250 Scientific Intelligence. 



discussed work in which he was at the time engaged ; it seemed 

 so straightforward and natural that it was hard to realize that 

 it might not have been equally well done by anybody. 



The achievement by which Lord Rayleigh is best known to the 

 general public is the discovery of argon, in the later stages of 

 which he had the assistance of Sir William Ramsay. His 

 treatise on The Theory of Sound has had no serious rival since 

 its first publication in 1877 ; in all the laboratories and experi- 

 mental stations which worked on the anti-submarine problem 

 during the war, this work was constantly resorted to when diffi- 

 culties were great, and it usually supplied either the complete 

 solution or at least a suggestion as to the best mode of procedure. 



Lord Rayleigh received all the honors and rewards which 

 could fall to the lot of a man of science. He served on many 

 boards and committees in the public interest with great advan- 

 tage to his country. He was the first president of the Advisory 

 Committee for Aeronautics — a body whose work before and 

 during the war has been the chief factor in giving to Great 

 Britain the pre-eminence in theoretical and applied aeronautics 

 which she holds to-day. h. a. b. 



Dr. Ernst . Heinrich Haeckel, professor of zoology in the 

 University of Jena, died at his home on August 9 in his eighty- 

 sixth year. After his university studies at Wurzburg, Berlin 

 and Vienna, he devoted himself at first to medicine and settled 

 in Berlin as a physician. The influence of Johannes Miiller, the 

 physiologist, led him, however, to take up the study of the lower 

 forms of marine life. Later he became professor of zoology at 

 Jena, a position which he held for about fifty years. He adopted 

 the Darwinian theory as early as 1863 and from that time on 

 his work and publications were largely devoted to the general 

 subject of evolution. The theoretical side interested him par- 

 ticularly, and much of his work was in advance of his time, 

 though subsequently accepted without question. He was an 

 indefatigable worker and the list of his published works contains 

 many of the first importance. Of his earlier publications may 

 be noted his General Morphology (1866) ; The History of Nat- 

 ural Creation (1868) ; The Origin and Genealogy of the Human 

 Race (1870) ; Anthropogeny (1874). In addition to these and 

 numerous other general works, he published many special studies 

 on the radiolarians, the sponges, on plankton, etc. Haeckel's 

 strong individuality led him to develop his religious ideas in a 

 work called "Monism"; his "Riddle of the Universe " is also 

 on somewhat the same lines. 



M. Paul Chofpat, the distinguished geologist, died at Lisbon 

 on June 6, 1919, after a long illness. He had been connected for 

 many years with the Geological Survey of Portugal and the 

 importance of its work in geology has been in large measure due 

 to his ability and indefatigable industry. The general apprecia- 

 tion of the value of his work is testified to by the long list of 

 Geological Societies of which he was a member. 



