CASTREN, MATTHIAS ALEXANDER Finnish ethnologist and philologist, was born at Tervola, Kemi, Finland, on Dec. 2, 1813. In 1838 he joined a medical fellow student, Dr. Ehrstrom, in a journey through Lapland. In the following year he travelled in Russian Karelia ; and in 1841 he undertook, in company with Dr. Elias Lonnrot, a third journey, which extended as far as Obdorsk, and occupied three years. On his return he published his Elementa grammatices Syrjaenae and Elementa grammatices Tscheremissae (1844) . He then undertook an exploration of the whole government of Siberia, which resulted in a vast addition to previous knowledge, but seriously affected his health. The first-fruits of his collections were published as Versuch einer ostjakischen Sprachlehre (St. Petersburg, 1849). In 1850 he published a treatise De affixis personalibus linguarum Altaicarum, and was appointed to the new chair of Finnish lan guage and literature at Helsingf ors, next year becoming chancellor of the university. He was engaged on a Samoyedic grammar when he died on May 7, Five volumes of his collected works appeared from 1852 to 1858, containing Reseminnen fran dren (2) Reseberdttelser och bref dren (3) Foreldsningar i Finsk mythologi (Germ. trans. by A. Schiefner, ; (4) Ethnologiska foreldsningar elver Altaiska folken; and (5) Smiirre a f handlingar och akademiska dissertationer.