384 Obituary — James Loga.n Lobley. 



knowledge more than fifty years ago, even before Wallace and Darwin 

 had entered the field. 



Dr. Sclater's eldest son, Mr. W. L. Sclater, M.A., like his father, 

 is distinguished as a systematic zoologist. 



JAMES LOGAN LOBLEY, F.G.S. 

 Born 1833. Died June 27, 1913. 



By the death of J. Logan Lobley the Geologists' Association of 

 London have lost one of their earliest friends. In 1865 he became 

 a member of the Association and a Fellow of the Geological Society, 

 but most of his attention was bestowed on the younger body, of which 

 he was Honorary Secretary and Editor 1871—3, Editor alone till 

 1881, and Treasurer 1881-5. Deeply interested in the field-work 

 of the Association he conducted many excursions, and those to 

 the Weald of Kent, in 1879 and 1882, will long be remembered by 

 many who took part in them. Lobley's chief written work was his 

 Mount Vesuvius, 1868, expanded from a pamphlet to a volume in 

 1889. He also wrote a separate volume on Ilampstead Hill m 1889, 

 and contributed a score of papers on various subjects to the Geological 

 Magazine and other serials. 



From a position of comparative affluence fortune had laid him low, 

 and his later years had been sad ones, in which he had eked out a poor 

 living by coaching explorers and others in his favourite science. 

 But he worked on to the last and passed away at the age of 80, at 

 36 Palace Street, S.W., just a few days before the announcement 

 that the Government had awarded him a Civil List Pension of £60, 

 of which he had already drawn a very welcome instalment, lightening 

 the trouble of his last few months. 



He was buried at Hampstead Cemetery on July 1, attended by 

 Dr. W. S. Bruce, the Antarctic explorer, and a few other devoted 

 friends from the Geological Society and the Geologists' Association. 



Dy[:isc!E]3i.ii.-A.isrE!OXJS. 



We learn from Nature (May 29, 1913) that a " new iron 

 Bacterium" has been described by Mr. E. M. Mumford in the 

 Transactions of the Chemical Society. It was discovered in the 

 Bridge water Canal tunnels at Wasley, Lancashire, where the water 

 contains much iron derived from colliery pump-water. The new 

 bacterium appears to have a twofold action, an aerobic action 

 whereby it precipitates ferric hydroxide from iron solutions, and 

 an anaerobic action which transforms the ferric hydroxide into bog 

 iron ore with partial reduction of the iron to a ferrous state. 



Eexirkment of Professor C. Lapworth, F.R.S. — We learn that 

 Professor W. S. Boulton, B.Sc, F.G.S., Assoc. R.C.S., Professor of 

 Geology at University College, Cardiif, has been appointed to succeed 

 Professor C. Lapworth, F.R.S., who is retiring at the close of the 

 present session. Before his appointment to University College, 

 Cardiff, Professor Boulton had been assistant lecturer in geology at 

 Mason College under Professor Lapworth {Nature, June 12, 1913). 



