422 NATURAL SCIENCE [June 



Marcou was a geologist of the Jura, and an authority on the fossils 

 found near his first home. In 1849 his " Eecherehes geologiques sur 

 le Jura salinois " were published by the Geological Society of Prance, 

 and in the same year he was appointed * preparateur ' in mineralogy at ^ 

 the Sorbonne, while in 1847 he was entrusted with the arrangement 

 of the palaeontological collections in the Museum. In the following 

 year he was enabled to go to North America as travelling geologist 

 from the Paris Museum, and visited Agassiz, who had just begun his 

 work at Boston. With him he went to the L. Superior region ; after 

 which he studied the geology of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 

 and the Mammoth Cave. In June 18-50 he returned to Prance, and 

 prepared the first general geological map of the United States, 

 published in 1853. In that year he went back to America, having 

 been appointed geologist to the government expedition, which, under 

 Lieut. A. Whipple, explored the 35th parallel from the Mississippi to 

 the Pacific, for the purpose of a railroad. Thus he made the first 

 discovery of Jurassic fossils in America. Illness forced him to return 

 to Europe, and interfered with the preparation of his report. In 1855 

 he was appointed Professor of Geology at the Zurich Polytechnic, 

 where he stayed till 18G0, when he again returned to America and 

 helped Agassiz in founding the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 In 1862 was issued his geological map of the world, of which a new 

 edition appeared in 1875. 



To allude in detail to Marcou's numerous writings would be a 

 lengthy task. It should not be forgotten that he proposed the name 

 Dyas for the rocks usually called Permian, and, what is more, con- 

 tributed to our knowledoe of them in the Old and New AVorlds. 

 Among his controversial writings, one recalls his vigorous polemics on 

 the Taconic and Jurassic rocks of N. America, and his attacks on the 

 United States Geological Survey, which were not without effect. He 

 always displayed deep interest in the history of the discovery of 

 America, and had finished the manuscript of a fresh paper on the 

 subject shortly before his death. In this work he was more than once 

 assisted by his son, Mr John Belknap Marcou. 



Among other losses to science we note the following : — On Mai-ch 24, aged 64, 

 Alfred U. Allen of Bath, who was thesecretaiy of the Postal Microscopical Society, and 

 editor since 1882 of the Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science, the cessation of which 

 we noticed a short time ago ; Lieut. Brassetjr, the Congo State traveller, in a fight with 

 the Arabs on the banks of the Luapula ; Dr Max Dahmen, the bacteriologist, at Crefeld ; 

 on April 12, aged G7, Prof. Aime Girard of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, 

 Paris, and member of the section of Rural Econony of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 a leading authority on vegetable fibres, wheat, sugars, and woods ; Dr Samuel Gordon, 

 president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, and successor to the late Dr 

 Haughton as president of the Royal Zoological Society, Dublin ; on March 26, aged 26, 

 Bradney B. Griffin of Columbia University, author of papers on the fertilisation of 

 the egg in Thalassema, the nemerteans of Puget Sound, and other subjects ; at Elmina, 

 West Africa, on April 19, aged 32, Dr John Shearson Hyland, F.G.S., for some time 

 on the staff of the Geological Survey of Ireland as a petrologist, but latterly engaged in 

 reporting on mineral resources in the United States and Africa ; Edward Koko- 

 .siNSKi, the bacteriologist, at Lisle, on February 26th ; Dr Giuseppe Palma, assistant 

 in Zoology at Naples University on January 18tli ; Hermann [PiJTZ, Honorary Pro- 

 fessor of Veterinary Science at Halle on March 4th, aged 68. 



