ALPHEUS IIYATT. 719 



taxonomy. Hyatt's patient and beautiful studies on the fresh water Poly- 

 zoa, carried on in the sixties ; his later studies on the sponges, on the mol- 

 luscs, other than Cephalopods ; his experience as a teacher of zoology and 

 paleontology in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1870 to 

 1881, and of zoology in Boston University from 1877 to the time of his 

 death, in additiou to his museum work, kept him informed of biological 

 methods and results ; while his field work in the paleozoic rocks of southern 

 Labrador, of Newfoundland, and his work about Salem, but more especially 

 his work in 1889 and succeeding years as paleontologist in charge for the 

 U. S. Geological Survey of the lower Mesozoic (Trias and Jura), carried 

 on in Texas and in California, besides his earlier studies at Steinheim, 

 Germany, afforded him the means of observing and accumulating many 

 facts, and of forming broad conclusions from many points of view. 



His prolonged and life-long studies on the Cephalopods were thorough 

 and exhaustive, and from them were wrung the basal principles of evolu- 

 tion, — work which for thoroughness and far-reaching results has seldom 

 been surpassed, and which not only is of the highest value and interest to 

 students of molluscs, but has already exerted and will continue to exert 

 a wide influence on the progress of general zoology. 



The permanent fame of our deceased associate will, we venture to claim, 

 be based on his contributions to the embryology, laws of growth of the 

 shells, and the phylogeny of the Cephalopod molluscs ; and on his pro- 

 found studies on the modifications of the tertiary shells at Steinheim 

 near Stuttgart, Germany. 



He will also be remembered for his conclusions on the position of the 

 sponges. As far as we are aware he was the first one after McAllister, 

 in a paper published in 1876, entitled " Sponges considered as a distinct 

 Sub-kingdom of Animals " * to refer these organisms to a separate, inde- 

 pendent branch or phylum of the animal kingdom. 



The outcome of these studies resulted in his valuable contributions to 

 the philosophy of biology. He was one of the founders and upholders of 

 Neolamarckism,and even if the value of that phase of the evolution theory 

 be called in question, he will be remembered as having been the discoverer 

 of a series of facts of astonishing number and variety, all converging to 

 one grand result, that of affording a true, solid basis for the theory of 

 organic evolution. 



* Proceedings Boston Society of Natural History, XIX. Nov. 1, 1876. Hyatt 

 claimed in this paper that during the previous year he regarded the sponges as 

 distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom. 1. c, p. 14. In this paper also, he re- 

 jected the position assigned them by Haeckel in the Coelenterata. 



