298 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. YOL. IV. No. 88. 



come. He has since lived in Hampshire, at 

 his country house, ' Odiham Priory,' about 

 forty miles from town, taking a house for 

 his family in London for three or four 

 months at the beginning of each year. In 

 summer he constantly visits the Continent, 

 making excursions to see the various zoo- 

 logical gardens and museums. 



One of his closest friends was the late 

 Prof Huxley, long a member of the Coun- 

 cil of the Zoological Society, where he 

 was one of Mr. Sclater's most constant 

 supporters. , Prof. Huxley, it may be said, 

 was the chief advocate of the project of em- 

 ploying an anatomist at the Society's gar- 

 dens, and invented the title ' prosector ' for 

 the new office. A. H. Garrod who became 

 prosector in 1871, and "W. A. Forbes, who 

 succeeded him in 1879— both talented and 

 promising young naturalists — were dear 

 friends of Sclater, and the unfortunate death 

 of Forbes during the excursion to the Niger 

 in 1883 was a most severe blow to him. 

 Notable among his other friends was Charles 

 Darwin, who frequently visited him in his 

 office, bringing long lists of memoranda for 

 conference. 



Mr. Sclater married, in 1862, Jane Anne 

 Eliza Hunter Blair, daughter of the late Sir 

 David Hunter Blair, baronet, of ' Blairqu- 

 han,' in Ayrshire. He has five children, of 

 whom four are sons. The eldest, William 

 Lutley Sclater, has inherited his father's 

 tastes ; he was for four years an assistant in 

 the Indian Museum in Calcutta, and after 

 a short term of service as science master at 

 Eton College was appointed director of the 

 South African Museum at Cape Town, a 

 position which he now occupies. 



The second son, Capt. Bertram Lutley 

 Sclater, is an officer in the Royal Engineers, 

 and is now on duty in British East Africa, 

 constructing a road to Uganda from the 

 coast. 



The third son, Lieut. Guy Lutley Sclater, 

 an officer in the Royal Navy, is a specialist 



in torpedo work ; while the youngest, Ar- 

 thur Lutley Sclater, is a tea planter in Cey- 

 lon. 



Mr. Sclater received the degree of doctor 

 of philosophy, honoris causa, from the Uni- 

 versity of Bonn in 1860, and in 1861 was 

 elected a fellow of the Royal Society, on the 

 Council of which he has twice served. 



At the age of sixty- seven he is still in full 

 mental vigor, and adding each year a num- 

 ber of papers to his already remarkable list. 

 May this useful career be continued for 

 many years to come. 



G. Brown Goode. 



ON THE FLOATING OF METALS AND GLASS 

 ON WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS. 



During the progress of a research on the 

 surface tension of liquids, and on the ten- 

 sion of films, I observed that rings of alumi- 

 num, made of wires of various diameters, 

 floated on water when these rings were 

 chemically clean. A ring 62 millimeters in 

 diameter, made of aluminum rod 3.6 milli- 

 meters (-f inch) in thickness and weighing 

 5.6 grams floats on water; sometimes for 

 several minutes, sometimes for several 

 hours ; the duration of flotation depending 

 on conditions to be stated in a subsequent 

 publication. 



I naturally thought that these remark- 

 able phenomena were peculiar to alumi- 

 num, because in all the works on physics I 

 have read it is stated that to float a metal 

 on water it is necessary that its surface 

 should previously be greased. (See the 

 latest treatise on physics, by Violle ; Vol. 

 I., pt. 2, p. 679.) I found, however, that 

 all metals from platinum of a density of 22 

 to magnesium of a density of 1.7 float on 

 water when their surfaces are chemically 

 clean. 



Rings were made of aluminum, iron, tin, 

 copper, brass and German silver. The wire 

 of these rings is one millimeter thick and 

 the rings are about 50 millimeters in di- 



