46 Obituary. 
Each of Mr. Church’s leaflets contains about 1400 words—as 
much as, or more than, a good elementary student could get down 
in his notebook in the course of an hour’s lecture. Towards the end 
of the leaflet the material used in the practical work is introduced. 
The whole forms a condensed text-book representing twenty-two 
lectures, covering “ two-thirds of the general elementary syllabus for 
the Preliminary Examination in Botany of the School of Natural 
Science ” at Oxford, “ a set on ‘ Lower Types ’ being required to 
complete the evolutionary scheme.” We do not propose to criticise 
or comment on the actual contents of the leaflets, beyond makingthe 
remark that while doubtless no one will or should want to follow 
exactly the scheme of another teacher, these notes will be found 
intelligent, thorough and suggestive. We think Mr. Church has 
rendered a real service to university teachers by publishing his 
“ Notes” and we commend them heartily to our readers. 
One more point may he mentioned. There is a good deal to be 
said for issuing the notes of the entire course at the commencement, 
or, if the leaflets are issued separately, to give out each at the 
lecture before the one at which the corresponding topics are 
discussed. In this way the keener students can make themselves 
familiar with the skeleton of the lecture before it is delivered, and 
the lecturer can, in the case of small or moderate sized classes, ask 
questions on the substance of the schedule, and use the answers as 
a text for further explanation. 
A. G. T. 
JAMES WILLIAM HELENUS TRAIL, 
M.A., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. 
J AMES W. H. TRAIL was born at Birsay,Orkney,in March, 1851. 
At the age of eleven, he was sent to school in Aberdeen, and 
some years later, on the appointment of his father to the Chair of 
Systematic Theology at Aberdeen University, that city became the 
permanent residence of the family, which thus returned to the 
region from which it had sprung. 
The boy rather reluctantly went through the classical 
curriculum at school and college which was demanded by the 
tradition of his family and of his University alike. From an early 
