June 9, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



887 



His life was gentle, and the elements 



So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 



And say to all the world, ' ' This was a man ! ' ' 



When his near relatives and dear friends 

 affectionately laid his mortal remains be- 

 side those of his beloved wife last March in 

 the Forest Hills Cemetery, well might they 

 ask — 



What hallows ground where heroes sleep? 



'Tis not the sculptured piles you heap. 



But strew his ashes to the wind, 



"Whose sword or pen has served mankind. 



And is he dead, whose glorious mind 



Lifts mine on high? 



To live in hearts we leave behind 



Is not to die. 



John Murray 



the Northwestern Coast of North America," 

 which forms the most important contribution 

 to the life history of these animals ever pub- 

 lished, and will remain a worthy monument 

 to his memory. 



Wm. H. Dall 



CHABLES M. SCAMMON 

 Captain Charles M. Scammon, U. S. E. M., 

 retired, senior officer of the service, died at 

 his home, in East Oakland, Cal., May 2, in his 

 eighty-sixth year. His death followed in less 

 than twenty-four hours after that of his wife 

 to whom he had been united for sixty-five 

 years. 



Captain Scammon was a native of Maine 

 and came to the west coast in 1853, and for 

 a time was engaged in the pursuit of whaling. 

 He was the discoverer of the large lagoon on 

 the west coast of Lower California in latitude 

 27° 50', which has since borne his name. In 

 1861 he joined the revenue service with which 

 he was connected until his death. He 

 was detailed by the government to assist 

 in the explorations of the Overland Telegraph 

 Expedition in 1865, and commanded the flag- 

 ship of their fleet for three years. To his in- 

 telligent and kindly cooperation the scientific 

 corps of that expedition owed much of their 

 success. Captain Scammon early became in- 

 terested in the natural history of the marine 

 mammals of the Pacific coast, and in those 

 days before the invention of photographic dry 

 plates, spared no trouble in gathering meas- 

 urements, drawings and other data bearing on 

 the cetacea. In 1874 these investigations 

 were summed up in his finely illustrated 

 quarto volume on the " Marine Mammals of 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 Professor E. C. Pickering, director of the 

 Harvard College Observatory, has been cre- 

 ated knight of the Prussian order Pour le 

 merite. Simon Newcomb and Alexander 

 Agassiz are the only other American men of 

 science on whom this honor has been con- 

 ferred. 



Dr. Theodore William Richards, professor 

 of chemistry at Harvard, who is going to 

 England at the invitation of the Chemical 

 Society to deliver the Faraday lecture, wiU be 

 given the honorary degree of D.Sc. by the 

 University of Manchester on July 8. 



Dr. Frederick W. True, who has held the 

 position of head curator of the department of 

 biology in the U. S. National Museum since 

 1897, has been appointed assistant secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of 

 the library and exchanges. 



Lord Curzon, of Kedleston, has been 

 elected president of the Eoyal Geographical 

 Society in succession to Major Leonard Dar- 

 win. 



The Hanbury medal of the London Phar- 

 maceutical Society for 1911 has been awarded 

 to M. Jean Eugene Leger, chief pharmacist to 

 the Hopital St. Louis, Paris. 



The Eoyal Academy of Sciences of Berlin 

 has elected Dr. James George Frazer, fellow 

 of Trinity College, Cambridge, and professor 

 of social anthropology at Liverpool Univer- 

 sity, a member of the Philosophical-Histor- 

 ical Section. 



The American Philosophical Society at its 

 recent meeting, elected the following residents 

 of the United States to membership: George 

 A. Barton, professor of Semitic languages, 

 Bryn Mawr College; Bertram Borden Bolt- 

 wood, professor of radio-chemistry. Tale Uni- 



