118 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



greatest satisfaction and import to find entomology now a handmaid of 

 medicine, and on the consulting list of anthropology. 



Prof. Poulton, at a meeting of the British Association at Cape 

 Town in 1905, delivered a lecture on William John Burchell, the 

 materials of which, with a portrait of Burchell, appear in the Associa- 

 tion Report, of which a reprint has been sent to us. As Prof. Poulton 

 is preparing a fuller biography of this African traveller, nothing in the 

 nature of a review need at present be contemplated. Burchell was 

 both naturalist and traveller, and though, in a philosophical estimate, 

 he cannot be placed with either Humboldt, Darwin, or Bates, he was 

 a very distinguished observer and collector, and a great pioneer 

 traveller. After a long life of scientific activity, he committed suicide 

 when he had passed the eightieth year of his life, probably through 

 mere weariness, as the work he had elected to do was tben completed. 

 Possibly he may have brooded on the absence of scientific recognition, 

 but then his was a studious rather than a pushful nature, and he did 

 not perhaps comfort himself with the reflection of Lessing, that " some 

 people obtain fame, and others deserve it." Many interesting foot- 

 notes are added to the reprint of this lecture. 



The ' Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences' (vol. viii. 

 No. 4) is devoted to a review of the work done by the Society in co- 

 operation with the Public Schools. We read that, " from the day of 

 its inception, one fundamental principle has controlled the policy of 

 the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. Bealizing the important 

 place which a great museum must eventually take in the educational 

 system of its home town, we have always endeavoured to get into the 

 closest and most effective relationship with the public schools of our 

 city. Every facility which we had to offer to the student has been 

 freely and continuously placed at his command. For years the science 

 teachers of the city have been in the habit of bringing their classes to 

 our building, and we have supplied them with room and materials for 

 their work. In the study of geology, thousands of high school pupils 

 have received great benefit from our collections of rocks and minerals, 

 and our display of native birds and animals has been of the greatest 

 help to the classes in zoology and natural history. At the beginning 

 it was the custom for the teachers to accompany the classes, and take 

 charge of their work while here, the museum offering simply its collec- 

 tions and rooms, no attempt being made to provide lectures or 



