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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1287 



to whom the present low standards and con- 

 fusion are profitable. It is however felt that 

 inventors, scientists, engineers, manufacturers 

 and others dealing with patents, share the 

 Patent Office desire, and ought to have prompt, 

 reliable service and adequate protection. The 

 officials of the Patent Office have striven and 

 are still striving vainly with inadequate, un- 

 derpaid, everchanging forces to meet the de- 

 mands upon the office. The time seems to 

 have come when the public concerned must 

 view the situation as one involving its own 

 interests and proceed as it would in any other 

 matter to secure what is right and just. 



In a sense, " patent reform prospects " may 

 evidently be said now to depend very largely 

 upon the action of those " to whom these 

 patents come." 



Bert Eussell, 

 Secretary Patent Office Society 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



MEMORIAL TO THE LATE FREDERICK DU 

 CANE GODMAN 



A COMMITTEE has been formed under the 

 chairmanship of Lord Rothschild, F.R.S., to 

 establish a memorial to the late Frederick Du 

 Cane Godman, P.R.S., in acknowledgment of 

 his lifelong devotion to the interests of natural 

 history and in grateful testimony of the many 

 valuable benefits conferred by him, in promot- 

 ing the study of natural science in Great 

 Britain. 



At a meeting of the committee held at the 

 Natural History Museum on April 30 last, it 

 was resolved that the memorial should take, 

 primarily, the form of a bronze tablet with 

 medallion portraits of Mr. Godman and of the 

 late Mr. Osbert Salvin, Mr. Godman's lifelong 

 friend and collaborator in all his scientific 

 enterprises, and that this tablet, with a suit- 

 able inscription, should be offered to the trus- 

 tees of the British Museum, to be placed in the 

 Natural History Museum, at South Kensing- 

 ton. 



The committee hopes to be in a position to do 

 something additional to perpetuate the memory 

 of Mr. Godman, by helping to establish a 

 less local form of memorial. It is the inten- 



tion of Dame Alice Godman and her two 

 daughters to found an exploration fund in the 

 interests of the Natural History Museum. For 

 this purpose they have offered to establish a 

 trust with the sum of £5,000, the proceeds of 

 which are to be devoted to making collections 

 for the advancement of science and for the 

 benefit of the museum. This fund is to be 

 called the " Godman Memorial Exploration 

 Fund." Dame Alice's project has met with 

 the warm approval of the trustees of the Brit- 

 ish Museum. The committee, therefore, pro- 

 pose that any amount received by them over 

 and above that required for the bronze tablet 

 shall be added to the exploration fund. They 

 also hope that this may form a permanent 

 basis for future donations and bequests for 

 the same purpose. 



Mr. Godman's work is too well known to 

 need any lengthy exposition here. He and 

 Salvin commenced their zoological exploration 

 of Mexico and Central America in 1860, and 

 carried it on for over 40 years. The material 

 so obtained was used in the preparation of the 

 monumental work, " Biologia Centrali-Ameri- 

 cana," consisting of sixty-three quarto vol- 

 umes, which were published between 1879 and 

 1915. Of these, fifty-two are devoted to zool- 

 ogy, five to botany, and six to archeology. 

 The " Biologia " certainly constitutes the 

 greatest single work in natural history ever 

 planned and carried out by private individuals, 

 and rivals such national undertakings as the 

 " Challenger Report," which, of course, was 

 financed by the British government. The 

 whole of the vast natural history collections on 

 which the " Biologia " was based were pre- 

 sented by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, and 

 (after the death of Mr. Salvin) by Mr. God- 

 man, to the nation, unfettered by any stipula- 

 tions, and these collections are now in the Na- 

 tional Museum of Natural History. But Mr. 

 Godman's services to science do not rest alone 

 on the publication of his great work. The 

 value of his gifts to the Natural History Mu- 

 seum, apart from the " Biologia " material, 

 must amount to many thousands of pounds, 

 and he was ever ready to help any underta- 

 king for the benefit of his beloved science. 



