May 23, 1907J 



NA TURE 



but was raised by the fervour and admiration of 

 Domenico Cirillo, the Neapolitan friend and corre- 

 spondent of Linn^, to whom the latter had dedicated 

 the heathers of the genus Cyrilla, now included in the 

 family of the Cyrillse. 



The Cirillo had been for long a family of doctors, 

 naturalists, and artists. It is said that Domenico 

 Cirillo, who was born in 1739, and graduated in 1759, 

 was the twentieth doctor of medicine belonging to the 

 Cirillo family. At the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century, Nicola Cirillo, who in 171S became a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society of London, formed in his own 

 private grounds in Naples a botanical garden which 

 continued to be the scientific centre of Neapolitan 

 naturalists until its destruction and the dispersion of 

 the collections and herbarium in the fatal year 1799. 

 In the sack of Cirillo's house were lost the letters 

 written by Isaac Newton to Nicola Cirillo, and the 

 famous herbarium of Ferrante Imperato, preserved 

 since the sixteenth century, before which Martyn Vahl, 

 Linn^'s friend and disciple, had knelt in admiration 

 when he visited Naples in 1783. 



The garden of Cirillo was the rallying point for the 

 flower of Neapolitan thought and science, soon to be 

 decimated and dispersed bv royalist persecution during 

 the storms of the Revolution of 1799. Many of the 

 most distinguished men of Naples must have stood 

 round Cirillo when the following inscription was raised 

 in honour of Linnaeus :— 



Caroli Linnaei 



Animam sapientissimam 



Terris divinitus impertitam 



ut 



Naturae universae arcana 



Declararet patefaceret 



Illustraret 



Postea 



per dephlogisticatam 



Aetheream regionem 



Obvolitantem 



Ne quid respub. Botanicorum 



Detrimenti capiat 



Vos 



Fragrantissimae, soporiferae 



Tetrae, spirantes 



Ambrosiacae, .\phrodisiacae 



Perennis voluptatis ministrae, 



Herbae, Arbores, Plantae 



Odoribus, Effluviis, aromate 



Sistite, involvite, detinete. 



The mob destroyed this inscription, together with 

 Cirillo's house and collections, and Cirillo, with many 

 of the noblest thinkers and benefactors of his country, 

 was hanged in the market-place of Naples on October 

 29, 1799. _ 



The inscription by Domenico Cinllo is one of the 

 first memorials erected in a botanical garden to the 

 memory of Carl Linn^. Perhaps it may be raised 

 again in Naples, a memorial not only of Linn^'s glory 

 r,nd of Cirillo's devotion, but also of that_ brotherhood 

 of science to which Linn^ and the societies that bear 

 his name have so much contributed. 



Italo Giglioli. 



DR. ALEXANDER BUCHAN, F.R.S. 



WITH the death of Dr. Alexander Buchan on 

 Monday, May 13, after a brief illness, a long 

 industrious life and a distinguished scientific career 

 were brought to a close ; a genial and striking person- 

 ality has become a memory. 



Born at Kinnesswood, Kinross-shire, in 1829, edu- 

 cated at the Free Church Normal School and the 

 NO. iq6o, VOL 76I 



University of Edinburgh, he became a schoolmaster 

 at Banchory, Blackford, and subsequently at Dunkeld. 

 He had, at the same time, an independent taste for 

 field botany and meteorology. 



-An afi'ection of the throat proved to be an embarrass- 

 ment in his scholastic work, and in i860 he was called 

 to Edinburgh to be secretary of the Scottish Meteor- 

 ological Society. It was a time of remarkable activity; 

 indeed, it was a notable period in the development of 

 the modern science of meteorology. In Paris, 

 Leverrier had traced the progress across Europe of 

 the celebrated Crimean storm. In London, FitzRoy 

 was busy with the daily comparison of reports by 

 electric telegraph from a number of stations in the 

 British Isles. The British .Association was maintain- 

 ing a physical observatory at Kew, in the superintend- 

 ence of which Balfour Stewart had just succeeded 

 Welsh, a pioneer in meteorological ballooning. In 

 this enterprise Welsh was soon followed by the intrepid 

 Glaisher, under the auspices of a British .'\ssociation 

 Committee, with the active support of Lord Wrottesley. 

 The Master of Trinity included the design of an ane- 

 mograph among his achievements. In Scotland, 

 Thomas Stevenson, Milne Home, and Sir Arthur 

 Mitchell, with the support of the great Scottish physi- 

 cists, formed the nucleus of the energetic society 

 which, under Buchan 's management, became one of 

 the most important centres of meteorological investi- 

 gation, the focus for the collection of observations 

 from all parts of Scotland, and the controlling body for 

 a network of volunteer stations. The work of examin- 

 ation and tabulation, conducted almost wholly by 

 Buchan and his niece. Miss Jessie Hill Buchan, re- 

 ceived official recognition as supplying many of the 

 summaries of observations at stations of the second 

 order in Scotland required by the Meteorological Office 

 in London for international purposes, and as preparing 

 (he meteorological reports for the Registrar-General 

 for Scotland on lines somewhat similar to, but not 

 identical with, those prepared for the Registrar- 

 General for England and Wales bv James Glaisher, 

 first as a member of the staff of the Royal Observatory, 

 and subsequently on his own account. 



.\ few words as to Buchan 's scientific work must 

 suffice. With Baxendell, of Manchester, he was largely 

 instrumental in securing the general acceptance of 

 Buys Ballot's principle of the relation of wind to air 

 pressure. He had the faculty of statistical irisight. 

 and realised that by the appropriate combination of 

 many observations it was possible to trace the inter- 

 dependence of phenomena which might be affected 

 separately bv a number of independent causes. This 

 insight is' illiistrated in a remarkable way by his papers 

 with Sir .'Vrthur Mitchell upon the relations of clirriate 

 and health in London. Such a method of investiga- 

 tion does not always commend itself to the student of 

 physics, who, fortunate in having the conditions under 

 his own control, is accustomed to trace the direct 

 connection between cause and effect in each separate 

 experiment. But the remarkable results of Buchan 's 

 work, which still remain to be followed up, enable 

 one to understand the enthusiasm for collecting ob- 

 servations, and more observations, that seem purpose- 

 less to some of those who look on. 



His " Handv Book of Meteorology," published in 

 1867, followed by a second edition in 1868, and now 

 long since out of print, though a new edition has 

 always been looked for, and his " Introductory Text- 

 book" of Meteorology" (1871) are _ ample evidence of 

 his general grasp "of meteorological work, but his 

 favourite method of meteorological investigation was 

 the map. Beginning from the time when the reduc- 

 tion of the barometer to sea-level for synchronous 



