Obituary Notices. 
xliii 
a kindred spirit, and to whom he was tenderly attached, danger- 
ously exhausted him, and since that time his strength gradually 
diminished. He died on the 24th November 1870 at the age of 
thirty-nine years. 
Mr Matthews had a singularly clear, well-balanced, and vigorous 
intellect, keen observation, and remarkable powers of application. 
There is, indeed, no doubt that he would have achieved an eminent 
position in science if his health had been favourable. As it was, 
he became one of the best authorities on the clupeoids, and no one 
took more interest in the group. Even when confined to bed, and 
unable to do more than write briefly in pencil, he perseveringly 
tried to secure anchovies, then appearing here and there on our 
coasts, so that fresh observations on this form might be 
carried out. 
Taken as a whole, the career of Mr Matthews is an instance of 
exemplary devotion to duty — under great physical difficulties — in a 
field he had deliberately chosen. Many men in his position would 
have felt the weight of physical illness sufficient to bear, and would 
have passed their valetudinarian hours in search of ease and repose. 
Not so with Mr Matthews. Like Edouard Claperede of Geneva, he 
even adhered to his labours after repeated haemoptyses — preferring 
“ rather to wear the sword out than let it rust out.” The hand of 
the gentle young naturalist has vanished, but his accurate work will 
remain as a proof of his resolute perseverence under difficulties, and 
of his loyalty to zoological science. 
Memoir of Colonel Sir Henry Yule, R.E., C.B., K.C.S.I., 
LL.I)., &c. By Coutts Trotter. 
(Read January 5, 1891.) 
When the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1883, conferred the 
distinction of an Honorary Fellowship on Colonel Henry Yule, they 
were moved thereto, probably, as much by the wide range of sub- 
jects felicitously touched by his genius, as by the rare quality of 
the work done by him in his special domain of Comparative 
Geography. 
The difficulty of adequately handling these numerous and 
