266 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and, in closing, used these memorable words: 'The glory of 

 Monsieur Pasteur is such that many envious teeth will be broken 

 upon it. Our works and our names will long be buried under 

 the inconstant tide of oblivion, when the name and the works of 

 Pasteur will still be resplendent, and will shine upon such ele- 

 vated heights that they will never be reached by that dismal 

 flood.' 



" Pour months after the utterance of these enthusiastic and pro- 

 phetic words. Prof. Vulpian was borne to the grave. The mem- 

 bers of the Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Sciences, the 

 Faculty of Medicine, and the numerous scientific societies of Paris, 

 participated in the grand and imposing obsequies with which the 

 world-renowned savant was honored, and delegates from these 

 institutions pronounced well-merited eulogies over his tomb. The 

 numerous writings from his pen with which medical literature 

 has been enriched will long constitute the highest authority upon 

 the subjects which he investigated." 



Vulpian was elected to the Academy of Sciences in the Section 

 of Medicine, when he took the place of Andral in 1876 ; in 1886 

 he was chosen perpetual secretary, to succeed M. Jamin. He was 

 given the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1869, and was made an 

 officer of that body in 1878. 



The collection of M. Vulpian's publications gives only an in- 

 complete idea of his labors, which were divided between experi- 

 mental research and teaching. These works include " Des 

 Pneumonies Secondaires" ("Of Secondary Pneumonias," I860)-. 

 and " Legons sur la Physiologic G^ndrale et Comparde du Systeme 

 Nerveux " (" Lessons on the General and Comparative Physi- 

 ology of the Nervous System "). Before the short illness of which 

 he died, he was giving lectures on the respiratory system, and he 

 was about to publish an important book on the cerebral functions. 



It is now manifest, says Prof. Judd, that no classification of geological pe- 

 riods can possibly be of world-wide application ; and that " we must be contented 

 to study the past history of each great area of the earth's surface independently, 

 and to wait patiently for the evidence which shall enable us to establish a paral- 

 lelism between the several records." Moreover, while attention was once pre- 

 dominantly given to marine deposits, " the growth of our knowledge concerning 

 the terrestrial floras and faunas of ancient geological periods . . . has constantly 

 forced upon the minds of many geologists the necessity of a duplicate classification 

 of geological periods, based on the study of marine and terrestrial organisms re- 

 spectively." One of the greatest sources of danger to the progress of geological 

 knowledge at tlie present day is the tendency to forget that the geological record, 

 although of enormous value, is exceedingly imperfect, and thus to make too hasty 

 generalizations on insufficient data. 



