who responded to the 

 toast of " The Guests." If the assembly had con- 

 sisted of leading representatives of literature or art, 



