50 PROCEEDIiSrGS OF THE 



attracted them through the breadth and tlioroughness of his 

 knowledge, from among his official colleagues through his un- 

 flinching sense of duty and his fairness aod sympathy, from 

 among wider circles through a rare union of unaffected dignity 

 and natural charm of persouahty, he held them all by the trans- 

 parent sincerity of his character which was virile without harsh- 

 ness, generous to the point of self-oblivion, and true to the core. 

 He gave freely and yet ahnost humbly from the AAealth of his 

 knowledge and experience, unconcerned whether he received any- 

 thing in return or not. It was permitted to few to look into tlio 

 depth of his soul. A chaste veil lay over it, born of humihty and 

 delicacy ; but through it radiated all the same the warmth of a 

 great and strong heart. There are noblemen by the grace of man, 

 and others by the grace of God — and he was truly one of them. 



He bore liis years to the last nppai'eutly in robust health of 

 body and mind, only his eyesight had of late begun to fail very 

 seriously. Then came tlie end, short and swift, as if it had been 

 decreed that he should be spared the trial of blindness, the 

 severest that could have befallen him. Three days later he was 

 buried at Eichmond by the side of his beloved only daugiiter. 



[O. Stapf.] 



In Zoology the name of Glinther stands high among the great 

 constructive systematists and missionaries of organic method. 

 His work is incorporated in the fabric of the British Museum, 

 where half his days were spent, and where for twenty years he 

 ruled as Keeper of Zoology. 



It would be impossible for an outsider to do justice to his repu- 

 tation as a Keej)er; but all the world knows that it was he who 

 accomplished the stupendous task of removing the zoological col- 

 lections from Bloomsbury and establishing them afresh at South 

 Kensington, and all wlio appreciate the value of circumstantial 

 evidence attribute to him in incomparable measure both the 

 inspiration and the impetus which have made those collections 

 in their new- home the easy and effective instruments of research 

 that they now are. The one desire of his life was to see the 

 Natural History Museum the recognized headquarters of the 

 study of systematic zoology for the whole empire ; and it is a 

 simple statement of fact that when he was in the zenith of his 

 po\A"ers the JN^atural History Museum and Dr. Giinther were 

 equivalent expressions to a host of natui-alists and explorers 

 scattered through the British Possessions. 



As an authoritative systematist his influence was wide-spread, 

 but for a ready illustration of his momentum in a specific direc- 

 tion, one naturally selects his great ' Catalogue of Fishes,' since, 

 in his own words, he devoted the best years of his life to its exe- 

 cution. It is, in truth, a monumental AAork — not merely a massive 

 achievement of steadfast and discerning labour, and a beacon 

 in science, but an imposing standard of taxonomic method, and 

 also an enduring model of a museum instrument. Its originalitv 



