536 NATURE [ APRIL 5, 1930 built of business stuff, he was exactly fitted for this occasions when his great friend Sir Mortimer office. It brought him into contact with many Durand was our only companion. Of course we interesting men. One instance he gave me-when discussed far Cashmere and Persia. On one of Hughes, who later invented the microphone, came these, a violent thunderstorm, which forced us to over from America, he called at the bank and saw down all sail until the clouds rolled by, brought us Clodd; on leaving he deposited £7000 he had saved close to the inner meaning of things : as we now mostly from his earnings as a teacher of music. are by the life of a man like Edward Clodd, verily This was at the time when gas was at its lowest of the salt of the earth. He seemed to have no owing to the introduction of the electric light and it original genius, yet an innate gift of using knowledge was by happy investment in gas stock that Hughes to the full. Is it not time that we followed the was able to amass his fortune. When he died he great example of scientific service that he has set appointed Clodd his trustee. Clodd was also and made our knowledge of more avail? Rela• trustee to' Amazon ' Bates and to Holman Hunt. tively, to-day, there is great over-production of He had two great gifts-the one to which he owed knowledge, great under-production of users of his literary success was the rare one of reading knowledge on the public behalf. exactly. Taking down any book in his library, you HENRY E. ARMSTRONG. saw at once that it had been read word for word. Passage after passage would be underlined and a multitude of cross references written in the margin. CLODD was one of those numerous business men Press notices and letters from the authors were to be in whom Great Britain may justly pride itself, found in most. He had an astounding memory and who devote their leisure to scientific and literary to the last remembered what he read. He was a pursuits. During forty-three years he was secretary critical master of anthropological literature. of the London Joint Stock Bank, but found time In his first London days he not only read hard to .read widely in science and literature, and being but also attended sermons and lectures. It was the endowed with a notable gift of friendship, he became time when scientific criticism began to stir the in• the friend of such diverse people, to name only a tellectual world and he was soon caught in the few, as T. H. Huxley, Sir , stream. He early began to wear the shoes of Non• R. A. Proctor, H. W. Bates, Joseph Thomson, conformity loosely ; they were unlatched when he , , Sir Alfred Lyall, wrote his "Childhood of the World" (1872) and J. Cotter Morison, F. York Powell, , came off altogether in writing his really daring W. Holman Hunt, , , " Jesus of Nazareth " (1880). From that time . onwards, he was a declared anti-clerical. He was When "The Origin of Species" was published, a Rationalist through intense logical study of the Clodd was an ardent and inquiring young man of evidence. He was stirred to write the " Childhood" twenty, and the discussions which arose interested by asking himself in all sincerity how and what he him keenly ; the publication of " Essays and could safely and honestly teach bis young children : Reviews ", followed ten years later by " Primitive he soon felt obliged to depart from current practice. Culture ", together with wider reading, finally "Jesus of Nazareth" appeared as a gift from the emancipated him from the strict orthodoxy in gods to a man like Huxley, to Ruskin it was which he had been brought up. Owing to the anathema. The original 'author's copy' on his absence of a book suitable for the young on the shelves has in it a most remarkable set of letters story of man's progress, Clodd wrote " The Child• received from all and sundry, including advanced hood of the World : a Simple Account of Man's clerics, giving their opinions upon the work. Al• Origin and Early History" (1873). which has gone though he had no use for man-made gods, no use t,hrough numerous editions and been translated for metaphysics, at heart he was deeply religious. into many European languages and even into Clodd's second gift, that which made him so Becowana and Secwana. It is impossible to loved, was his abounding genius for friendship. estimate what effect this lucid and charming His books soon brought him recognition but he had presentation of ' the new learning ' had in Europe only to make one friend to be offered another and and America. The polemics of the mighty were he never hesitated to offer himself freely, even to thus made easily understandable, and the young strangers, if he wished to know them. His Alde• were made aware of the trend oi modern thought burgh home became a magnetic centre to men of in a manner that must have influenced their distinction in every walk, excepting politics and the outlook on life. church. Two years later " The Childhood of Religion " His" Memories" (1916) gives some picture of the inevitably followed, and also had a great sale. Here variety of Clodd's friendships. Hardy and Mere• Clodd was treading on more debatable ground, dith were among them; he had author's copies of but the spirit in which it was written is admirable, many of their works. Not a little of the delight of though it doubtless alarmed some readers. "The his week-ends was derived from excursions on the Story of Creation : a Plain Account of Evolution " Alde in Lotus I and II-a small sturdy vessel built appeared in 1888 and rapidly went through many much upon his own lines, which sailed almost as editions, and it also must have considerably, if close to the wind as he did to dogmatists and doc• unconsciously, affected the rising generation. In trine-mongers. I was out with him on his last 1895 followed " A Primer of Evolution " and " The cruise, two years ago. I shall never forget two Story of Primitive Man". " Pioneers of Evolut.ion No. 3153, VoL. 125]

© 1930 Nature Publishing Group APRIL 5, 1930] NATURE 537 from Thales to Huxley ", in 1897, was the last of tion and to the notable gatherings at his home, his popular expositions of evolution. where men of varied experience, activities, and Clodd was from its early days an active member research interchanged serious talk enlivened by of the Folk-Lore Society, ~f which he was president jest. Clodd was a perfect host, and not least so in 1895 and 1896. Besides his two presidential when as skipper he took his party for cruises in the addresses, he made various contributions to the Lotus. We have lost a great friend, and we offer Society's journal. In 1885 he published "Myths our heartfelt sympathy to his devoted wife, who and Dreams ", and in 1898, " Tom Tit Tot, an made his declining years so happy. Essay on Savage Philosophy in Folk-lore", which A. C. HADDON. is a delightful example of one aspect of the study of folk-lore. A compact little book, " the Seed of Religion ", appeared in 1905, and " Magic WE regret to announce the following deaths: in Names and in other Things" in 1920; this is Prof. J. 0. Arnold, emeritus professor and lately the most elaborate of Clodd's writings on folk• dean of the Faculty of Metallurgy in the University of Sheffield, on Mar. 24, aged seventy-two years. belief and is as vividly written as his other Dr. Wilhelm Biedermann, formerly professor of books. physiology in the University of Jena, on Nov. 27, In 1892, Clodd published a memoir of H. W. Bates aged seventy-five years. in "The Naturalist on the River Amazons", in Sir Edward Bra.brook, C.B., a past president of the 1900 one on " ", and in 1902 another Royal Anthropological Institute and of Section H on "". In 1916 he de• () and also of Section F (Economic lighted his numerous friends with the publication Science and Statistics) of the British Association, on Mar. 20, aged ninety years. of " Memories ", and those who desire to know Dr. Hermann von Ihering, honorary professor of what Clodd was to his friends should read this palmontology at Gottingen, for many years director book and incidentally they will discover what of the Museu Paulista at Sao Paulo, Brazil, who was manner of man he himself was. well known for his studies in zoo-geography, the The above list of some of his books, and his very palmontology and fauna of Brazil, and the morphology numerous contributions to journals of all kinds, and classification of the Mollusca, on Feb. 24, aged indicate that Clodd was a sower of the seed of seventy-nine years. intellectual freedom and a populariser of evolution, Sir William M'Cormick, G.B.E., F.R.S., chairman of the University Grants Committee and of the more particularly as regards man. This is not the Advisory Council on Scientific and Industrial Re• place to refer to his many literary associations, but search, on Mar. 22, aged seventy years. no mention of Clodd would be complete without Prof. Wilfred Robinson, professor of botany at the allusion to the stimulating quality of his conversa- University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, on Mar. 7.

News and Views. CONGRATULATIONS from a wide circle of friends will household word to doctors all over the world. In be extended to Prof. George Forbes, one of our veteran 1884, when the bequest of a rich American, Johns electrical engineers, who celebrates his eighty-first Hopkins, led to the foundation of a ])ew university birthday on April 5, having been born in 1849. He in Baltimore, Dr. Welch was chosen first professor of is the son of Principal David James Forbes, and pathology. A few years later he was joined by the graduating in the first instance at the University of late Sir William Osler as professor of medicine. St. Andrews, he went on later to Cambridge. Re• Mainly through the genius and enthusiasm of Welch, specting his youthful adventures, our readers will Osler, and the late Prof. Halsted-the famous surgeon doubtless recall a recent article in the Times by him -the new school rapidly rose to the first rank, and for recounting work as a war correspondent, and impres• more than a generation Johns Hopkins has been the sions, whilst in the service of Delane, the editor of that goal of advanced students and research workers from journal. Forsaking journalism, Forbes embraced a all parts of the world. Dr. Welch, who has since been scientific career, becoming in the first instance pro• Director of the School of Hygiene of the Johns Hopkins fessor of natural philosophy at Anderson's College, University, and is at present professor of medical Glasgow, afterwards devoting himself to notable elec• history there, has lived to see the educational ideals trical projects. He was electrical engineer for the for which he fought universally adopted, and to be initial series of installations at Niagara Falls, 1891-95, admitted into the class of the great masters of medi• besides being associated with numerous other under• cine, the class of Lister, Koch, Pasteur, and Manson. takings which attest the foresight and skill of the In connexion with these ceremonies in America, an electrical engineers of a pioneer period. In 1887, Prof. address, with lantern illustrations, will be given at the Forbes was elected into the fellowship of the Royal London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, at Society. He is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour Keppel Street (Gower Street), W.C., by the director, of France and honorary LL.D. of St. Andrews. Sir Andrew Balfour, on Dr. Welch's life and work, on CELEBRATIONS in connexion with the eightieth the same day at 4 P.M. birthday of Dr. William Henry Welch will take place As has already been announced, the Council of the in Washington, U.S.A., on April 8. A broadcast of Physical Society has awarded the Duddell Medal for the ceremonies will be relayed from the London 1929 to Prof. A. A. Michelson, of the University of Regional Station at 5 P.M. Dr. Welch's name is a Chicago, and at the annual general meeting on Mar. 28 No. 3153, VoL. 125] © 1930 Nature Publishing Group