142 Obituary—Sir Lazarus Fletcher. 
Bloomsbury and arranging them in their new home at South 
Kensington. This transference and rearrangement skilfully accom- 
plished, time was afforded him for the preparation of the celebrated 
guide-books and the selection and arrangement of the series of 
specimens to illustrate them. In the intervals of this work he was 
able to prosecute his crystallographic investigations of minerals 
and those chemical analyses of meteorites which are characterized 
by the meticulous care which he brought to bear upon any scientific 
work he undertook. In recognition of his services to science, in 1889 
he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in 1894 was chosen 
as President of the Geological Section of the British Association at 
its meeting in Oxford, and in 1912 was awarded the Wollaston medal 
of the Geological Society. After the retirement of Sir Ray Lankester 
in 1909 he became the Director of the Natura! History Museum, and 
in 1916 was knighted. A few years before his promotion to the 
Directorship of the Museum he had been attacked by that heart- 
trouble which had the effect of sapping his energies during the rest 
of his career, and was eventually the cause of his death: This took 
place in his native country, the North of England, to which he had 
returned with his wife and daughter after his retirement from the 
Museum less than two years ago. 
Fletcher’s genial and amiable disposition and dry North Country 
humour endeared him to friends and colleagues. As characteristic 
examples of this quiet humour the following passages from the 
address delivered to the Mineralogical Society on his retirement from 
the Presidency in 1888 may be quoted: “ It may be cast in our 
teeth that the volume (of the Society’s Journal) is small, but one can 
proudly and truly retort that few volumes of the same size furnish 
so vast an amount of heavy reading,” and again: “‘ The Ancients, 
not unwisely, refrained from the invention of printing; they 
recognized . . . that their duty to posterity was to transmit to it 
only their masterpieces ; when even these became burdensome, an 
incendiary, doubtless a librarian, quickly reduced their volume.” 
Fletcher was put in a position of authority over others early in life, 
and happy was the lot of those who were fated to work under his 
direction. No bitterness or ill-feeling ever arose to mar their friendly 
intercourse, for irritability of temper was not in his nature, and 
the scrupulous regard for fair-play which characterized his relations 
with his assistants may be judged from the following extract from 
one of his reports: “ After the Assistant has come on duty I have 
encouraged him in precise rather than in voluminous scientific 
work, and have taken care that he has had the sole credit of any 
work he has done. Further, to avoid the possibility of development 
of difficulties between the Assistant and myself, no one has been 
allowed to give me the least help in any scientific work which I have 
myself taken in hand.” For the prosecution of such work he 
possessed in the highest degree that capacity for taking infinite pains 
which is supposed to be the attribute of genius. The elaborate 
