SIR ROBERT STRACHEY
Sir Richard Strachey, who died on February 12 at the age of ninety-one years, represented the best British traditions. It will be well for us if in the twentieth century we can produce in a democracy men of the type who came from the dominant families of England in the nineteenth century, men having the instinct to rule, adequate to each event as it occurred, uniting scientific research with administrative duties. Sir Richard's brother is also an eminent Anglo-Indian'. Lady Strachey, with five sons and five daughters, is an authoress of distinction.
While the scientific work of Sir Richard Strachey does not give him place among the great leaders, it is of wide range and of real importance. His contributions are summarized in the award to him of a Royal medal by the Royal Society in 1897 as follows: "Two of the most recent of these, are recorded in his report, published in 1888, on the barometrical disturbances and sounds produced by the eruption of Krakatoa and in his paper in the Philosophical Transactions of 1893, entitled 'Harmonic Analysis of Hourly Observations of the Temperature and Pressure at British Observatories.' These, while important in themselves, are but the last of a long series of valuable memoirs. He was the first to treat scientifically of the physical and botanical geography, geology, and meteorology of the western Himalaya and Tibet. He also first observed the occurrence of a regular series of fossiliferous rocks, from the Silurian upwards to the north of the great snowy axis of the Himalaya. His numerous papers on these subjects, dating from the year 1847, are published in the journals of the Royal Asiatic, Geological, and Royal Geographical Societies' Proceedings, and in the reports of the British Association."
THE POPULARIZATION OF SCIENCE
Discovery, a monthly magazine devoted to the popularization of science, initiated a year ago by Mr. John W. Harding, has been merged with The Popular Science Monthly. It is to be regretted that the financial conditions last year proved to be unfavorable to the support of a new journal of this character, planned to be both accurate and interesting. No one would suppose it possible to maintain a museum by the admission fees, but it is regarded as a matter of course
