1914-15.] Obituary Notice. 311 
fragment of phosphatised limestone which appeared to him clearly to be 
of terrigenous origin. Further inquiry showed that it had come from 
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and Murray duly followed up the 
indication so provided that rich phosphatic deposits were to be looked for 
on that island. After a great deal of trouble, and the application of much 
pressure, the Government of tlie day was induced to hoist the British flag 
upon the hitherto derelict island, and thereafter a joint lease of the island 
was granted to Murray and the late Mr Ross of Cocos Keeling. A 
company was formed, the immensely valuable deposits of phosphate duly 
located, the tropical vegetation was opened up, railways, piers, waterworks 
constructed, and the island became a centre of activity with a population 
of about 1500 engaged in the main industry of quarrying and shipping 
phosphate, as well as in subsidiary industries such as the growing of 
rubber, cotton, hemp, bananas, etc. Naturally, the purely scientific in- 
vestigation of the island was not neglected. Murray himself made two 
exploring expeditions thither in 1900 and in 1908, and he also organised 
and financed two expeditions under the auspices of the British Museum. 
During these expeditions extensive collections were made by Dr. C. W. 
Andrews, and the main results of the first expedition were published as 
A Monograph of Christmas Island by the Trustees of the British Museum 
(1900). The special interest of this work lies, perhaps, not so much in the 
fact that it makes known a mass of valuable information about a tropical 
island of which, hitherto, very little had been known, as in the fact of its 
being a study of the fauna and flora of an island previously uninhabited 
by man, but which was about to undergo colonisation. It forms thus a 
foundation for subsequent investigations, which will be of the greatest 
interest, into the effects of the presence of man, and animals and plants 
introduced by him, upon the native fauna and flora. 
Incidentally Murray in his Christmas Island work has provided a 
remarkably impressive lesson in regard to the practical value of pure 
science. The Ruler of our Country — the “ Man in the Street ” — does not 
realise that all the great achievements in applied science are built upon a 
foundation of pure science. He does not know that the ships which bring 
him necessities and luxuries and wealth are enabled to pick their way 
across the ocean and complete their voyages with regularity through our 
knowledge of laws which we owe to the labours of pure mathematicians. 
He is not aware that the successful completion of such an engineering 
work as the Panama Canal was rendered possible by the results of investi- 
gations upon parasites of mosquitoes. He has heard the name of Kelvin, 
and associates it with numerous inventions of practical importance, but he 
