8 



OBITUAKY. 



August Weismann. 1834-1914 



In our necessary preoccupation with the war, little attention is 

 being given to the passing of great men. The death of a scientific 

 Nestor holds the public interest less than the loss of a ferryman's 

 hut on the Yser ; and it cannot be otherwise. But the ideal of a 

 republic of science will, we trust, survive the present tragic conflict 

 of nations ; and in the light of that hope, as well as in gratitude, 

 we would pay respectful homage to Weismann's memory. Professor 

 and Geheimrath, recipient of the Darwin- Wallace medal and many 

 honorary degrees, he remains to us " Weismann " and one of the 

 makers of biological history. He was elected an Honorary Fellow 

 of this Society in 1879. 



Of his life apart from his scientific work we know little. He 

 was born at Frankfurt-on-Main on January 17, 1834 ; he studied 

 medicine at Gottingen ; he went after graduation to Eostock, 

 Vienna, Italy, and Paris, and was for some time private physician 

 to Archduke Stephen of Austria. In 1863 the attraction of 

 zoology became imperative, and he went to study under Leuckart 

 at Giessen. Three years afterwards he went to Freiburg in 

 Breisgau as Professor Extraordinarius, and soon succeeded to the 

 chair which he held with so much distinction for about forty years. 

 For many years, owing to a severe eye-trouble, it was impossible 

 for him to do much microscopical work except at intervals. But 

 he never gave up the habit of hard thinking, and it is less than two 

 two years ago that he completed the arduous task of revising his 

 " Evolution Theory." True to the older tradition of German pro- 

 fessors, Weismann lived for his work and allowed nothing to dis- 

 tract him. He was fond of country walks and of music. (His son 

 has, we believe, made a name for himself as a composer.) While 

 he was a keen intellectual combatant, Weismann seemed to us, 

 when we had the privilege of knowing him a little, essentially a 

 man of peace, caring much more for truth than for any personal 

 success in controversy. 



Weismann's early work was strictly zoological, and his 

 researches on the development of Diptera, the origin and move* 

 ment of the germ-cells in Hydromedusse, the eggs of Daphnids, 

 and the seasonal dimorphism of Lepidoptera, are well known. As 

 the years passed, he turned his attention more and more to the 

 deeper problems of biology ; and from 1883 onwards he published 



