Institution, on April 24, said that the solar system was near the
middle of a finite group of stars, the limiting distances of which
were from 1,000 to 10,000 parsecs. (By "parsec" is meant a parallax of
one second, corresponding to a distance equal to 206,265 times that of
the sun.) About 88 per cent. of the stars brighter than 10.5 magnitude
are from 20,000,000 to 150,000,000 times as far off as the sun, and of
these 90 to 95 per cent, are intrinsically brighter, 87 per cent. being
fifty times as bright, or more. Red stars are very distant; yellow
stars, on the whole, are nearest, and the distance increases as the
colour changes to blue or orange. The thinning out in the number of
stars at very remote distances is conspicuous.
Professor E. W. Brown, addressing the Cosmical Physics section of the
British Association, spoke of his work on the motion of the moon, which
had occupied him for twenty years. All gravitational forces have been
taken account of, and the improved tables will be made use of in the
Nautical Almanac for 1919, the intermediate issues having already been
printed. A few residual corrections remain, the origin of which may be
due to electrical or other forces.
A selenium photometer for determining stellar magnitudes, devised by
Mr. Joel Stebbins, and improved by Rosenberg of Tübingen, enables a
magnitude to be determined within about 1-500th, after a couple of
minutes' exposure, using a 5-inch refractor. By the ordinary method the
process is very much more tedious and less accurate.
The Canadian reflector of 72-inch aperture will be ready in about two
years, and will be erected on a hill seven miles north of Victoria,
B.C. It is designed for spectrographic work and for photographing
star-clusters and nebulæ. Its focal length of 30 feet can be increased
to 108 feet by a Cassegrainian combination.
The first comet of the year (1914 _a_) was discovered on March 29, by
Kritzinger, in Ophiuchus; the second (1914 _b_) by Zlatinsky, on May
15, in Perseus, and the third (1914 _c_) by Neujmin, on June 29. The
thirty-third return of Encke's comet was observed in November; its
perihelion is now nine days later than if the motion had continued as
in 1848.
An aerolite, one of the largest ever known to have fallen in Great
Britain, descended in a field at Appley Bridge, near Wigan, on October
13. The weight of the two principal fragments was 28 lb. 13 oz., and it
measured a little over 9 inches in each dimension. It was composed of
olivine 63.43 per cent., enstatite 31.5 per cent., pyrites and metallic
matter 5.07 per cent., and showed traces of superficial fusion, but
presented no exceptional features apart from its size.
C. L. B.
GEOLOGY.
The gases expelled from the volcano of Kilauea, unmixed with air, have
been collected on the spot, and examined by Day and Shepherd, who found
them to consist chiefly of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide,
sulphur dioxide, sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrochloric acid, and, of
course, water vapour. No argon or other rare gases could be detected.
Mr. A. Brun, who has had the hardihood to descend about 1,000 feet
into the crater of Vesuvius, found at that level a floor in which was
an aperture some 200 feet deep, from which issued gases, steam, and
other concomitants of volcanic action. His results are published in a
monograph (1914) wherein he assigns to water vapour a less important
part than had hitherto been ascribed to it. Mr. F. Burlingham, on the
same occasion, took kinematograph pictures of the interior of the
crater, which were exhibited in London early in the year.
At the British Association meeting in Australia a human skull was
exhibited which had been found about thirty years previously in a
cave near Warwick (north of the Darling range), but not till recently
carefully examined. It was associated with Pleistocene animal remains,
though the fauna of Australia has changed more rapidly than in most
other countries, and the period must not be put too far back. The
skull was of a more primitive type than even the Piltdown specimen
(A.R., 1913, p. 55), the anterior width being greatest at the level
of the nose, and the summit was peak-shaped instead of dome-shaped.
Moreover, the facial angle was hardly 45 degrees, instead of being a
right angle or more, and the upper canine teeth were disproportionately
large, and conical. The race to which it belonged is supposed to have
migrated from Western Asia, and to have died out before giving rise to
any of the savage tribes inhabiting the continent since the historic
period.
Mr. A. D. Hall, of the Development Commission, referred in the
Agricultural Section of the Association to the large waste areas on the
earth which might be made productive by drainage, manuring, tillage, or
other treatment without excessive expenditure. Many of these occur in
populous countries, and many more in remoter or uncivilised districts.
The occurrence of coal in Arctic regions is no new discovery, and for
eight or nine years it has been exported from Spitzbergen, the amount
in 1913 being some 40,000 tons. The coal is of tertiary age, and is of
good quality for steam-raising purposes. It is found conveniently near
the surface, close to Advent Bay, and the absence of liquid water, of
dust and fire-damp, eliminates the ordinary risks of coal-mining. It is
a problem still unsolved by geologists how the warm climate necessary
for the vegetation of a carboniferous epoch could have been brought
about, either in Spitzbergen or the high southern latitudes in which
Sir Douglas Mawson (see "The Home of the Blizzard," 1914) discovered
samples. Astronomical and geographical changes have both been invoked,
but without furnishing a satisfactory demonstration.
Attention has recently been called to the great marble deposits in
Spitzbergen, which yield stones of varied and often new colours, and
suitable for building or ornamental purposes. As in the case of coal
the situation of the quarries--in King's Bay and elsewhere--leaves
nothing to be desired from the exporter's point of view.
C. L. B.
GEOGRAPHY.
A gift of 24,000_l._ from Sir James Caird to Sir Ernest Shackleton's
expedition across the Antarctic placed the enterprise on a sure footing
and enabled the leader and his staff to proceed rapidly with their
preparations. By July the members of the expedition were chosen; Mr.
Frank Wild is second in command of the Weddell Sea party, Lieut. F.
A. Worsley is in navigating command of the _Endurance_ on the voyage
from London to Buenos Ayres and the Weddell Sea, and Lieutenant A.
Mackintosh is leader of the party which sails in the _Aurora_ for the
Ross Sea area.
The _Endurance_ left Plymouth for the Antarctic on August 8, and Sir
Ernest Shackleton followed from Liverpool on September 19 to overtake
her in South America, leaving Buenos Ayres for South Georgia on
October 27. It is now intended that the _Endurance_ shall winter in
the Antarctic in latitude 77° 30' S.; if this point is reached early
enough the trans-Antarctic journey can be begun this season, and in
that case Sir Ernest hopes to meet the Ross Sea party in April, 1915,
but, if not, then in March, 1916. Wireless telegraphic apparatus is to
be installed so that communication can be kept up with the rest of the
world.
At the base in the Weddell Sea area the party is to divide into three
divisions; the main one under Sir Ernest Shackleton will proceed on
the trans-Antarctic journey of 1,700 miles to meet the Ross Sea party;
a westerly division will explore the continuation of the Victoria
Mountains; and an easterly division will investigate Enderby Land.
The Ross Sea party will send out a division over the Barrier Ice which
will follow the route up Beardmore Glacier to meet the leader of the
expedition and his comrades. It is intended on the land journeys to use
motor sledges and an aeroplane with truncated wings, as well as dogs of
which there are one hundred.
Sir Douglas Mawson has communicated to the Royal Geographical Society
a complete account of his voyage to Antarctica and his journey inland,
the region investigated lying due south of Australia between longitude
90° and 150° east. The expedition sailed from Hobart on December 2,
1911, in the _Aurora_ and made for Macquerie Island, a rocky structure
twenty miles long by three and a half broad, where a party was left
for purposes of research. Here a wireless telegraph station was
established, and by its means communication was kept up with the main
contingent in Antarctica and with Australia. On January 6, 1912, an
ice tongue of immense size was sighted projecting from continental
land, where, after some difficulty, a harbour was found near Cape
Denison, and by January 19 a house was erected and the stores had been
transferred thither. On this part of the coast the gales blowing from
the land seem to be almost continuous and greatly add to the danger of
navigation; for example, at Adelie Land, the average wind velocity is
fifty miles an hour, average hourly velocities of 100 miles an hour
were common, and ninety miles an hour for twenty-four hours has been
recorded.
Three inland journeys were undertaken in an easterly direction, the
longest being under the leadership of Dr. Mawson; it was on this
journey that Lieutenant Ninnis was killed by falling into a crevasse
and Dr. Mertz died from exposure, while the leader himself, left alone
to struggle to the base, would have succumbed but for the fortunate
discovery of a store of provisions. A fourth exploring party was led
by Mr. Bage in a southerly direction over the plateau, and a fifth was
conducted by Mr. Bickerton over the high lands towards the West. Seven
members of the expedition remained on Adelie Land for a second year,
and finally Adelaide was reached on February 26, 1914.
A new Anglo-Swedish expedition is under consideration to explore
thoroughly the part of the Antarctic continent due south of South
America. It will be under the leadership of Professor Nordenskjold.
Dr. Steffansson sailed more than a year ago on the _Karluk_ for the
western part of the Northern Archipelago, but the vessel, after being
caught in the ice in lat. 70° 47' N., long. 150° 7' W., was wrecked on
January 11, 1914, through the ice unexpectedly breaking up. Captain
Bartlett and eight others were rescued from Wrangel Island by the U.S.
Government ship _Bear_, but eleven members of the expedition, including
most of the scientific staff, have been lost. Dr. Steffansson, who had
left the _Karluk_ before she was wrecked, travelled northwards until
open water was reached; thence in pursuit of his journey he thought he
might be driven by wind and currents on to Banks Island, and in that
event he would await help there. Whalers who have touched at the island
have, however, seen no trace of him and his three companions.
Dr. Bruce returned in September from Spitzbergen, where he has been
engaged in hydrographical and other research work.
Mr. Jonas Lied sailed in July for Northern Siberia with the intention
of opening up a commercial route over the sea with that country. The
venture has been partly successful, but the expedition had to return
earlier than expected and a larger one has now been organised.
The Norwegian explorer Sverdrup has been endeavouring to trace the fate
of more than one Russian expedition in the polar area north of Europe
and Asia.
No news is yet to hand of Professor Macmillan's expedition for the
exploration of the region north of Grant Land.
A report on the recent work of Sir A. Stein in Central Asia has been
received. Crossing the Tarim he reached Niya where he discovered in a
sand-buried settlement documents in the Indian language. Evidence of
Chinese occupation and Chinese trade were discovered in the course of
his travels, copper coins, arrow-heads and relics of the silk trade
being among the articles found. He is now proceeding to Kan-su for
further work of exploration.
Dr. Filippi has been engaged in scientific work in Baltistan in
Northern Kashmir, his winter base being Skardu, the capital, which
is situated at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet. Observations for
establishing longitudinal data have been carried on here and at Dehra
Dun, and gravimetrical work was accomplished at Wozul Hardu at an
elevation of 14,000 feet.
Captain F. M. Bailey has returned from the exploration of the Tsangpo
or Upper Brahmaputra River, having mapped its course for 380 miles. He
has discovered a mountain named Gyala Peri, the altitude of which is
24,460 feet, and he has traced the upper waters of the Subansiri, a
river which rises north of the Himalayas and breaks through them.
Captains Pemberton and Trenchard have continued their travels in the
region of the Plains of Assam; Mr. Kingdon Ward has attempted to
penetrate South-East Tibet from China, but had to return on account of
political difficulties; and Dr. Legendre is undertaking a new journey
to Western China.
In Sumatra Mr. Boden Kloss has made a journey to Mount Indrapura, a
volcano with an active crater and the highest point in that country.
ex-President Roosevelt, in conjunction with Colonel Rondon, has made
an expedition in Brazil down the Rio Duvida, the personnel of the
expedition including Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, two biologists, an engineer
and a surgeon. After four days' progress along the river cataracts were
met with, and the next sixty miles took forty-two days to accomplish.
The last cataract was passed about latitude 10° 50' S., and in latitude
5° 20' S. the river joins the Madeira. This is the most important
tributary of the Madeira below the junction of the Beni and Mamoré, but
hitherto it has not been mapped and the expedition has accomplished a
remarkable piece of work.
An account has been published by Dr. Rose, an experienced traveller, of
his journeys in the region of the sources of the Uaupeo River as far as
the Rio Negro, his object being mainly topographical.
A report of the travels of Dr. Fritz Jaeger in German East Africa has
been issued, and is interesting, as it gives a concise account of the
Great Rift Valley of East Africa in which is included Lakes Magadi,
Manyara, and Balangda.
The French travellers M. Rohan Chabot and Captain Grimaud have returned
after exploring the region of Mossamedes and examining the cataracts
of Middle Kunene, the journey being continued to the western basin of
the Upper Zambesi. Commander Tilho has explored the region around Lake
Tehad, and Dr. Abdul Ghani, a member of a Turkish mission, has given an
account of the Jarabub oasis in Northern Africa which he had visited.
Miss Lowthian Bell has accomplished an enterprising journey to the
south and south-east of Damascus, finally reaching Shammar, and has
obtained interesting archæological results; and Captain Shakespear,
British Resident at Koweit, has travelled the country from the Persian
Gulf to Suez, along a route seldom trodden by Europeans.
J. R. A.
METEOROLOGY.
Some changes have been introduced in the arrangements and work of the
Meteorological Office in consequence of an increased grant received
from the Treasury. In the reports the Scottish National data are now
to be included, so that one publication will contain the whole data of
the British Isles; additional instrumental equipment is to be provided
at Kew; a weather station is to be established at Falmouth; and several
junior professional assistants are to be added to the staff.
Recently published accounts of balloon ascents show that the mean
height of the stratosphere is 10 kilometres, the temperature being
-54.5° C., the temperature at the maximum height of 14.7 kilometres
being -52° C. The average temperature of the air column between 1 and 9
kilometres is -21° C.
Dr. Walker, in the memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department,
emphasises the necessity for the correlation between two quantities
to be a high one if it is to express the probability of a physical
relation; chance may give a correlation factor which when carefully
interpreted has no physical meaning.
In _Terrestrial Magnetism_ reports appear of the work done by the
_Carnegie_ in her second cruise round the world. It is stated that
along the Gulf Stream to Hammerfest the deviation of the compass west
of true north is greater in general, by as much as 1° to 2°, than that
given by British and American charts. The potential gradient is much
the same over the sea as over the land, but the radio-activity is
smaller, and the specific conductivity greater, on water than on land.
At Eskdalemuir Observatory electrical observations of the atmosphere
have not been taken over any long period, but what have been recorded
differ considerably from the results at Kew. In the north the
conditions are much more disturbed than in the south, especially in
the summer, the mean potential gradient being higher at Kew than at
Eskdalemuir. At the latter station the number of ions between summer
and winter is small and uncertain.
Messrs. Stewart and Jörgensen have made observations of the potential
gradient of the atmosphere in the industrial district around Leeds, and
they find it is exceptionally large, a result attributable to the gases
poured into the air from the numerous furnaces in the vicinity.
The relation of annual drainage yield to rainfall has been discussed by
D. Halton Thomson, who shows that a rainfall, over say twenty years,
of a given frequency produces a yield of the same frequency, and that
a simple formula can be obtained connecting these quantities. Thus at
Sheffield the yield is equal to the rainfall minus fourteen inches,
the evaporation of fourteen inches being quite constant whatever the
rainfall. This constancy of evaporation does not hold at all places,
for at Torquay the evaporation varies to a small degree with the amount
of the rainfall.
An unexpected and curious see-saw between the rainfall of Havana and
of the South-West of England and South Wales has been discovered by
Mr. A. H. Brown in the course of a study of Cuban rainfall. In Havana
during May to October there is a wet season, and an excess of rainfall
in this season is very generally associated with a deficient rainfall
at the beginning of the next year in the parts of England mentioned; on
the other hand a deficiency at Havana is the precursor of excess in the
south-westerly parts of England and Wales.
A paper on "Canadian Weather Forecasting," by Mr. B. C. Webber, has
been issued by the Meteorological Office of Canada. It covers the
period 1874-1904 and supplies a quantity of statistical information
on percentages of low pressure areas causing storms, the directions
in which depressions move, etc. On the Great Lakes November is the
stormiest month, but on the Gulf of St. Lawrence storms are most
frequent in January and February. Since January, 1912, the Canadian
Meteorological Office has issued a daily meteorological chart of the
northern hemisphere, but the advance of forecasting has not been
very rapid and further progress will probably not be made until more
detailed information of the upper air, especially of the stratosphere,
is obtainable, as it is now recognised that the character of the ground
weather is much influenced by the condition of this layer of air.
Professor W. R. Blair observes that up to 1-1/2 kilometres above the
earth's surface the same type of daily variation of weather elements
is found as at ground level, but above this height a second maximum
appears after midnight, the time of which alters with increasing
altitude.
An interesting paper in _Himmel und Erde_, by Professor G. Hellmann,
deals with superstitions relating to weather, and under the head of
character and causes of the weather he reminds us of the prevalence
of the belief in equinoctial gales, although the evidence of careful
observers is not in favour of stormy winds at the equinoxes. Sayings
in relation to the colour of the sky in the morning and evening are
not without some measure of truth in predicting the weather, but
prognostications of the weather from the moon, although persistently
found, have very little to support them when tested by reliable
observations. Lastly, the making of weather, for example the firing of
cannon to produce rain, or the warding off of thunder by the ringing of
church bells, still in vogue in parts of Switzerland, is a superstition
which dies hard, although completely discredited by science.
Dr. A. E. Douglass has published an account of his investigations on
tree growth in relation to rainfall, and from an examination of the
growth of rings in trees, involving 10,000 observations, he concludes
that definite rainfall information in the past can be obtained from the
mode of growth of trees. The average age of the trees examined was 348
years.
Upper air investigations are likely to suffer from the advent of the
war. International days were fixed to the end of the year but not
after, and meetings of International Committees will probably be
suspended. The Manchester station has been closed since the beginning
of the year and the station at Pyrton Hill ceased to be available in
the spring, but its work is now being carried on at Benson six miles
W.S.W. of Pyrton Hill.
In all parts of the British Isles the mean temperature of the year was
in excess by as much as 2° in the East and North-East of England and
the Midland counties, and by about 1° in other parts of the country.
The high temperature of 90° in the shade was touched in the South of
England and the lowest temperature of the year, namely 7°, occurred
in the East of Scotland. The rainfall was greatest in the North of
Scotland, where it reached 49.31 inches, and least in the North-East of
England, the fall there being 24.82 inches; in most parts of England
and in the south of Ireland the amount was decidedly above the average.
Sunshine was normal.
The Terrestrial Magnetic Elements at Greenwich for the year 1913 were:--
Declination 15° 15.2´ west.
Dip 66° 50.5´.
Horizontal Force 0.1851 C.G.S. units.
J. R. A.
PHYSICS.
The constitution of the atom continues to be a subject of experimental
inquiry. According to Sir Ernest Rutherford's views on the scattering
of ~a~-rays the atom consists of a central nucleus of positive
electricity around which one or more electrons revolve. Mathematicians
have objected that such a system is not stable, but N. Bohr has evaded
this difficulty by introducing Planck's theory of a quantum of energy,
which states that energy is not emitted continuously but in discrete
atomic quantities. For the simple atoms of hydrogen and helium Bohr's
theory gives some remarkably accurate representations of certain
properties of these elements; especially in relation to the spectral
lines. Van der Broek contends that the nuclear positive charge is
exactly equal to the atomic number, and certain experiments by Moseley
on the _x_-ray spectra of the elements are regarded as confirmatory of
this.
The quantum hypothesis of Professor Planck, referred to above, which
regards energy as transferable in definite units and not continuously,
is being applied to several physical problems with some measure of
success. For example, Professor Nernst has recently investigated the
specific beats of the solid elements at very low temperatures and
by the application of a formula due to Debye, involving the quantum
hypothesis, a very good agreement between theory and experiment is
obtained. An excellent review of this work and the bearing of the
quantum hypothesis on such different subjects as photo-electricity,
the line spectra of the elements, and radiation generally, has been
written by Mr. J. H. Jeans and published by the Physical Society of
London. Mr. Jeans inclines to the view that the classical Newtonian
Mechanics must be revised to meet the conditions which the quantum
hypothesis have called forth.
Professor Millikan has attempted direct proof of a cardinal feature
of this hypothesis, namely the direct proportionality between the
frequency and the energy of radiation, by showing experimentally that
the energy of the electrons ejected from metals by the action of light
is proportional to the frequency of the light vibrations.
An important discovery has been made by J. Stark that hydrogen in a
state of luminescence when subjected to an electric field has its
spectral lines resolved into three or more components, an effect
analogous to the Zeeman effect in which the spectral lines are resolved
into components by the action of a magnetic field. The effect has been
observed independently by Lo Surdo whilst working on the positive rays
in a vacuum tube. The two outer components of an electrically resolved
line are polarised at right angles to the remainder, the separation of
the components being proportional to the field intensity and increasing
with decreasing wave length. The electric effect is not the same in
all its details as the magnetic effect and is not always quite easily
interpreted, but the discovery puts a new means in the hands of the
physicist for the investigation of the structure of the atom.
Messrs. Kaye and Higgins have continued their researches on the
emission of electricity from substances at temperatures of 2000° to
2500° C. from which currents, generally of negative electricity, are
obtained of a density as much as 1 to 2 ampères per sq. cm. Boiling
brass, however, emits a positive current of 0.5 ampères per sq. cm. The
subject is of considerable interest in connection with the problem of
the electric and magnetic state of the sun. These experiments, however,
are not altogether in agreement with Professor Richardson's view that
the emission of thermions from hot bodies is a kind of evaporation of
electrons following a law like that of liquid evaporation under rise of
temperature.
A most interesting experiment has been carried out by Professor K.
Onnes as a branch of his low temperature researches. A coil of lead
was constructed and cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero
at which temperature its resistance is 2 × 10^{-10} of what it is
at normal temperature, consequently an induced current when started
persists after the inducing electromotive force is withdrawn, as there
is no appreciable resistance and therefore no dissipation of energy
into heat. In this way it has been possible to realise the conception
of electric currents continuously circulating round atoms, which was
first introduced by Ampère to account for magnetism.
Professor Jean Perrin in a recent course of lectures has explained his
striking and beautiful experiments on the movement of small particles
suspended in liquids. When an emulsion of such particles is dilute the
laws which are applicable to gases are obeyed, but when the emulsion
is concentrated van der Waal's law for dense vapours then holds good,
and in this way these important laws of the behaviour of invisible
molecules can be ocularly demonstrated.
Hiromu Takagi has examined the change of magnetic properties of
magnetite with rise of temperature and is unable to confirm the sudden
changes of susceptibility which were said to occur at definite points
above the critical temperature. These changes Professor Weiss claimed
as one proof of the existence of an elementary indivisible unit of
magnetism, which he named the magneton, and the evidence for this unit
must therefore rest upon other experiments.
The very large intrinsic field of a magnet required by the kinetic
theory of magnetism receives some confirmation by the application of an
experiment, by Hurmuzescu, on the electromotive force developed in a
cell consisting of two identical pieces of soft iron in dilute acetic
acid, one of which is strongly magnetised. Calculation then shows that
if the electromotive force arises from an intrinsic field, such a field
must have a magnitude of the same order as is required by the theory.
Electrification can be produced by the splashing of water, a subject
which has received a good deal of attention as it has a bearing on
the origin of atmospheric electricity. Mr. J. J. Nolan has found from
his experiments that the charge is of positive sign and inversely
proportional to the radius of the drops, and he deduces the result
that the charge is proportional to the new surface formed as the water
breaks up, and that the magnitude of the charge produced per unit area
of water surface is 2.7 × 10^{-3} electrostatic units.
An interesting example of how pure science is beneficial to industry
is afforded by Professor Bone's experiments on surface combustion. It
has been a popular lecture experiment for a long time past to exhibit
the combination of combustible gases below the flame temperature when
they are in contact with solids, and it is in this way possible to keep
a solid incandescent by flameless combustion. Applying this result
Professor Bone has constructed a boiler in which the water is heated
by the metal tubes within it being raised to a high temperature by
flameless combustion, and such a boiler has a very high efficiency. A
trial on a large scale gave an efficiency of 92.7 per cent.
The work of the National Physical Laboratory has been extended to
include a new department for the testing of radium preparations and for
certifying the strength of radio-active preparations. This department
is under the superintendence of Dr. Kaye.
The death of Professor John Henry Poynting in March last is a loss to
English science. His name will always be associated with the theorem on
the transference of energy in the electro-magnetic field which he was
the first to enunciate.
J. R. A.
CHEMISTRY.
The constitution of the atom is one of the chief problems in physical
chemistry at the present time, and evidence is accumulating that the
atomic weight of an element is not, as was once thought, a natural
constant, like the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its
diameter, but a quantity which can fluctuate within certain limits.
Thus, according to Professor Soddy, radium F, on losing an atom of
helium, has its atomic weight reduced from 210 to 206, and then
becomes chemically indistinguishable from lead. Thorium C (212), in
the same manner, yields another form of lead with the atomic weight
208, and radium C (214) a third form with the atomic weight 210. A
species of lead from Ceylon, whose atomic weight is slightly different
from that of ordinary lead, lends colour to these assertions, though
it cannot be supposed that all the lead in nature is derived from
radio-active metals of higher atomic weight.
The subject of catalysis is assuming a greater commercial importance
than heretofore, it having been discovered that hydrocarbons are
enabled by this means to take up additional atoms of hydrogen, and form
oils, while certain oils can be hardened into fats. Thus acetylene
can be changed into complex products similar to and even identical
with petroleum, and according to Professor Sabatier of Toulouse, it is
even possible to imitate the Galician, North American, Rumanian and
Caucasian oils at will, by varying the conditions. It is not likely
that this will be done on a sufficient scale to compete with these
types in the market, though a considerable industry has sprung up
of late, founded on a variety of the same process. Oleic acid, for
example, can be made to take up two atoms of hydrogen, and becomes
converted into stearic acid; fish oils lose their smell and are turned
into a hard odourless tallow. In France, the United States, and
Germany, large quantities of butter substitutes and lard substitutes
are made in this way. The hydrogenation is effected by spraying the
oil, and compressing it with hydrogen in the presence of nickel, under
suitable degrees of temperature and pressure.
Thoria is a powerful catalyst, and can change organic acids to ketones,
while titanium dioxide causes certain of the fatty acids to turn into
aldehydes.
At the British Association meeting Professor E. Goldstein gave an
address to the chemical section on the influence of the kathode rays on
the colour of metallic salts. Sodium chloride is turned brown by this
agency; potassium bromide a deep blue; sodium fluoride rose-colour,
lithium chloride bright yellow, and so on. The effect is very rapid,
and endures for a long time if the salt is kept dark and cold, but
disappears more or less quickly under ordinary conditions. It is
supposed to be due to decomposition, and both the metal and the acid
radicle are concerned in the result. Similar effects have been obtained
by Giesel, and also by Kreutz, who found that rock-salt, heated in the
vapour of sodium or potassium, also became coloured. The changes so
produced are more permanent than those produced by the kathode rays,
though if the latter be allowed to act for a sufficiently long time
there is less discrepancy in the results. It is interesting to note
that ordinary acetic acid shows no colour change, while chloracetic
acid is turned yellow, and chloral a bright yellow. Substances so acted
on are sometimes phosphorescent, and the effect is due to ultra-violet
rays excited by stoppage of the beta and _x_-rays. The therapeutic
effects of kathode and _x_-ray treatment are no doubt dependent in some
degree on these changes, and it may be possible to discover which rays
are hurtful, and to cut them off.
The chemical world has been affected by the war in various ways. Thus
the supply of potash from Stassfurt has ceased; saccharine, synthetic
drugs, and glass apparatus are no longer procurable from Germany,
and, most important of all, the dyeing industry is deprived of its
mainstay, the aniline colours. With regard to the last, a scheme is
under consideration by the Government to establish the manufacture of
dyes in this country--which should have been its home after Perkin's
discoveries--but the problem is fraught with many difficulties.
Sir James Dewar has recently been studying the composition of air from
various sources with reference to rare gases contained in it, and finds
that the breath expired by different individuals contains 23-52 parts
per million of gases uncondensable at 20° absolute. From 2 to 20 or
30 per cent of this is hydrogen, the amount varying with the time of
day and other conditions. In ordinary city air there are, in 1,000,000
parts, about 2.6 of hydrogen, and 22-1/2 of mingled helium and neon;
country air contains 22.8 of the former and .5 of the latter. With
regard to permeability, helium easily passes through highly heated
quartz, a power not possessed by hydrogen, though it passes easily
through hot platinum. Oxygen permeates more quickly through a rubber
film than hydrogen, and hydrogen than nitrogen. The occlusion of gases,
the permeability of metals and the ubiquity of hydrogen add to the
difficulty of these investigations, all rubber connections and greased
stopcocks having to be discarded.
C. L. B.
BOTANY.
The year has seen the publication of a considerable amount of research
of a detailed and specialised character, but it does not appear to
have been marked by contributions of immediate general interest or of
outstanding importance.
At the meeting of the British Association in Australia, the
Presidential address, by Professor Bower of Glasgow, dealt partly with
the history of Australian Botany from Joseph Banks, who sailed with
Captain Cook in 1770, to the present day; and partly with special
Australian plants on which Bower himself has worked, especially with
_Phylloglossum_, a very primitive Lycopod, and _Tmesipteris_, a link
between living Lycopods and fossils of the group Sphenophyllales; and
other primitive Australian forms. Numerous other papers dealt with the
Australian flora, etc.
Professor Lang has published the first of a series of communications
describing the structure of the Quillwort, _Isoetes_. This is a curious
plant, a distant relation of the Clubmosses (Lycopods), all of whose
immediate relations appear to be extinct. This investigation of a
familiar but little understood plant promises to provide a thorough
explanation of its construction and a sound basis for a comparison
of the stock of _Isoetes_ with the Stigmarian bases of the fossil
tree-Lycopods, whose morphology has long been a puzzle to fossil
botanists.
Miss E. M. Berridge's recent account of the anatomy of the Fagaceæ
(Beech family) is of much interest. Her observations lead her to
the conclusion that the Amentiferæ (catkin-bearing trees) are not
primitive, but derived from plants with large flowers. She finds the
Fagaceæ connected by various links with the Rosaceæ.
Several American botanists have published investigations on the stem
anatomy of flowering-plants, in which they have attempted to trace
the changes that have occurred during evolution, and from which they
conclude as others have done from more general considerations, that
the tree-habit is relatively primitive in flowering-plants.
Our knowledge of fossil seeds has been augmented by two important
contributions. One comes from Dr. Wieland of America, whose researches
in wonderfully rich material have added so much to our information
on the Bennettitales; he describes yet another type of complex
inflorescence, helping to build up our conceptions of the evolution of
the flower. The other, by Salisbury, is a most careful and detailed
account of some new fossil species of _Trigonocarpon_, old seeds from
the Coal measures which make one realise more profoundly how complex
were plant organs even in those days.
Professor Bottomley has carried a step farther his investigations on
the fertilising influence of "bacterised peat," _i.e._ peat acted
upon by the bacteria of ordinary soil. In a paper in the _Proceedings
of the Royal Society_ on "Some Accessory Factors in Plant Growth and
Nutrition," he traces the increased growth of plants supplied with this
fertiliser to certain organic substances of unknown nature present
only in minute proportions, yet enabling the plants to make use of a
larger amount of the food available in the soil. From quantitative
cultural experiments he infers that wheat seedlings are able to form
a certain limited amount of these substances during germination, from
material present in the grain, but that after a time their rate of
growth falls off considerably unless further supplies are available
from without. These substances are obtained from ordinary soil, but are
more plentiful in "bacterised peat" (though not in ordinary peat), so
that their presence is due to bacterial activity. Professor Bottomley
draws an interesting parallel with the substances that have been found
necessary by Dr. Hopkins and others, likewise in minute proportions,
for the growth of young animals. The diseases of beri-beri and scurvy
have been traced to the lack of similar substances when the diet
consists of polished rice or lacks green vegetables and fruit.
In a series of experiments Mr. F. Kidd has thrown new light on the
conditions which lead to dormancy of the embryo in ripe seeds, and
which must be removed if germination is to take place. Maturation
involves a cessation, or at least a retardation, of the growth of
the embryo, and this is shown to be the result of the accumulation
of carbon dioxide in the tissues, which acts as a mild anæsthetic.
In the soil, carbon dioxide is frequently present in considerable
amount, especially where manure and other organic matter is being
decomposed, or in the deeper layers, and under such conditions the
anæsthesis tends to be prolonged and germination delayed. During
maturation the accumulation of carbon dioxide is due to the seed-coat
becoming impermeable to it. If the seed-coat is removed the embryos,
for instance, of peas can readily be induced to continue their growth
without any period of rest.
Dr. W. Brenchley, working at Rothamsted with a view to the
understanding of the peculiarities of certain natural soils, has found
that zinc and arsenic have no stimulative effect on the growth of pea
or wheat seedlings, but are toxic even in very minute proportions--a
few parts per million--while boron has a small stimulating effect on
growth when in very minute proportions, though it also becomes toxic
when less diluted.
Knight and Priestley have begun an attempt to analyse the beneficial
influence of an electrical discharge on the growth of crops, by
examining its influence on the different functions of plants.
Beginning with respiration, they find that an electric discharge has
no appreciable effect on the rate of respiration until it is powerful
enough to raise the temperature appreciably and that then the whole
effect is attributable to the rise in temperature.
Professor Ewart of Melbourne has published an impressive account of
researches on oxidation by organic and inorganic catalysts. He has
studied the nature of the activity of enzymes responsible for oxidation
in the Apple, Lemon, Maize, Parsnip, Beetroot, etc., and in view of his
results controverts the generally accepted views, first promulgated by
Chodat and Bach, that oxidising elements belong to several classes,
differing in chemical value and their mode of action.
M. G. T.
ZOOLOGY.
Professor Arthur Dendy, President of the Zoological section of the
British Association, which this year met in Australia, took as
the subject of his address "Progressive Evolution and the Origin
of Species." Darwin and Wallace established the main principle of
evolution, but at the present time there is still great diversity
of opinion among expert biologists as to the means by which organic
evolution has been effected. Darwin and Wallace held that species
originate under the influence of "natural selection"--the selection by
nature of fit variations. Later, De Vries brought forward the view that
species arise by sudden "mutations" or sports, and thus not by gradual
changes, and the well-known Mendelian Professor Lotsy holds that all
species originate by crossing. At present, it is mainly due to the
impetus gained by the introduction of experimental methods that there
exists so much difference of opinion. Professor Dendy's address was an
endeavour to take a general survey of the situation.
A theory of organic evolution should account for the following
principal groups of facts: (1) "that on the whole evolution has taken
place in a progressive manner along definite and divergent lines; (2)
that individual animals and plants are more or less precisely adapted
in their organisation and in their behaviour to the conditions under
which they live; (3) that evolution has resulted in the existence on
the earth to-day of a vast number of more or less well-defined groups
of animals and plants which we call species."
Professor Dendy seeks to explain the fact that organisms throughout
nature show a slow progression by the "law of the accumulation of
surplus energy." From Jennings's work on the "Behaviour of the Lower
Organisms" one is led to the conclusion that the lower animals learn by
experience to make the appropriate response to stimuli without having
to pass through the long process of trial and error. They are thus able
to perform a given action with less expenditure of energy. The same is
true for higher animals, and the power of profiting by experience is
apparently a fundamental property of living protoplasm. Jennings speaks
of this property or principle as the "law of the readier resolution of
physiological states after repetition," and this law probably lies at
the root of progressive evolution. As a corollary to the principle
enunciated by Jennings, the "law of the accumulation of surplus energy"
would follow. In the organism or in the egg cell, the oftener the
process of absorbing food-material is repeated, the easier does the
process become, and thus the organism tends to accumulate surplus
energy in excess of its own needs. Professor Dendy lays emphasis on a
progressive accumulation of potential energy by succeeding generations
of animals and plants--each generation having a slightly greater amount
than the previous one--and that by means of this cumulative energy,
structural progressive changes are evolved, or in other words there is
progressive evolution. He holds that there takes place in nature in the
stricter sense something similar to that which seems to occur in human
life, when certain families rise in general well-being and prosperity
through the gradual accumulation of capital in successive generations,
and in virtue of this handed-on capital each later generation starts
with an advantage over the previous one.
Professor Dendy also holds that the law of recapitulation, which
may be stated thus, that the life-history of the individual is a
recapitulation of the life-history of the race, is a logical necessity
if evolution has taken place. Leaving out, for the present, the
complication introduced by the union of two germ cells of separate
sexes, the behaviour of the germ cell during development is conditioned
by two factors, namely its own constitution and its environment. It
is now accepted that the living matter of the germ cell is continuous
from generation to generation, and given the same environment, the germ
cell should develop in a similar manner in succeeding generations, but
with a difference arising from the "law of the accumulation of surplus
energy." The organism developing from the germ cell will have a greater
capacity for responding to stimuli--it will be a slightly more capable
and efficient being in each successive generation. The organism must
repeat in its life-history the stages passed through by its ancestors,
because at every stage there is an almost identical organism exposed
to the same environment, but there will be an acceleration in the
individual life-history owing to the cumulative storing of potential
energy.
As in human life, however, an organism really inherits from its parents
two things, namely, living protoplasm with potential energy and an
appropriate environment. When we say that an organism inherits a
particular character from its parents, we really mean a special feature
which is handed on if the appropriate environment is also present to
bring out that character. The inheritance of the environment is as
important as the living protoplasm, for in each life-history an animal
is capturing and assimilating from the environment handed down to it
from its parent.
The response which an animal makes to its environment is probably
not merely purely mechanical, for Jennings has pointed out that in
the case of the lower organisms, the response to stimuli is to a
large extent purposive, namely that the organism has the inherent
capacity of selecting those modes of response which are best for its
own well-being. Those responses to stimuli may result in change of
structure, and thus the evolution of the body will be adaptive and
follow along definite lines. One has, however, to remember that while
the germ cell may be slightly different in successive generations, the
environment is also changing in these generations.
In trying to understand evolution and the doctrine of recapitulation
by the individual of the life-history of the race one must proceed
slowly and by single steps, for there is no difficulty in understanding
how any particular stage is related to the corresponding stage in the
previous generation, but the whole series of changes is simply the sum
of successive terms.
Space does not permit a complete review of Professor Dendy's
contribution. Its most important part seems to be the "law of the
accumulation of surplus energy." The complications introduced into
the problem by the union of two cells of different sexes Professor
Dendy regards as less important than is generally held, as the
parents must have been alike in main respects or they could not have
interbred. He also recognises the very important recent work on
"mutation" and "hybridisation" from the point of view of heredity,
but regards the unit characters arising by mutation and interchanged
by hybridisation as chance characters due to chance modifications
of the germ-plasm, and having comparatively little influence upon
the general course of evolution. The characters inherited in the
Mendelian manner are apparently non-adaptive, and with no particular
value in the struggle for existence. Probably the nucleus of Professor
Dendy's position may be found in the following quotation: "Surely that
much-abused philosopher, Lamarck, was not far from the truth when he
said, 'the production of a new organ in an animal body results from
a new requirement which continues to make itself felt, and from a
new movement which this requirement begets and maintains.' Is not
this merely another way of saying that the individual makes adaptive
responses to environmental stimuli?" As a counteractive to the
foregoing, however, the reader may be referred to Professor Bateson's
"Problems of Genetics," in which he writes: "When ... we contemplate
the problem of Evolution at large, the hope at the present time of
constructing even a mental picture of that process grows weak almost to
the point of vanishing."
J. S. T.
ART, DRAMA, AND MUSIC.
I. ART.
In the history of art in England the year 1914 will be remembered
chiefly as a period of trouble, unrest, and disappointment. To the
picture lover the first disappointment of the year was the failure of
the Royal Academy to hold the exhibition of Old Masters which had been
arranged for January; a disappointment caused, not as some imagined
by the difficulty of obtaining works, but solely by the death in the
preceding autumn of Sir Frederick Eaton, the Secretary to the Royal
Academy, who had been chiefly responsible for the organisation of the
Winter Exhibitions almost from their commencement. The endeavours of
enthusiastic supporters of the woman's suffrage movement to call public
attention to their propaganda by attacking works of art resulted in
serious damage to pictures in various galleries, several of which
were closed for a time wholly or in part (pp. 71, 112). At the
National Gallery the most serious case was the injury to the famous
Velasquez, the "Venus and Cupid." This picture, which had been given
an unfortunate prominence two or three years earlier by a ridiculous
agitation about a supposed signature which proved to be imaginary, was
now the victim of a more serious attack. Early in March a woman named
Richardson broke the glass in front of the picture with a hatchet and
managed to slash the canvas several times before she could be arrested.
The outrages at the National Gallery caused the partial closing of
the exhibition for some time, and the normal conditions had not been
resumed when the war broke out and still further disarranged affairs at
Trafalgar Square.
The German threats of attacks on London by airships called attention
to the possible injury to the nation's pictures in such a case, and
Sir Claude Phillips was especially prominent in urging that protection
should be given to them. Numbers of the best works were removed
accordingly to places of safety, and during the winter the Foreign side
of the National Gallery was occupied mainly by second-rate pictures,
and each room was disfigured by one or more huge bins of galvanized
iron, filled with sand. At the Victoria and Albert Museum special
precautions were taken with a view of protecting the Raphael Cartoons
and certain other famous works of art.
At the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy the Hanging Committee for
oil paintings was composed of Mr. David Murray, Mr. Seymour Lucas, Mr.
W. W. Ouless, Mr. S. J. Solomon, Mr. H. H. La Thangue, and Mr. Lionel
Smythe; the last named of whom also arranged the watercolours, which
for the first time were placed in the Tenth and Eleventh Galleries.
Another new departure in Academy hanging was the arrangement of the
Fourth Gallery by Mr. H. H. La Thangue, who allowed no pictures to
be "skied," and did not overcrowd the lower lines. The result was
eminently satisfactory, but it is to be feared that Mr. La Thangue's
example will not be followed extensively unless the wall space at
the Academy is largely increased. During the season several pictures
were attacked by women, and Sir Hubert von Herkomer's portrait of
the Duke of Wellington; Mr. Sargent's portrait of Mr. Henry James,
the novelist; and Mr. Clausen's study of the nude, "Primavera," were
all injured. Mr. Henry James, whose portrait by Mr. Sargent was
one of the most discussed pictures in the exhibition, was also the
subject of another portrait of great interest, a bust in marble by
Mr. F. Derwent Wood. This bust was a commission from Mr. Sargent,
who, however, surrendered it to the Chantrey Trustees, by whom it was
purchased for 100_l._ A marble statue "Dawn," by Mr. C. L. Hartwell
(1,100_l._), was also bought by the Trustees; and two pictures, Mr.
F. Cadogan Cowper's "Lucretia Borgia reigns in the Vatican in the
absence of the Pope" (1,500_l._); and Mr. Maurice Greiffenhagen's
"Women by a Lake" (420_l._). The general sales at the Academy were
fairly numerous although not up to the level of some recent years.
The King, when he paid his first visit to the exhibition, purchased
Mr. B. W. Leader's landscape, "The River Llugwy, near Bettws-y-Coed"
(150_l._); and the other pictures sold included "The Annunciation," by
Mr. J. W. Waterhouse; "The Little Archer" (400_l._), by Mr. Charles
Sims; "The Silent Woods" (350_l._), by Sir Ernest Waterlow; "A Farm
Loggia, Veneto," and "A Riva on the Grand Canal, Venice," by Mr. Henry
Woods; "Primavera" (250_l._), by Mr. George Clausen; "Noon, Equihen,
France," and "To the Sea: Equihen, Pas de Calais, France," by Mr.
Hughes-Stanton; "A Greek Water Carrier in Egypt" (250_l._), by Sir W.
B. Richmond; "And step from glowing heat to welcome depths of shade"
(300_l._), by Mr. Reginald Vicat-Cole; "Where Aspens Quiver," by Mr.
Lionel P. Smythe; "Eternal Eve" (500_l._), by Mr. Gabriel Nicolet;
"Rag-time, Rio Mendicante, Venice" (250_l._), by Mr. David Murray;
"Dawn and the Shepherd" (200_l._), by Mr. George Wetherbee; "The Silver
Strand" (630_l._), by Mr. Julius Olsson; "A Winter Morning" (350_l._),
by Mr. Harry W. Adams; "The Toast is England--Lord Nelson handing the
loving cup to Benjamin West, R.A." (500_l._), by Mr. Fred Roe; "Room
at James Pryde's" (300_l._), by Mr. Oswald Birley; "The Meadow Pool"
(105_l._), by Sir Alfred East; and "Napoleon's last Inspection of his
Army" (315_l._), by Mr. J. P. Beadle. It is curious that the largest
picture exhibited in the Royal Academy at the time England declared war
upon Germany was the portrait group by the late Sir Hubert von Herkomer
of "The Managers and Directors of the firm of Fried, Krupp, Essen,
Germany."
The exhibitions held in the earlier part of the year, before the
declaration of war, included those of pictures by artists of the
Venetian School, at the Burlington Fine Arts Club; of Old Masters and
of the work of Mr. John Lavery, both at the Grosvenor Gallery; and of
paintings or drawings by M. Steinlen, Sir Alfred East, Mr. H. H. La
Thangue, and Mr. L. Campbell Taylor at the Leicester Galleries. An
exhibition of Italian studies by Sir William Richmond was held at the
Fine Art Society's gallery. The famous portrait by Millais of Mrs.
Heugh, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873, and afterwards sent
to America, was shown in the spring at the International Society's
exhibition, to which it was lent by Mr. Edmund Davis. A loan exhibition
of examples of modern French art was held at Grosvenor House by
permission of the Duke of Westminster. It was of singular interest,
but, unfortunately, was opened too late in the season to attract the
attention it deserved.
One of these exhibitions, that of Old Masters at the Grosvenor Gallery,
was organised to raise funds for the purchase of modern pictures for
the nation. It was so successful that the committee was enabled to
purchase works by Mr. W. Orpen, Mr. Oliver Hall, Mr. H. Muhrman, Mr. A.
McEvoy, Mr. W. W. Russell, Mrs. Mary Davis, Mr. John Lavery, and Mr.
Gerald F. Kelly; all of which were presented to the Tate Gallery in
July. A noble gift of some twenty examples of his art was made by M.
Auguste Rodin to the Victoria and Albert Museum in November. The London
Museum, admirably arranged in its permanent home at Stafford House, was
opened in the summer; and other events of interest in the year were the
unveiling of the Royal Academy memorial to Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
(designed by Sir George Frampton) at his birthplace in Holland, and of
a memorial to the late Sir William Orchardson in St. Paul's Cathedral.
An important new departure was made at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
where the "sixpenny" days were finally abolished and free admission
given to the public throughout the week. In the summer plans were made,
for the consideration of Mr. Asquith, for a proposed Ministry of Fine
Arts; and a non-party and unofficial committee was formed of members of
the House of Lords and House of Commons for the purpose of noting and
examining questions connected with the acquisition of pictures for the
nation and other matters relating to the arts.
The outbreak of the war was from every point of view disastrous
to artists and picture dealers. The sale of pictures was brought
temporarily almost to a standstill; the opening of some exhibitions
was postponed indefinitely, and that of the Royal Institute of Oil
Painters abandoned for the year. In these conditions, when artists were
suffering severely themselves, it is to their credit that they made
great and successful efforts to aid the funds of the war charities.
For the Artists' War Fund they contributed more than four hundred
paintings, pieces of sculpture and prints which were distributed
by lot to subscribers. Mr. Sigismund Goetze defrayed the cost of
collection and distribution; and Messrs. Dicksee lent their gallery
free of charge; and the honorary treasurers and secretary, Mr. O. Wynne
Apperley, Mr. Louis Ginnett and Mr. Martin Hardie, were therefore
enabled to hand over the entire receipts, amounting to 2,615_l._, to
the Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund. The Royal Academy called
a meeting of the Presidents of the principal art societies to arrange
an exhibition of pictures to be sold for the same purpose, and also
lent several of its galleries to the United Arts Force whose members
practised military exercises in the courtyard of Burlington House.
In the auction room the season was uneventful even before hostilities
commenced and later there was so little doing that Messrs. Christie did
not reopen their rooms in the autumn, according to custom. The Grenfell
sale was the most important. It included the portrait by Titian for
which the collector paid 30,000_l._ a few years earlier, and now, under
the hammer, realised £13,650. Other pictures sold in the spring and
summer included a Peter de Hoogh (at Messrs. Robinson & Fisher's) for
8,200 guineas; a Gainsborough landscape, 7,000 guineas, and a portrait
of a lady in white by the same artist which fetched a similar price;
and a portrait by Lawrence, 5,600 guineas. The price paid for the de
Hoogh was a record; and another auction room record was made when
Valentine Green's mezzotint of Sir Joshua's portrait of Lady Betty
Delmé was sold from the Northwick collection for 1,750 guineas.
W. T. WHITLEY.
II. DRAMA.
The drama of the year 1914 falls, like every kindred subject, into two
sharply defined parts: the first, seven months of normal conditions;
the second, five months of conditions not only abnormal but absolutely
unparalleled. It is difficult to believe that any branch of art can
have suffered more severely than the drama during these later months.
No doubt, in times to come, this European war will furnish material
for innumerable plays, good, bad, and indifferent; it will be treated,
dramatically, from every point of view, as long as the world lasts;
but while we are actually engaged in the struggle the chief incidents
inseparable from a "war-play" are almost too poignant to be reproduced;
artistic values are lost sight of in an overpoweringly painful
impression. On the other hand, the average "drawing-room play"--to
say nothing of the "problem play"--has been reduced to triviality by
the readjustment of the public sense of proportion; domestic quarrels
and social theories are shorn of their interest. Lastly, apart from
sentimental or intellectual considerations, the darkening of the
streets at night, and the all-pervading need for the reduction of
personal expenses, have had disastrous results. There is reason to
hope that the lowest ebb has now been reached, and that, even if the
war should be prolonged, public tension cannot be kept always at the
extreme pitch of the past autumn; but for the moment, the post of
dramatic critic can be little more than a sinecure.
To deal first with those plays which enjoyed ordinary chances of
success or failure, the year up to August had presented no very
striking features. Perhaps the greatest promise of novelty was offered
by Sir Herbert Tree's production of "Pygmalion," a new play by Bernard
Shaw (His Majesty's, April 11). The prospect of seeing Sir Herbert Tree
and Mrs. Patrick Campbell in first-rate comedy parts was inspiriting;
but, frankly, it must be owned that the work was not of Mr. Shaw's
best, and that the splendour of His Majesty's is less suited to his
methods than the intimacy of the Court or the Little Theatre. The
author may possibly have felt that the subtle effects of "Candida," or
of "John Bull's Other Island," would be lost in so much space; what
is certain is that in "Pygmalion" the humour is far more obvious--one
might almost say crude--than in the earlier plays. Sir Herbert Tree
as the "professor of phonetics" who undertakes the education of a
Cockney flower-girl, and Mrs. Patrick Campbell as his pupil, did full
justice to their parts, each proving once again a gift of comedy too
often neglected. Mr. Edmund Gurney, as a London dustman--father of
the flower-girl--was the chief vehicle of Mr. Shaw's opinions, and
expressed himself effectively, though at inordinate length.
A clever, though in some respects painful, play was "The Land of
Promise," by Somerset Maughan (Duke of York's, February 26). The
heroine, an English girl of good family, is forced to emigrate to
Canada, where she finds herself incapable of earning a living, and
marries a back-woodsman, whom, after some severe experiences, she
learns to love. The process of "breaking her in" is partly conducted
by brute force, and made the audience feel at times like eavesdroppers
of the worst description; an impression much heightened by the really
admirable acting of Mr. Godfrey Tearle and Miss Irene Vanbrugh in the
principal parts. Indeed, Miss Vanbrugh won more sympathy for "Norah"
than the character by right demanded; her personal distinction made us
believe in the gentle breeding of Mr. Maughan's heroine, even while we
felt that this very refinement would have taught her that the washing
of cups and saucers is in itself a less degrading occupation than
fighting and wrangling between husband and wife. The subordinate parts
were well written and acted, especially those of Norah's peace-loving
brother and shrewish sister-in-law.
"My Lady's Dress," by Edward Knoblauch (Royalty, April 21), showed
an original idea, but one exceptionally difficult of treatment. The
author's aim was to show--as a rebuke to vanity and extravagance--each
stage in the creation of a triumph in dressmaking. We saw, among
other episodes, the silk weavers toiling at the loom, in Lyons; the
trapper in Siberia; and the cripple girl making artificial flowers in
a London slum. Last, but not least, we were taken behind the scenes
in the establishment of a famous man-milliner, who tyrannised with
fiendish cruelty over the unfortunate _mannequins_. These scenes,
some half-dozen in all, were linked together by a slender thread
of story, but each might stand as a complete one-act play, with a
distinct list of characters. In each, the chief parts were taken by
Miss Gladys Cooper and Mr. Dennis Eadie, who thus appeared in six or
seven different _rôles_ in the course of an evening. The scenes were,
naturally, of very varying merit; taken altogether, it may be said that
the most dramatic was the episode of the Provençal peasants, who stake
their fortunes upon silkworms. With regard to the acting, Miss Cooper
succeeded best in the pathetic part of the flower-maker; and Mr. Eadie
as the bully of the show-rooms.
Among the new works produced by well-known dramatists are "Plaster
Saints," by Israel Zangwill (Comedy, Feb. 5), which had a career of
some months; "The Clever Ones," by Alfred Sutro (Wyndham's, April
23), a comedy on somewhat obvious lines; "The Dangerous Age," by H.
V. Esmond (Vaudeville, May 5); and "Outcast," by Hubert Henry Davies
(Wyndham's, September 1). Mr. Stephen Phillips' blank verse drama, "The
Sin of David," courageously produced by Mr. H. B. Irving (Savoy, June
9), proved no more successful than other like ventures in recent years.
Adaptations from novels included "Helen with the High Hand," by Richard
Pryce, and Arnold Bennett (Vaudeville, Feb. 17); and "The Impossible
Woman," by Haddon Chambers, from Miss Anne Sidgwick's novel "Tante"
(Haymarket, Sept. 8). This last should, if produced in happier times,
have had a longer career, although the delicacy of Miss Sidgwick's
character drawing can scarcely be altogether reproduced on the stage.
Shakespearean revivals have numbered no more than three: "A Midsummer
Night's Dream" (Savoy, Feb. 6); "Henry IV.," Part I. (His Majesty's,
Nov. 3); and "Henry V." (Mr. Benson's company). Some surprise and
perhaps a little disappointment were felt at Mr. Granville Barker's
choice of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as the successor to "Twelfth
Night." Few of Shakespeare's plays offer more difficulties to the
stage-manager, or give less scope for the greatest acting. It was even
rumoured that these same difficulties were the attraction, and that the
revival was in the nature of a _tour-de-force_, undertaken in reply
to a challenge. In any case, Mr. Barker, if he did not triumph over
all obstacles, might be trusted to avoid certain obvious pitfalls. His
fairies were in no way reminiscent of pantomime; his Oberon was not a
"principal boy" but a well-grown young man (Mr. Dennis Neilson-Terry);
above all, his clowns were human and delightful, without a touch of
exaggeration. The grouping of the fairy scenes was exquisite, and the
forest background among the most beautiful ever seen on the stage. The
fantastic element, however, was on some points overdone, as in the
gilding of the fairies' faces; while the figure of Puck (Mr. Donald
Calthrop) in scarlet clothes and a flaxen wig, was more grotesque
than supernatural. The acting honours rested decidedly with the
clowns; Mr. Arthur Whitby as Quince once more proved himself the first
Shakespearean comic actor of the day.
The two later revivals--"Henry IV.," Part I., and "Henry V."--were
a response to the patriotic enthusiasm called forth by the war. Sir
Herbert Tree's Falstaff, and Mr. Benson's Henry V., are both too well
known to require much comment. Sir Herbert, as we cannot but think, is
still inclined to take the part too slowly; the tavern scenes all alike
suffered from a certain heaviness, the result of over-elaboration in
by-play and scenic effects. The tableau of the battle of Shrewsbury
should have been entirely omitted; it was not only ineffective in
itself, but it interrupted the action of the play at a crucial moment,
and so lessened the effect of the later scenes. As to the innovations
in the caste, Mr. Basil Gill showed great rhetorical power in the
difficult part of the King; and Mr. Owen Nares was an ideal Prince Hal
in appearance, though he did not, in all respects, give the character
quite its full value. Mr. Matheson Lang's rendering of Hotspur must,
unfortunately, be confessed inadequate; it was inclined to be ponderous
rather than fiery, and was further marred by the assumption of an
unnecessary and irritating stammer. Whether Sir Herbert Tree or Mr.
Lang was responsible for putting this construction on the reference to
Percy's "speaking thick," we cannot pretend to say; but surely it may
be taken for granted that if Shakespeare had intended his Hotspur to
stammer aggressively in the delivery of blank verse he would have given
some more definite instruction to that effect.
For the last five months of the year, revivals of more or less recently
successful plays have been seen at almost every theatre; an inevitable
resource for stage-managers in this time of dearth. Among these we
may note "Milestones" (Arnold Bennett and E. Knoblauch); "The Flag
Lieutenant" (W. P. Drury and Leo Trevor), a particularly happy choice;
"Raffles" (E. W. Hornung); and "His House in Order" (Sir A. W. Pinero).
Two most popular American importations, "Potash and Perlmutter," by
Montague Glass (Queen's, April 14), and "Peg o' my Heart," by J.
Huntley Manners (Globe, Oct.), appear to hold their own through all
vicissitudes; but, as both are given by American companies, they cannot
be reckoned under the heading of English dramatic art.
It is impossible to close this record without mentioning the tragic
death of Mr. Laurence Irving and his wife (Miss Mabel Hackney), who
were drowned together in the wreck of the _Empress of Ireland_ on May
29. Laurence Irving was an actor whose gift matured slowly, hindered by
certain superficial defects; but his work, which steadily increased in
merit, was never weak, and never insignificant. His loss will be felt
by all who value enterprise and sincerity on our stage.
EVELINE GODLEY.
III. MUSIC.
Roughly speaking the year 1914 may be divided into two diametrically
opposed halves, the first in which London suffered from almost a
surfeit of music, the other, on the declaration of war, when she was
almost entirely devoid of music. But in spite of this absence of music
during the last six months the year was one of the most remarkable
for a quarter of a century. It was essentially an opera year, a fact
which, coupled with the success of one of the opera schemes, confirms
the statement. Not in living memory were so many operatic performances
to be seen in London between the beginning of February and the end
of July. This _annus mirabilis_ began on February 2 at Covent Garden
with the first performance here of "Parsifal," the copyright of which
had expired only on the night of the previous December 31. Of course
the world was agog to hear this much-talked of stage work, and in
consequence the original number of performances was increased to
twelve from ten, while in the summer or so-called "grand" season five
further performances were given. The conductor at first was Artur
Bodanzky, from Mannheim, and the opening casts included Burrian and
Sembach as Parsifal, with Mélanie Kurt and Rüsche-Endorf as Kundry.
In course of the first season several performances were given also of
"Die Meistersinger," "Tristan und Isolde," and "Die Walküre," while
Méhul's "Joseph" was staged for the first time in a London opera house.
Albert Coates, an Englishman of Russian birth who is musical director
at the Imperial Russian Opera in Petrograd, created a fine impression
as conductor of the Wagner operas on this his first appearance here
as operatic conductor. The "grand" season opened on April 20 and
lasted uninterruptedly until July 28. As usual operas were given in
Italian, German and French, but not in English, and the changes were
rung chiefly on well-worn operas such as "Aïda," "La Bohéme," "Madama
Butterfly," "Samson et Dalila," and so on. But two new works were
produced, namely Zandonai's "Francesca di Rimini" and Montemezzi's
"L'Amore dei tre Rei," neither of which survived, however, for more
than the customary three performances. But the point of the season
was the revival of Verdi's "Falstaff," with Scotti in the title rôle,
after neglect of twenty years; three performances were given also of
"Don Giovanni," two of "Le Nozze di Figaro," and three of Boïto's
"Mefistofele" which was restored in an entirely new stage setting by
Bakst. Two cycles of Wagner's music dramas were given and included "Der
Ring" under Nikisch, "Lohengrin" under Coates, and "Die Meistersinger,"
the last of which was actually played on two consecutive nights. Of the
new-comers the most powerful impression was made by Claudia Muzio, but
among the season's singers were Melba, Caruso, Destinn and Matzenauer.
On May 11 a gala was held for the visit of the King and Queen of
Denmark.
But opera at Covent Garden was intrinsically of secondary importance,
for the Russian season at Drury Lane, organised for Sir Joseph
Beecham, Bart., by his son Thomas Beecham, very easily took pride of
place from both the musically interesting and the dramatic and stage
points of view. Indeed it is in no degree exaggeration to state that
London had not previously seen opera given to ultimate advantage, at
least for years too many to recall. The Beecham season, in fact, was
a veritable riot of gorgeous performances. It began on May 20, and
ran contemporaneously with that at Covent Garden till July 25; the
prospectus was issued in February but not one single alteration had to
be made in it, so that it was also a triumph for the management, a rare
thing in metropolitan operatic affairs! Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier"
and "The Magic Flute" were capitally given several times in the early
part of the season with Margarete Siems, Frieda Hempel, Claire Dux,
Charlotte Uhr, Knüpfer and Bechstein, Beecham conducting. But it was
not the German opera that was the thing, albeit much gratification came
from the revival of Mozart's masterpiece. It was the extraordinary
succession of magnificent Russian operas, ballet-operas and ballets,
magnificently staged and performed, that completely revolutionised
the Londoner's idea of opera. Moussorgsky's "Boris Godounov" and the
brilliant "Khovanstchina" with Rimsky-Korsakov's "Ivan le Terrible"
formed the nucleus of the season, in all of which the incomparable
operatic artist, Chaliapin, reigned supreme. But there was much else
that was entirely unfamiliar yet not a whit less attractive. An
immense success followed the production of Borodin's "Prince Igor,"
Rimsky-Korsakov's "Le Coq d'Or" (this a particularly fascinating new
form, for the singing was accomplished by the soloists and chorus who
remain in uniform seated at the sides of the proscenium while the
dramatic action was achieved by the _corps de ballet_), "Un Nuit de
Mai," Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol;" Strauss's "La Légende de Joseph"
an ultra-modern version of the tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife,
proved momentarily exciting rather than permanently valuable. Strauss
himself conducted the first performance. Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloë" and
Steinberg's "Midas" were given here for the first time, as also was
Joseph Holbrooke's opera "Dylan" (in English). At a War Fund function
in Covent Garden in the autumn Thomas Beecham produced a stage setting
of Bach's cantata "Phoebus and Pan," which proved highly interesting
and seemed to have provided Steinberg with his idea for "Midas."
As with any possible autumn opera season, so with the doings in the
concert world the war put an end to nearly all individual effort,
save only for the various war funds. But in the earlier part of the
year concerts were abundant. During the first six months London was
visited by nearly all of the Continental musicians who have been in
the habit of coming here in previous years. The Royal Philharmonic
Society obtained a fresh glory by producing new works by Stanford,
Delius and Frank Bridge, but not much by introducing Strauss's
"Festliches Praeludium." Mengelberg was the chief conductor, and among
the artists who appeared were Miss Muriel Foster, who received the
Society's gold medal, Borwick, Lamond (since, according to report,
become a naturalised German citizen), Lhevinne, Sapellnikoff and
Cortôt. The Queen's Hall Symphony Orchestra, under Sir Henry J. Wood,
brought forward several interesting new works, notably Schönberg's much
abused "Five Orchestral Pieces," Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde,"
Stravinsky's delightful "Fireworks" as well as Scriabin's "Prometheus"
with the composer as solo pianist. The London Symphony Orchestra, on
the other hand, devoted the whole of their programmes to quite familiar
works, Steinbach, Nikisch, Mengelberg, Safonoff and Arbos being the
conductors. Mr. Landon Ronald gave the first London performance of
Elgar's "Falstaff" at one of the New Symphony Orchestra's concerts;
Henri Verbrugghen conducted a Beethoven Festival at Queen's Hall in
April, and in June Emile Mlynarski gave two concerts of Slavonic music
in the same place; those of English music given by T. E. Ellis were
chiefly remarkable for the first performance of Vaughan Williams's
fine symphony "London." In the height of the summer a mild sensation
was created by the ability of a seven-year-old boy, Willy Ferraro, as
conductor. The Royal Choral Society produced only Saint-Saëns's "The
Promised Land" as novelty, while the London Choral Society, under
Arthur Fagge, brought out Barnett's "The Eve of St. Agnes," Speer's
"King Arthur" and Balfour Gardiner's "April." Record should be made
of the visit of the Orféo Catala from Barcelona, and of the Swedish
National Choir, both of which were fine. In spite of the war the
Promenade Concerts went their even way, and at them several new works
were produced, but the most use was made of the old and the familiar.
Towards the end of the year a wave of feeling amounting almost to
Chauvinism swept over the country in musical affairs. It began with an
attempt, happily frustrated, to put a stop to all performances of music
at the Promenade Concerts by natives of hostile lands. Its spread,
however, was not substantial, and was, at worst, largely confined to
those whose musical instincts are chiefly commercial.
A considerable amount of righteous indignation was aroused
extra-locally by the abandonment of the provincial festivals, those
announced for Worcester, Norwich, Cardiff and Sheffield being given up
and only those of Torquay (which took place in April) and Brighton (in
Nov.), which were a complete artistic and financial success, actually
took place.
No good purpose would be served by printing a lengthy list of the
foreign artists who visited London during the year, for it would
be much as in 1913. But the appearance of Ilona Durigo should be
recorded in virtue of the genuine accomplishment of the singer. Sir
George Henschel took farewell of the public as singer in April; a Leo
Ornstein, a Russian from America, literally startled the music-lovers
of London by the originality of the cacophony of his compositions
as played by himself. Probably one effect of the war, and a most
beneficial effect, will be the clearing off from the artistic world of
all such grotesquely manufactured efforts at "originality" of musical
diction!
ROBIN H. LEGGE.
OBITUARY
OF
EMINENT PERSONS DECEASED IN 1914.
JANUARY.
=Viscount Cross.=--The Rt. Hon. Richard Assheton Cross, G.C.B.,
died at Eccle Riggs, Broughton-in-Furness, on January 8, aged 90.
The third s. of William Cross and Ellen, dau. of Edward Chaffers,
he was b. near Preston, May 30, 1823, educated at Rugby under
Arnold, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and called to the Bar
by the Inner Temple. He went the Northern Circuit, acquired a
considerable practice, and sat for Preston as a Conservative from
1857 to 1862, when he resigned for business reasons. In 1868 he was
selected to contest South-West Lancashire against Gladstone, whom
he defeated by a substantial majority; and when Disraeli formed
his Ministry in 1874 he was recommended by the Earl of Derby for
the Home Secretaryship--a post for which he was qualified by his
practical knowledge of poor-law administration and his experience
as Chairman of the South-West Lancashire Quarter Sessions. (He had
also directed the affairs of an important bank.) As Home Secretary
he introduced and passed a number of useful measures conceived in
a liberal spirit, and fulfilling the promise of his party to take
up social reform. The Employers and Workmen Act (1875), based on
the Report of a Royal Commission, treated breaches of contract
by workmen as civil wrongs, not as crimes, and restricted the
dangerous extension given by judicial decisions to the law of
conspiracy in regard to trade disputes, besides permitting peaceful
picketing during a strike. The Artisans' Dwellings Act (1875)
enabled the corporation in towns of more than 25,000 inhabitants to
acquire land compulsorily for workmen's dwellings and build them
itself, or let the land for building. Another Act (1876) restricted
the enclosure of commons; in 1877 the Prisons Acts (one for each
kingdom) transferred the management of County jails from local
justices to a central authority, and two useful Acts followed,
a Factories and Workshops Act (1898) and a Summary Jurisdiction
Act (1879). In 1880 his proposal that the London Water Companies'
undertakings should be transferred to a Central Public Board for a
price of 27,000,000_l._, payable in stock at 3-1/2 per cent., was
severely criticised, and was cut short by the dissolution. On the
retirement of Mr. Disraeli's Ministry he was made a G.C.B., and
he took a prominent part among the Opposition; but Lord Randolph
Churchill had conceived a violent dislike to him, Mr. W. H. Smith,
and Sir Stafford Northcote; and though in 1885 he again became
Home Secretary, in the Marquess of Salisbury's Government, in
1886 he was made Secretary for India. In the Salisbury Ministry
of 1895 he was Lord Privy Seal, and retired on its reconstruction
in 1900. He was a F.R.S. and an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, and
was one of the most trusted business agents of Queen Victoria. He
m., 1852, Georgiana, dau. of Thomas Lyon; she d. 1907, leaving a
family; he was succeeded by his grandson. He was among the ablest
administrators of the Unionist party of his time.
=Lord Strathcona.=--The Rt. Hon. Donald Alexander Smith, first
Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., and a Privy
Councillor, died in London on January 21, aged 93. B. at Forres,
it was believed on August 6, 1820, the s. of Alexander Smith by
his wife Barbara, dau. of Donald Stewart of Leanchoil, he was
the nephew of John Stewart, a famous fur-trader, through whose
influence he entered the Hudson Bay Company's service in 1838.
He spent thirteen years continuously at Hamilton Bay, Labrador,
almost cut off from civilisation, and then served at various
posts in North-Western Canada, rising step by step till, in 1869,
he became the last resident Governor of the Company. During the
rebellion of Louis Riel in the Red River region (afterwards
Manitoba) in 1869-70 he was acting governor, and negotiated
successfully with the insurgents. He was Chief Commissioner of
the North-Western Territory in 1870, represented Winnipeg and St.
John in the Manitoba Legislature, 1871-74, Selkirk in the Dominion
Parliament between 1871 and 1877, and West Montreal, 1877-96. From
1896 to his death he was High Commissioner for Canada in London.
During the Pacific railway scandal of 1873 he went over to the
Liberal party, but he supported the Macdonald Ministry from its
formation in 1878. In that year he and other financiers connected
Winnipeg by rail with Minnesota, and in 1880 they contracted to
complete the Canadian Pacific Railway by 1891. It was finished
by the end of 1885, and he may be regarded as the chief agent in
its completion. He was made K.C.M.G. in 1886, G.C.M.G. in 1896,
raised to the Peerage 1897, and became G.C.V.O. in 1908. He wrote
a book on "Western Canada before and after Confederation," and
a "History of the Hudson Bay Company." His benefactions were
enormous. At the Queen's Jubilee of 1887 he and Lord Mount Stephen
gave $1,000,000 to build and endow the Royal Victoria Hospital,
Montreal, adding in 1896 $800,000 for upkeep. To the McGill
University, Montreal, he gave altogether over a million dollars; in
1896 he endowed the Royal Victoria College for Women at Montreal,
and during the Boer War he raised a regiment of scouts, equipping
it and transporting it to South Africa at his own cost. Other
benefactions were $450,000 to promote physical drill and military
training in the schools of Canada, $1,000,000 to King Edward's
Hospital Fund, $150,000 for new buildings for the Young Men's
Christian Association in the Canadian North-West, and $125,000 to
Marischal College, Aberdeen. He was a Vice-President of the British
Association, a F.R.S., Chancellor of Aberdeen University, of
which he had been Lord Rector in 1899, and held numerous honorary
degrees. He m. Isabella, dau. of Richard Hardisty; she d. 1913, and
left one dau., Margaret, who m., 1888, Robert Howard, F.R.C.S.,
and had three sons and two daughters. His Barony passed by special
remainder to her and her issue. For his action in securing oil fuel
for the Navy, see p. [124].
=Lord Knutsford.=--The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Thurston Holland,
G.C.M.G., first Lord Knutsford, died at his London residence on
January 29, aged 88. The son of Sir Henry Holland, Queen Caroline's
physician, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College,
Cambridge, went to the Bar, was legal adviser to the Colonial
Office, 1867-70, and Assistant Under-Secretary for the Colonies,
1870-74; in 1874 he was elected for Midhurst to Parliament as a
Conservative, and represented it till its disfranchisement in 1885,
and Hampstead, 1885-88. In 1885 he became Financial Secretary to
the Treasury in Lord Salisbury's Ministry, and shortly afterwards
Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, an office
to which he was again appointed in the second Salisbury Ministry
(1886). From 1887 to 1892 he was Colonial Secretary, thus being
Parliamentary Chief of the Department in which he had been a
permanent official. In 1888 he was raised to the Peerage as a
Baron, and on the formation of Lord Salisbury's third Ministry in
1895 a Viscount. Thereafter he practically retired from active
politics. As Colonial Secretary, he presided over the Colonial
Conference of 1887. He was an Ecclesiastical Commissioner and
a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He m. (1), 1852,
Elizabeth, dau. of Nathaniel Hibbert; she d. 1855; (2) 1858,
Margaret, dau. of Sir C. E. Trevelyan, Bart.; she d. 1906. He was
succeeded by his eldest son.
=Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S.=, the eminent astronomer, died
in London, January 24, aged 70. B. June 12, 1843, the son of an
Aberdeenshire gentleman, and educated at Marischal College and
Aberdeen University, he was in charge of a private observatory
at Aberdeen, 1868-73, then of the Earl of Crawford's observatory
at Dunecht, 1873-76. In 1874 he organised the expedition sent by
Lord Crawford to Mauritius to observe the transit of Venus, and
in 1877 that sent to Ascension to determine the solar parallax by
observations of Mars. From 1879 to 1907 he was Astronomer Royal in
Cape Colony, and in that capacity he observed the transit of Venus
in 1882 and photographed the comet of that year. He also initiated
the cataloguing of the stars by the aid of photography, and
proposed and carried out (in 1896) the geodetic survey of Natal and
Cape Colony, and organised, a year later, that of Rhodesia. Twenty
years earlier he had established the base line for that of Egypt.
He was elected F.R.S. in 1883, and made K.C.B. in 1900. In 1878 he
was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and
in 1903 a Royal Medal of the Royal Society. He was President of the
British Association, 1907-8; of the Royal Astronomical Society,
1909-11; and of the Institute of Marine Engineers, 1910-11; and
possessed honorary degrees and other scientific distinctions.
=General Picquart=, one of the leading figures of the Dreyfus case
and War Minister of France, 1906-9, d. January 19, at Amiens, aged
59. A brilliant infantry officer, he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel
1896, and became Chief of the Intelligence Department of the
Ministry of War, but coming to the opinion that Major Dreyfus had
been wrongly convicted, he was relieved of his post and sent in
disgrace to Tunis. On the prosecution of Esterhazy he was recalled
to Paris, and subsequently was dismissed the service, after again
affirming his belief during M. Zola's trial. In July, 1898, for
declaring that a document which the War Minister held to be
authentic was forged, he was imprisoned for eleven months; but,
from his prison and after his release, he took an active part in
the revision of the Dreyfus case. In 1906 he was restored to the
army as Brigadier-General, promoted Major-General soon after, and
from 1906 to 1909 was War Minister; he reorganised and strengthened
the artillery, and carried out other important reforms, including
the application of the two years' service law. He commanded the
Second Army Corps from 1910 till his death, and was at the head
of one of the armies in the manoeuvres in Picardy in 1910. An
honourable man of high culture and refinement, he wrecked his
career in the interest of truth, and his courage at last received
its due reward.
=Francis de Pressensé=, one of the most eminent French journalists
and men of letters of his time, died of apoplexy in Paris, January
19, aged 60. The son of M. Edmond de Pressensé, a Protestant
pastor and Life Senator, and of Mme. Elise de Pressensé, _née_
Duplessis-Goncourt, a Swiss and a novelist, he won high distinction
at school, alike in literature, language, history and mathematics,
and at seventeen was English correspondent of the _Journal de
Genève_. Before this he had been attached to General Chanzy's
staff in the Franco-German War, and was taken prisoner at Le
Mans. A brilliant Greek scholar, he contemplated a work on the
constitutional history of Athens, but was gradually drawn to
politics, partly by his relations with Guizot and Thiers; and,
after being one of M. Bardoux's secretaries at the Ministry
of Public Instruction, he entered the diplomatic service, and
served at Constantinople and, as first Secretary of Embassy, at
Washington. Returning to France, he became a journalist, working on
the _République Française_ and the _Temps_, but illness interrupted
his work, and it was only in July, 1888, that he definitely became
Foreign Editor of the _Temps_, a post which he occupied till the
Dreyfus crisis, which made him a Socialist. His wide knowledge
of languages and current politics gave his work high authority;
and, though Protestant by extraction and creed, he was specially
attracted by English Catholicism, particularly by Cardinal Manning
and Cardinal Newman, whom he regarded as called to solve the
problems of Labour. He published a notable study of the former, and
a work on Irish Home Rule. During the Dreyfus case he resigned from
the Legion of Honour on M. Zola's suspension, and was struck off
its roll, resignation being forbidden; he wrote a eulogy of General
Picquart; and he took a leading part in promoting the movement for
a revision of the sentence, and was compelled to leave the _Temps_.
He was President of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, 1904-14. In
1902 he was elected Socialist deputy for the Rhone; and his Bill
for the separation of Church and State formed the basis of that
ultimately passed by M. Briand, to which he carried an important
amendment. In 1910 he was defeated at the general election, and
had not since been a deputy, though he was a candidate for a
Paris seat at his death. His erudition, his earnestness, and his
political achievements made him one of the most notable figures of
contemporary France.
=Paul Déroulède=, French poet, soldier, and patriot, died at Nice
on January 30, aged 67. B. at Paris on September 2, 1846, he
studied law, but his taste was for poetry and the drama, and he had
produced a short play before 1870, when ha enlisted as a Zouave
(finding that the regiment of Gardes Mobiles with which he had
gone out during MacMahon's retreat on Sedan was to be disbanded),
was taken prisoner, and confined in Silesia. Escaping, he took
part in the campaigns of the Loire and the East, was wounded near
Paris, and ultimately forced to retire from service by a fall from
his horse. Meanwhile he had written his "Chants du Soldat" (pub.
1872), which instantly became popular. In 1882 he was invited by
Félix Faure to join a patriotic movement independent of party, and
founded the "Ligue des Patriotes"; but it was captured by the
Boulangist movement. He had stood as an independent candidate
at the general election of 1885; and he was elected deputy for
Angoulême in 1889. The collapse of Boulangism, however, did not
involve his retirement from active politics; he was extremely
active in the campaign against Dreyfus, and on February 23, 1899,
after President Faure's funeral, he publicly adjured General Roget
to lead his troops to the Elysée in order to save France and the
Republic. The invitation was contemptuously declined, and though
tried for conspiracy and acquitted he was again arrested in 1900
and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which was merged in the
additional penalty of ten years' exile for insulting President
Loubet. He retired to San Sebastian, and returned after the amnesty
of 1905, but he failed to re-enter the Chamber, and his political
career was at an end. He continued however, to propagate militant
patriotism by his writings, and a volume of "Nouvelles Feuilles
de Route" appeared in 1907. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of
Honour.
About the 1st, aged 61, while on a concert tour in Russia,
#Stéphane Raoul Pugno#, a noted French pianist; best known as
an interpreter of the work of Cesar Franck and of Mozart; had
repeatedly appeared in London since 1894, especially with M. Ysäye,
the violinist. On the 4th, aged 84, #Silas Weir Mitchell, M.D.#, a
distinguished American physician and neurologist; inventor of the
"rest cure"; an authority on toxicology, and a prolific novelist
and poet; among his novels was "Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker," and he
also wrote a drama, "The Masque," and "Doctor and Patient." On
the 4th, #Mark Melford#, a dramatist and actor of considerable
note. On the 5th, aged 64, #Francis Arsène Cellier#, musical
director of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from "The Sorcerer"
onwards till their cessation in 1901. On the 5th, suddenly, aged
60, #Sir John Molesworth Macpherson, C.S.I.#, Secretary of the
Supreme Legislative Council for India, 1896-1911; had previously
been Deputy Secretary from 1877; had drafted numerous Bills and
written an important work on the Law of Mortgage in British India;
an active Presbyterian, and originator of the Simla (religious)
Convention. On the 5th, aged 70, #Michel Ephrussi#, well known
on the French Turf. On the 6th, #Eugène Fournière#, a prominent
French Socialist, a Deputy, 1898-1902, and author of various
sociological works. On the 6th, aged 69, #Alain#, eleventh #Duc de
Rohan#, deputy for Morbihan (Ploermel) since 1876; m. Herminie de
Verteillac; had served as captain in a regiment of Breton Mobiles
in the Franco-German War; a Conservative and genuine aristocrat.
On the 6th, aged 75, #Richard Wormell, D.Sc., Lond.#, Headmaster
of the Central Foundation School, London, 1874-1900, President of
the College of Preceptors. About the 6th, aged 51, #Major Ernest
Cheter Anderson, D.S.O.#, distinguished in the South African War.
On the 6th, aged 87, #Henrietta Keddie#, better known as #Sarah
Tytler#, author in the mid-Victorian era of many novels, of
which the best known was "Citoyenne Jacqueline," and later of an
interesting history of her family, entitled "Three Generations";
a native of Fife. On the 7th, aged 43, #Hugh Frederick Vaughan
Campbell#, fourth #Earl Cawdor#; succeeded his father 1911;
Unionist candidate for Pembrokeshire, 1898; had been an invalid
for some years; m., 1898, Joan, dau. of John Charles Thynne;
succeeded by his elder s. On the 7th, aged 86, #Patrick Weston
Joyce, LL.D.#, sometime Principal of an Irish Training College; a
Celtic scholar of eminence, and one of the Commissioners for the
Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland; author of "Ancient
Irish Music," "A Social History of Ancient Ireland," "The Origin
and History of Irish Names of Places," and other works. On the
8th, aged 80, #Colonel John Stewart, R.A., C.I.E.#, of Ardvorlick,
Perthshire, a Mutiny veteran, and founder of the great Government
Harness Factory at Cawnpore. On the 8th, aged 82, #John Honeyman,
R.S.A.#, an architect of some note in Scotland; restored Iona
and Brechin Cathedrals, and was architect of Glasgow Cathedral.
About the 9th, aged about 55, the #Rev. Henry Lewis#, Rector of
Bermondsey since 1896, and Hon. Canon of Southwark, long a C.M.S.
Missionary in India. On the 10th, aged 82, #Lieut.-General Sir
John Chetham McLeod, G.C.B.#, Colonel of the Black Watch; served
with distinction in the Crimea, the Mutiny, and the Ashanti War of
1873; commanded in Ceylon, 1882-7. On the 10th, aged 68, #Colonel
Camille Favre#, of the Swiss Army, and an authority on military
affairs. On the 11th, aged about 67, #Mrs. Georgina Weldon#, _née_
Treherne; of great beauty, spirit and musical talent, she started a
scheme for training orphans in music; in 1878 an attempt was made
to place her in an asylum at the instigation of her husband, from
whom she had separated, but she escaped; after a long struggle she
recovered damages in 1884 from the doctors concerned, and in 1885
from the composer Gounod and Sir Henry de Bathe for libel; was
herself imprisoned for libel on M. Rivière; always conducted her
own cases, with considerable skill. On the 11th, aged 77, #Marion
Grace Kennedy#, daughter of a former Headmaster of Shrewsbury and
Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, one of the founders of
Newnham College, and an active promoter of University education
for women. On the 11th, aged 74, #Heinrich Eduard Brockhaus,
Ph.D.#, long partner in the famous Leipzig firm of publishers;
wrote a history of the firm, and managed the periodical literature
issued by it, including the _Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_; had
retired from active connexion with it in 1895. On the 12th, aged
78, #Admiral George Stanley Bosanquet, R.N.#; served in the
Crimean War and the Egyptian Expedition of 1882; distinguished
in the Chinese War of 1860-2. On the 12th, aged 66, #Frederick
Shore Bullock, C.I.E.#, Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan
Police since 1908; previously for many years in the Indian Civil
Service (N.W. Provinces, Oudh, and Berar); had done much towards
checking the "white slave" traffic in England in 1910-12. On the
12th, aged 66, #Henry Cyril Percy Graves#, fifth #Baron Graves#
in the peerage of Ireland; succeeded his cousin, 1904; m., 1870,
Elizabeth, dau. of Henry Craven; succeeded by his s. On the 12th,
aged 71, #Sir Henry Francis Redhead Yorke, K.C.B.#, for many years
connected with the Admiralty; had been Assistant Private Secretary
to several First Lords, and Director of Victualling, 1886-1905;
associated with the Naval Exhibition of 1891 and with the Navy
Records Society. On the 12th, aged 60, #Colonel Thomas Trenchard
Fowle, C.B., R.A.#, distinguished in the Afghan and South African
Wars. On the 13th, aged 62, #Professor Alfred Lichtwark#, Director
of the Hamburg Kunsthalle since 1886. On the 14th, aged 70, #Count
Yukyo Ito#, Admiral of the Fleet in the Japanese Navy; commanded
at the battle of Yalu in 1894; Chief of the General Staff of the
Navy in the Russo-Japanese War, in which his strategy contributed
appreciably to the Japanese success; created Count in 1907 and
Viscount in 1908. On the 14th, aged 80, #Pembroke Scott Stephens,
K.C.#, Treasurer of Lincoln's Inn, and long prominent at the
Parliamentary Bar. On the 15th, aged 85, the #Rev. Henry Vincent Le
Bas#, Preacher of the Charterhouse, 1871-1910; active in various
social movements, and long a director of the Artisans' Dwelling
Company; a Broad Churchman. On the 15th, aged 75, the #Marquis de
Polavieja#, one of the Captains-General of the Spanish Army, and
War Minister in the Silvela Cabinet, 1899; had commanded also in
the Philippines and Cuba. On the 15th, from an accident, #Baron
Hermann von Soden#, Chief Pastor of the Jerusalem Church at Berlin,
a well-known theologian (conservative on the whole) and textual
critic; author of "Palestine and its History." On the 16th, aged
90, #Charles Grant Tindal#, of Eversley, Hants, one of the pioneers
of cattle raising in New South Wales; introduced the manufacture
of Liebig's Extract of Meat into the colony. On the 17th, aged
67, #Colonel Walter Liberty Vernon#, Government Architect of New
South Wales, 1890-1911. On the 18th, aged 60, #Sir Matthew Amcotts
Wilson#, third Baronet; prominent in county business; m., 1874,
Georgina, dau. of T. Lee; succeeded his father in 1909; succeeded
by his s. On the 18th, aged 67, #Sir John Duncan#, one of the
proprietors of the _South Wales Daily News_ and active in promoting
University education in Wales. On the 18th, aged 67, #Sir William
Lee-Warner, G.C.S.I.#, Secretary of the Political Department of the
India Office, 1895; member of the Secretary of State's Council for
India, 1902-12; had previously held many posts in the Indian Civil
Service, among them that of President in Mysore; among his works
were biographies of the Earl of Dalhousie and Sir Henry Norman,
and an important work on the Native States of India; contributed
to the "Cambridge Modern History." About the 18th, aged 73, #Henry
Albert Reeves, F.R.C.S.#, a prominent orthopædic surgeon; husband
of "Helen Mathers," the novelist. On the 19th, aged 70, the #Rt.
Rev. William Turner#, Roman Catholic Bishop of Galloway since 1893.
On the 19th, aged 89, #Professor Rudolf Genée#, a famous German
dramatist and interpreter of Shakespeare, and author of an amusing
parody of the Baconian theory entitled "The Goethe Secret." On the
24th, aged 48, #John Henry Bacon, M.V.O., A.R.A.#, of eminence
especially as a portrait painter; painted the picture of King
George's Coronation. On the 25th, aged 90, the #Rev. Bulkeley Owen
Jones#, Chancellor of the Cathedral of St. Asaph; the original
of "Slogger Williams" in Hughes's "Tom Brown's Schooldays." On
the 25th, aged 77, the #Rev. Charles Edward Hammond#, Hon. Canon
of Truro, sometime Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; Rector of
Wotton, Northants, 1882-7, and of Menherriot, Cornwall, 1887-1912;
author of a well-known handbook of the textual criticism of the
New Testament, and of works on Eastern and Western liturgies. On
the 26th, aged 74, #ex-Senator Leo Mechelin#, a prominent defender
of the constitutional rights of Finland. On the 26th, aged 86,
#Henry Grierson#, a director of the North British Railway, and
one of the leaders in changing its policy and management in 1899.
On the 26th, aged 73, #Jane#, _née_ Burden, widow of #William
Morris#, the poet and artist; her face had been immortalised by her
husband and D. G. Rossetti; of great skill in embroidery. On the
27th, in Newfoundland, aged 66, the #Hon. J. S. Pitts, C.M.G.#,
long a member of the Newfoundland State Council and frequently a
Minister of the Colony, and one of its most prominent citizens
commercially. On the 27th, also in Newfoundland, aged 79, #Daniel
Woodley Prowse, C.M.G.#, Judge of the Newfoundland District
Court, 1869-98, author of an important history of the island and
of a "Manual for Magistrates." On the 27th, aged 55, #Robert
Traill Omond, Hon. LL.D. Edin.#, Superintendent of the Ben Nevis
Observatory, 1883-95; an eminent meteorologist. On the 28th, aged
62, #Sir Frederick James Mirrielees, K.C.M.G.#, sometime partner in
Donald Currie & Co., Chairman of the Union-Castle Line, 1909-12. On
the 28th, aged 84, #Shelby M. Cullom#, a Republican Senator from
Illinois (1885-1913) and for many years Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. On the 28th, aged 77, #Frederick
Morshead#, sometime Fellow of New College, Oxford, house-master
at Winchester, 1869-1905; twice Mayor of Winchester; an early
Alpine climber and a classical scholar of distinction. On the 29th,
aged 70, #Colonel Olliver Thomas Duke#, sometime 5th Battalion
Rifle Brigade; an army surgeon, distinguished in the Afghan War;
Political Officer at Kelat and subsequently Civil Commissioner
in Rhodesia, Unionist Parliamentary candidate in Bedfordshire
(Luton), 1895, and in Stirling, 1900, and for a time secretary to
the Liberal-Unionist party. On the 30th, aged 71, #John Burnett#,
chief Labour correspondent of the Board of Trade, 1886-1907, in
which capacity he had settled many labour disputes; secretary of
the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 1875-86; Assistant Secretary
of the Labour Commission; had been on the _Newcastle Chronicle_,
and led the engineers' strike for a nine hours day in 1871; one of
the ablest Labour leaders. On the 31st, aged 69, #Henry Jephson,
J.P.#, a Progressive member of the London County Council since
1901, and long in the Irish Civil Service. On the 31st, aged 74,
#Cardinal Casimir Gennari#, sometime Bishop of Conversano in
Apulia, and latterly President of the Congregation of Council;
created Cardinal, 1901. On the 31st, aged about 70, #Mahmud Skrem
Bey Redjaizadé#, a Turkish professor of literature, poet, novelist,
and reformer, and Minister of Education in 1908; a reformer of
literary Turkish. In January, aged 75, #Edwin Gunn#, of Boston,
head of a well-known publishing firm; established and endowed the
World's Peace Foundation.
FEBRUARY.
=Said Pasha= ("Little Said"), seven times Grand Vizier of the
Ottoman Empire, d. about February 28, aged 75. Associated with
his patron, Mahmud Djelal-ed-Din Pasha Damad, in the intrigue
which placed Abdul Hamid on the throne in 1876, he was appointed
First Secretary to the new Sultan, and successively held various
Ministerial offices until his appointment as Grand Vizier in
October, 1879. In this capacity he attempted reforms, and
consented to the cession of Thessaly to Greece; and, with two
brief interruptions, he remained in power till 1885, when he
resigned on the occupation of Eastern Roumelia by Bulgaria. In 1895
he again became Grand Vizier to carry out the Armenian reforms
advocated by the Powers; but he was compelled to resign and to
take refuge in the British Embassy, where he remained until the
Sultan promised the British Ambassador to hold him harmless. He
again became Grand Vizier, 1901-3, and again for a short period
after the Turkish Revolution in 1908; and in April, 1909, after the
counter-Revolution he was called upon, as President of the Senate
and National Assembly, to proclaim the deposition of Abdul Hamid.
He was President of the Council of State from 1909 to his death.
He was accounted a friend of Great Britain.
=General Sir James Macleod Bannatyne Fraser Tytler, G.C.B.=, d.
in February, aged 92. The youngest s. of William Fraser-Tytler
of Aldourie, Inverness-shire, he entered the 37th Bengal Native
Infantry in 1841, served in the first Afghan War, when he was
severely wounded in a skirmish, and the Sikh War of 1848-9, and in
the operations before Lucknow under Sir Henry Havelock, in which he
was dangerously wounded during the first relief of Lucknow, and was
highly commended for his gallant conduct. He commanded the Bhutan
Field Force in 1864 with great distinction, and his capture of the
Bala Pass was described by Lord Strathnairn as the most brilliant
feat of arms in Indian mountain warfare. He m., 1868, Anne, dau. of
T. H. Langry; she d. 1896. His niece m. Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A.
=Professor Driver.=--The Rev. Samuel Rolles Driver, D.D., Regius
Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford and Canon of Christ
Church, d. in that city on February 26, aged 67. Educated at
Winchester and New College, Oxford, he obtained a First Class in
Classical and a Second in Mathematical Moderations in 1867, a First
in Lit. Hum. in 1869, the Pusey and Ellerton and Kennicott Hebrew
scholarships and the Senior Septuagint and Syriac prizes, and a
Fellowship at his College. In 1882 he succeeded Dr. Pusey as Regius
Professor of Hebrew. Among his works were an Introduction to Old
Testament Literature (last edition 1909), Commentaries on Genesis,
Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joel and Amos, and Job, and works on Isaiah
and Jeremiah. He had many honorary degrees and other distinctions
and was a Fellow of the British Academy. He combined modern
critical views as to the text of the Old Testament and its origins
with a thorough belief in its Divine authority and inspiration. He
m., 1891, Mabel, dau. of Edmund Burr, and left children.
=Sir John Tenniel=, the famous _Punch_ artist, died at his London
residence on February 25, only three days before completing
his 94th year. B. in 1820, he succeeded in 1845 in one of the
competitions for the cartoons to be placed in Westminster Hall, and
in 1850 his illustrations to "Æsop's Fables" induced Mark Lemon,
editor of _Punch_, to invite him to join its staff. The vacancy had
been caused by the departure of Richard Doyle, who was offended,
being a Roman Catholic, by the paper's attacks on his Church.
From 1851 to 1864 he or John Leech drew the weekly full-page
political cartoon, and after Leech's death, in 1864, he did it
weekly till his retirement in 1901, displaying an amazing fertility
of invention and of seizing the essence of political events. He
revolutionised and refined the art of political caricature, and
was never malicious or offensive in his drawings. He illustrated,
amongst other books, the "Ingoldsby Legends" and "Alice in
Wonderland," and was the author of the mosaic of Leonardo da Vinci
in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He also exhibited occasionally
at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Latterly his
sight failed.
=Viscount Shuzo Aoki=, sometime Japanese Foreign Minister, d. in
Tokyo, February 16, aged 69. The s. of a doctor, he was adopted
by a Samurai of the Chioshiu clan, and sent to Germany to study
in 1869, and became Secretary of the Berlin Legation, 1873, and
Minister, 1875. Returning to Japan in 1886, ha became Vice-Minister
of Foreign Affairs; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1889-91, and then
returned as Minister to Berlin till 1898. He was again Minister
of Foreign Affairs, 1898-1900. In 1906-7 he was Ambassador to
Washington. Most of his work was in the revision of the treaties
between Japan and other nations, in which he was singularly
successful. He m. a German lady, and their daughter became Countess
Hatzfeld.
On the 1st, aged 76, #Sir Thomas William Snagge, K.C.M.G.#, Judge
of County Courts in Oxfordshire and Recorder of Woodstock; among
other public services, he had conducted an inquiry into the "White
Slave Traffic," on which was based the Criminal Law Amendment Act,
1885; had subsequently been British delegate at international
Conferences on the traffic; appointed a County Court Judge, 1883;
an antiquary of some distinction. On the 1st, aged 83, #Albert
Charles Lewis Gotthelf Günther, Ph.D., M.D., F.R.S., F.Z.S.#,
Keeper of Zoology in the Natural History Museum, 1875-95; a German
by birth, and educated at the Universities of Tübingen and Bonn;
had served on the staff since 1864, and prepared ten volumes of the
Zoological catalogue, dealing especially with fishes and certain
reptiles, on which he wrote other and independent works; founder of
the _Zoological Record_, and editor of the _Annals_ and _Magazine
of Natural History_, 1878-1908; one of the leading zoologists of
his generation. About the 1st, aged 81, #Brigadier-General James
Grant-Wilson#, a native of Edinburgh, and Colonel of a negro
regiment of cavalry in the War of Secession; author of a "Life
of General Grant," and books on Pepys, Bryant, and Thackeray.
On the 2nd, aged 67, #Vice-Admiral Germinet#, of the French
Navy, sometime commander of the Mediterranean Squadron; removed
from this post in 1908 owing to his confirmation in a newspaper
interview of a statement that the ammunition of the squadron was
inadequate; had also restored order as Acting Maritime Prefect at
Brest during the dockyard strike of 1904; President since 1912
of the Technical Commission for Reorganising the _personnel_ of
the French Navy, and a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. On
the 2nd, aged 63, #William Octavius Moberly#, assistant master at
Clifton College, 1874-1913; educated at Balliol College, Oxford;
had been a noted cricketer and Rugby football player. About the
4th, aged 81, the #Hon. Sir George Phillippo#; had served in
legal or judicial posts in West Africa, British Columbia, British
Guiana, and the Straits Settlements; Chief Justice of Hong-Kong,
1881-8; British Consul at Geneva, 1897-1910. About the 4th, aged
69, #Albert Neuhuijs#, a Dutch artist of some eminence; described
by _The Times_ as "a worthy successor of the little masters of
the seventeenth century." On the 7th, aged 53, #Dr. Julia Anne
Hornblower Cock, M.D.#, Brussels, Dean of the London School of
Medicine for Women. On the 8th, aged 86, #Sir Dayrolles Blakeney
Eveleigh De Moleyns, Bt.#, fourth #Baron Ventry# in the peerage of
Ireland, and a Representative Peer since 1871; m., 1860, Harriet,
dau. of Andrew Wauchope; succeeded by his eldest s. On the 8th,
aged 70, the #Rev. Jonathan Brierly, B.A.#, a Congregational
Minister and well-known preacher and essayist, especially in the
columns of the _Christian World_. On the 9th, aged 50, #Horace
Rendall Mansfield#, Liberal M.P. for Lincolnshire (Spalding),
1906-10, a prominent Primitive Methodist. About the 9th, aged
43, #John Gordon Lorimer, C.I.E., I.C.S.#, Political Officer on
the Indian Frontier during the troubles of 1897-1901; served
also in various political capacities from 1904 to his death, in
Persia and Mesopotamia, and was for a time H.M. Consul-General
at Baghdad. On the 9th, aged 59, #Major-General Sir Stuart
Brownlow Beatson, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., K.C.V.O.#; had served in
the Afghan War, 1878-9, in the Burmese Pacification Campaign,
in the N.W. Frontier warfare of 1897-8 and in the South African
War; Inspector-General of Imperial Service troops, 1900-7; had
accompanied the King and Queen in their Durbar tour of 1911-12.
On the 9th, aged 67, #William Wightman Wood#, County Court Judge
since 1894; had rowed in the Eton Eight in 1863-4, and the Oxford
University Eight, 1866 and 1867; founder of the _Eton College
Chronicle_. On the 10th, aged 71, #Charles C. Connor#, Unionist
M.P. for North Antrim, 1892-5, and thrice Mayor of Belfast. On
the 11th, aged 85, #Colonel Alexander Ross Clarke, C.B., F.R.S.#,
sometime #R.E.#; for many years in charge of the Trigonometrical
Department of the Ordnance Survey; a leading authority on Geodesy,
and representative of Great Britain (with the Astronomer Royal) at
the International Geodetic Congress in Rome, 1883; his researches
had largely aided in ascertaining the precise shape of the earth;
held many scientific distinctions. On the 12th, aged 90, the #Rev.
Augustus Jessopp#, since 1875 Hon. Canon of Norwich, and Rector
of Scarning, Norfolk, 1899-1911; previously Headmaster of Helston
Grammar School, 1854-9, and King Edward's School, Norwich, 1859-79;
a very successful writer, largely in the _Nineteenth Century_,
on archæological subjects and on past and present village life;
wrote also "One Generation of a Norfolk House," 1878; a "History
of the Diocese of Norwich," 1879; "Arcady for Better or Worse,"
1881; "The Trials of a Country Parson," 1890; and edited several
works; Hon. Fellow of his College (St. John's, Cambridge), and of
Worcester College, Oxford; Chaplain in Ordinary to King Edward
VII., 1902-10. On the 12th, aged 80, #Major Frederick Bradford
McCrea#, sometime King's Liverpool Regiment, founder of the Army
and Navy Co-operative Stores. On the 12th, aged 86, #Mrs. Jacintha
Shelley Leigh Hunt Cheltnam#, widow of Charles Smith Cheltnam, an
artist and journalist of considerable talent, and last surviving
child of Leigh Hunt, the poet and essayist. On the 13th, aged 66,
#Sir Alexander Cross#, first Baronet (_cr._ 1912), Unionist M.P.
for Glasgow (Camlachie), 1892; eventually returned to the Liberal
party, but was defeated at the general election of January, 1910;
had actively promoted the House Letting (Scotland) Act of 1911,
and had been President of the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture; m.
(1) 1894, Jessie, dau. of Sir Peter Coats; she d. 1901; (2) 1908,
Agnes, dau. of J. G. Lawrie; succeeded by his s. On the 13th, aged
60, in Paris, #Alphonse Bertillon#, inventor of the anthropometric
system of identifying criminals, which he suggested in 1880; also
a pioneer in the "reconstruction" of crimes by photography, an
expert in handwriting, and an ethnologist; wrote works on these
subjects; the son and grandson of eminent ethnologists. On the
14th, aged 75, #Augustus O. Bacon#, U.S. Senator from Georgia since
1894; had fought in the War of Secession and taken a leading part
in politics in his State; for many years a member of the Foreign
Relations Committee and latterly its chairman; the first Senator
elected by direct popular vote. About the 14th, aged 79, #Batty
Langley#, Liberal M.P. for Sheffield (Attercliffe), 1894-1909;
Mayor of Sheffield, 1892, and long prominent in its municipal
affairs; a leading local Congregationalist. On the 15th, aged 85,
#John Harjes#, sometime partner with Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in the
Paris firm of Morgan, Harjes and Co. On the 15th, aged 75, the
#Rt. Hon. Thomas Sinclair, P.C.#, an eminent Ulsterman; originally
a Liberal, he left the party on the Home Rule split and took a
leading part in founding the Ulster Liberal-Unionist Association;
an active Covenanter, and the originator of the Sustentation Scheme
for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland after the withdrawal of the
Regium Donum in 1869; a member of Sir Horace Plunkett's "Recess
Committee," which led to the establishment of the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction; a distinguished graduate
of the old Queen's University, in the better equipment of which
he had taken a prominent part; head of a prominent Belfast firm
of provision merchants. On the 16th, aged 79, the #Rev. Sir
William Vincent#, twelfth Baronet, half-brother of Sir C. E. Howard
Vincent, M.P., and Sir Edgar Vincent; Rector of Portwick, Norfolk,
1864-87; succeeded his father, 1883; active in Surrey county
business from 1887, serving as Chairman of Quarter Sessions and
also of the County Council; m. (1) 1860, Lady Margaret Erskine,
dau. of the twelfth Earl of Buchan; she d. 1872; (2) Margaret,
dau. of John Holmes; succeeded by his s. On the 17th, aged 56,
#Sir Frank Ree#, general manager since 1909 of the London &
North-Western Railway, and a high authority on railway management.
On the 18th, aged 86, the #Rev. Maurice William Ferdinand St. John,
D.D.#, Canon of Gloucester, and grandson of the fifth Viscount
St. John; Vicar of Frampton-on-Severn, 1853-80, and of Kempsford,
1880-98; sometime Inspector of Schools, and Proctor in Convocation
for the diocese of Gloucester. On the 18th, aged 86, the #Rev.
Thomas Henry Rodie Shand#, Prebendary of Chichester and Rector
since 1879 of Clayton with Keymer-Sussex; sometime Fellow and
Vice-Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, and an examiner in the
mathematical schools of the University. On the 18th, aged about
75, #Fanny van der Grift Stevenson#, widow of R. L. Stevenson,
the novelist; born in Indiana, she first m. Mr. Samuel Osbourne,
from whom she was divorced; their son Lloyd, himself a novelist,
collaborated with his stepfather in several of his works; she
m. R. L. Stevenson in 1880, and lived with him at Vailima, and
assisted him greatly by criticism of his work; he paid a striking
tribute to her in "Songs of Travel." On the 19th, aged 90, the
#Rev. Francis Lear#, Canon of Salisbury, Rector of Bishopstone,
1850-1914; Examining Chaplain to three successive Bishops of
Salisbury; sometime Chancellor and subsequently Precentor of
Salisbury Cathedral, and Archdeacon of Sarun, 1885-1913; prominent
and popular in the diocese; a High Churchman. On the 19th, aged
74, #Henry Charles Manners-Sutton#, fourth #Viscount Canterbury#;
succeeded his father, 1877; m., 1872, Amye Rachel, dau. of the
Hon. Frederick Walpole; succeeded by his s. On the 20th, aged 36,
#Horace Edward Wilkie Young#, British Vice-Consul at Philippopolis
since 1912; had held a succession of Consular appointments in
the Near East, and hastened his death by his great exertions
as agent of the Balkan War Relief Fund. On the 21st, aged 86,
#Constantia Annie#, widow of Bishop #Ellicott# of Gloucester and
Bristol, and dau. of Admiral Becher; famous for her own musical
gifts, the friend of many composers and vocalists, and an active
promoter of the welfare of young singers and of the working girls
of her husband's diocese. About the 21st, aged 73, #Henry Moore
Teller#, first Senator (Republican) from Colorado, Secretary of
the Interior in President Arthur's Cabinet, 1882-5; then again
a Senator till 1909; became a Democrat during the "free silver"
agitation. On the 22nd, at Philadelphia, aged 61, #Joseph Fels#,
maker of the well-known "Fels-Naphtha Soap," and one of the most
active supporters of the "singletax" on land, and of the "land
values campaign" in Great Britain and elsewhere. On the 22nd, aged
78, #Ivor Bertie Guest#, first #Baron Wimborne#; his family had
been long associated with the famous Dowlais Ironworks; had begun
life as a Liberal, but had repeatedly stood as a Conservative
candidate between 1874 and 1880, when he was made a Peer; reverted
to Liberalism on the fiscal question; m., 1863, Lady Cornelia
Henrietta Maria Spencer-Churchill, dau. of the seventh Duke of
Marlborough; succeeded by his eldest s., raised to the peerage as
Lord Ashby St. Ledgers in March, 1910. On the 23rd, aged 98, #Henry
Griffith#, senior Bencher of Gray's Inn and sometime its Treasurer.
On the 25th, aged 68, #William John Rivington#, for many years a
member of the publishing firm of Sampson Low & Co., President of
the Newspaper Society of Great Britain, 1899-1900. On the 25th,
aged 62, #William Henry Forbes#, sometime Scholar and Fellow of
Balliol College, Oxford, and Ireland Scholar, 1871; a distinguished
Etonian; chief collaborator with Jowett in his translation of
Thucydides; gave much friendly assistance to poor students and
to boys' clubs. About the 25th, aged 92, #Vice-Admiral Krantz#,
Minister of Marine and the Colonies in the Tirard Cabinets of 1888
and 1889, and the Floquet Cabinet, 1888-9; active in the defence of
Paris; held various important naval posts till his retirement from
active service in 1886. On the 27th, aged 67, #Colonel Evelyn Henry
Llewellyn#, 4th battalion Somersetshire Light Infantry, Unionist
M.P. for North Somerset, 1885-92 and 1895-1906. On the 27th, aged
81, #Cardinal Katschthaler#, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg since
1900, and Primate of Austria; had actively promoted the foundation
of a Catholic University at Salzburg. On the 28th, aged 68, #James
Hamilton Wylie#, D.Litt., sometime Ford Lecturer at Oxford, and
an authority on Mediæval history. On the 28th, aged 71, #Richard
Ouseley Blake Lane, K.C.#, a London Police Magistrate, 1893-1910.
In February, aged 85, #Theodore De Vinne#, head of a famous New
York printing firm, and author of works on printing. In February,
aged 51, #James Duff Brown#, Librarian of the Islington Public
Library; had written numerous works on library subjects and on
music.
MARCH.