linnean society of london. 27 



Obituabt Notices. 



Pierre Joseph van Beneden was born at Malines on Decem- 

 ber 19th, 1809. He received his early education in his native 

 town, and in 1831 proceeded to tlie University of Louvain, and 

 graduated there as Doctor in 1833. Having shown a strong 

 taste for Natural Hi.story, and especially Zoology (derived in a 

 great measure from his excellent teacher M. Stoffels, a chemist), 

 lie was appointed Curator of the University collections. He 

 next spent two years in Paris, and visited many places in Prance 

 and Italy, with a view of extending his knowledge of marine 

 zoology. In 1835 he was appointed assistant Professor in the 

 University of Grhent, a post wliich he resigned in the following 

 year in favour of the chair of Zoology and Comparative 

 Anatomy in the University of Louvain, a professorship which 

 he continued to fill for 57 years, until the end of his life. 



Van Beneden was a man of remarkable industry, embracing 

 within his studies nearly every branch of the animal kingdom, 

 and upon most of which he has published memoirs. Among his 

 more important works may be mentioned the ' Natural History 

 of the Preshwater Polyzoa' (published in conjunction with 

 Du Mortier, in 1850) ; tlie ' Zoologie Medicale ' (m conjunction 

 with Paul Gervais, in 1859) ; the ' Eecherches sur la Paune 

 Littorale de Belgique ' (Polypes) in 1866. He also wrote many 

 papers on parasitic worms and annelids ; and the problems pre- 

 sented by the new discoveries illustrative of " alternation of 

 generations " and " commensalism " were subjects in which he 

 took especial interest; besides these, he was also the author of a 

 considerable number of palieontological papers. Van Beneden 

 was a member of many of tlie Academies and Societies of Europe, 

 and an honorary LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh. He was 

 a Foreign Member of the Eoyal and Geological Societies, and was 

 elected a Foreign Member of this Society in 1851. He died at 

 Louvain on January 8, 1894. 



Dr. George Bennett passed nearly the whole of a prolonged 

 and active life in Australia, where he settled more than half a 

 century ago. He was born at Plymouth on January 31st, 1804, 

 and had but just left school when, at the age of 15, he made a 

 voyage to Ceylon. Eeturning to England, he studied for the 

 medical profession, and in 1828 became M.E.C.S. Soon after 

 this he entered as surgeon of a merchant vessel, and in the course 

 of the voyage he visited Australia, and made some investigations 

 into the peculiar mammalia of that continent. He revisited the 

 Colony in 1832 for more detailed study of the interesting features 

 of the fauna which he had failed to achieve when previously 

 there ; and after iiis return he published the results in his well- 

 known volumes, ' Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, . . . 

 and China, being the Journal of a Naturalist in these countries 

 in 1832-34,' Lond. 1834, 8vo, in which year also he issued his 



