194 Scientific Intelligence. 



Optics, it is much to be desired that we may have before long 

 Prof. Gibbs' Lectures upon the Electro-Magnetic Theory of 



Light. ARTHUR W. EWELL. 



Obituary. 



Professor Henry A. Ward, the veteran mineralogist, scien- 

 tific traveler and collector, was struck by an automobile in the 

 streets of Buffalo on July 4 and died almost immediately after. 

 Notwithstanding his seventy-two years of age, he was still in 

 full health and vigor. He was born at Rochester on March 9, 

 1834, studied at Williams College, at Cambridge with Agassiz, 

 and later for four years at the School of Mines in Paris. For six 

 years from 1859 he taught Natural Science at the University of 

 Rochester. The greater part of his time and energy he devoted 

 to travel, with collecting in mineralogy, geology and natural his- 

 tory as the main object and incentive. Throughout his life his 

 interest and enthusiasm for this work never flagged ; trips to 

 Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America were repeated 

 at short intervals. Many institutions have obtained their col- 

 lections through his efforts and the large amount of material he 

 accumulated has been the basis of the Natural Science Estab- 

 lishment which bears his name. 



During the later years of his life his interest was particularly 

 aroused by the study and collection 'of meteorites, the very diffi- 

 culty of the undertaking serving to stimulate him. One large 

 collection passed from his hands to the Field Columbian Museum 

 in Chicago, and another to Mr. C. S. Bement. His efforts cul- 

 minated, however, in the Ward-Coonley collection now on 

 deposit and exhibition at the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory in New York City. Beginning with a small nucleus in 

 1894, within ten years it had taken the first place among the 

 great collections of the world. This was a unique work calling 

 for all his energy, perseverance and tact, together with liberal 

 expenditure. Could the history of the collection in detail be 

 written it would be full of the interest of travel and adventure ; 

 as a typical case may be mentioned his trip to Persia and inter- 

 view with the Shah, leading to his obtaining a large mass of the 

 remarkable Veramin meteorite.* Up to the day of his death his 

 interest in meteorites and his energy in obtaining new specimens 

 were unabated. He had also accumulated a large amount of 

 material relating to the history and scientific investigation of 

 meteorites, from which he proposed to prepare an exhaustive 

 volume on the subject. 



Baron C. R. von der Osten Sacken, the eminent Russian 

 entomologist, died in May last at the age of seventy-eight years. 



Dr. Ludwig Brackebusch, Professor of Geology at Hannover, 

 died recently at the age of fifty-seven years. 



* A brief account is given in this Journal, v. xii, p. 453. 



I 



