Obituary — Professor Sekiya Seihei. 143 



THE NAMING OF NEW SPECIES. 



Sir, — Has not Mr. Bather made a slip in the construction of 

 the specific name for the new Crinoid described in your February 

 Number ? If he means to connect it with the county of Shropshire, 

 as having been found on Salopian soil, surely the name should be 

 Merocrinus Salopicus, just as we have Megaceros Hibemicus. M. 

 Salopiensis would not, I think, be incorrect, but M. Salojria; means 

 that it is named after some fair nymph or lady of the name of 

 Salopia. 



I am glad that Mr. Bather preferred to associate the fossil with 

 the district in which it was found rather than to pay its finder the 

 doubtful compliment of naming it after him ; and I would take 

 the present opportunity of pointing'out to those who feel compelled 

 to associate a man's name with any new species they have to 

 describe, that the adjectival form of a proper name is not only 

 more correct, but is generally much more euphonious. Thus, if it is 

 desired to commemorate someone of the name of Jones, Jonesiuinm 

 is much better than Jonesii ; and if the name were Bell, Bellinus 

 would pass, while everyone would shrink from Bellii or Belli. 



For my own part, I made a vow long ago that I would never 

 attach a man's name to a new species, and I have kept it. 



Teignmouth, February 6th, 1896. A. J. Jukes-Browne. 



OBITTJAEY. 



SEKIYA SEIKEI. 



Born in 1855. Died January 9th, 1896. 



All who are interested in volcanic and seismic phenomena wiU 

 learn with regret that on January 9th, after an illness the first 

 symptoms of which showed themselves in 1876, Professor S. Sekiya 

 breathed his last. He was born in 1855, the year of the Ansei 

 earthquake which devastated the Tokio plain. His attention was 

 first directed to the serious study of earthquakes about 1880, and in 

 1886 he was appointed to the newly created Chair of Seismology 

 in the Imperial University of Japan. Although he wrote much in 

 Japanese, his publications in English, which for the most part 

 appeared in the Science Journal of his own College and in the 

 Transactions of the Seismological Society, in themselves testify to 

 his industry and ability. The construction of a model to show the 

 motion of an earth particle at the time of an earthquake is an 

 indication of his originality and ingenuity. By his influence and 

 persuasive power he did much towards the distribution of seismo- 

 graphs throughout his own country, and the extension of a seismic 

 survey which at the time of his death boasted of no less than 968 

 stations at which earth shakings are recorded. 



One thing in which he was interested, and in which he took part, 

 were experiments to determine forms of construction most suitable 

 for earthquake districts ; and although he did not live to see the 



