30 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE 



d'Embryologie. The Institute was founded at Utrecht in 1911 ; 

 its second meeting Avas lield in Freiburg in 1912, and its third in 

 the early part of last year in Cambridge, just before its founder 

 started on his last embryologicai expedition. It is earnestly 

 hoped and confidently believed by his friends and family that 

 funds may be forthcoming to make it possible to retain the collec- 

 tion in its present situation (a collection which includes not only 

 all Hubrecht's unrivalled mammalian series, but the valuable 

 collection of Elasmobranch embryo series of the late Di-. Anton 

 Dohrn as well as those of others), which may become the head- 

 quarters of the Institute in accordance with the desire of its 

 founder. 



No one can read Professor Hubrecht's published papers without 

 becoming aware that the search after phylogeny was the loadstone 

 of his endeavoui's. The more physiological aspect of embryology 

 — that to which the term developmental mechanics for want of a 

 better has been applied — had little attraction for him. He was a 

 morphologist and delighted in morphological speculation, wliich, 

 whether we agreed with it or not, was always productive of 

 interest and compelled research. His speculations were apt to 

 be bold and aggressive — to wit, the association of Nemertines 

 and Vertebrates and dissociation of Mammals and Sauropsids. 

 To Hubrecht we owe the term " trophoblast," and the fuller 

 comprehension of the significance and importance of the layer 

 thus designated in tlie development of mammals and the part it 

 plays in the formation of the placenta ; though we are by no 

 means forgetful of the contemporaneous work done in this direc- 

 tion by Matthias Duval and Charles Sedgwick Minot ; but 

 Hubrecht had the power to make scintillate what in other hands 

 shone — but shone less seductively. 



Hubrecht's many papers on the development of Erinacevs, 

 Sore.v, Tiipaya, Tarsius, \^•ere brilliant alike for their discoveries 

 and deductions. His discovery that the placenta and early coeloin 

 formation and character of the allantois in Tarsius are unlike 

 what they are in other Lemurs and resemble in some respects the 

 conditions in Primates, led him to wish to transfer this genus 

 from the Lemurs to the Primates. His memoir published in 

 1909 on the early ontogenetic phenomena in Mammals was essen- 

 tially an epitome of his life's thought in embryologicai zoology, 

 and it exhibited a curious combination, a general breadth of vision 

 with a disinchnation to meet inconvenient objections. There is 

 one paper, that upon hsematopoiesis in the placenta, which has not 

 received the attention which probably should rightly be given to it. 



A few years ago Hubrecht relinquished the Professorship of 

 Zoology in order to fill the new chair of Embryology founded 

 in Utrecht especially for him. Hubrecht as a Professor had 

 all the qualities which make a successful University teacher — 

 enthusiasm — sympathy — energy — eloquence. He was an acconi- 

 plished linguist, and drew to himself by his personal charm and 

 intellectual fire a large circle of friends from other countries. 



