Obituary.

Hewett.—On 2nd January, Mr. H. Hewett, inventor of the « ball-pointed" pen.

Pitman.—On 20th January, at Bath, Sir Isaac Pitman, aged 84. In our first volume (1887) will be found a brief biography of the venerable inventor of phonography. His system, published in 1837, was the first scientific attempt to combine stenography with phonetics, and with the various improvements introduced in the course of sixty years, it is now practically the universal system for the English-speaking world. Sir Isaac Pitman took a prominent part in social reforms, and was at the head of the English spelling reformers. His system of phonotypy, though it has not met with wide acceptance, is by many degrees the best as well as the best-known of the many schemes that have been devised in Britain and the United States.