38 PllOCEEDINGS OF THE 



The Eev. T. E. E. Stebbing, F.E.S., has been an ardent and 

 most successful student of the Crustacea for the last 35 years. 

 His first contribution to knowledge on the subject is dated 1873 *, 

 and he has published in all between 60 and 70 important roemoirs 

 and papers. During all these years he has been indefatigable 

 in making known novelties in structure, classification, and dis- 

 tribution, and in correcting errors in fact or in nomenclature. 

 Although he has ranged widely over the A'ast field of Carcinology, 

 still his chief labours have been amongst the Isopoda and 

 Amphipoda. 



To most zoologists, however, Mr. Stebbing's name is chiefly 

 known in connection not with this mass of special papers, but 

 with certain great works of a monographic nature. His report 

 upon the Amphipoda of the ' Challenger ' Expedition (1888) 

 occupies three massive quarto volumes comprising 1761 pages of 

 letterpress and 212 lithographed plates. This monumental work 

 is remarkable not only for the careful and accurate descriptions 

 and drawings of the many new species, but even more for the 

 invaluable bibliography giving a full and critical report of every- 

 thing that had been written respecting these Crustacea from the 

 time of Aristotle to the year 1887. This detailed analysis occupies 

 more than 600 pages, and is nothing less than a history of our 

 knowledge of the group. 



Turning for a moment to two less monumental, but excellent 

 volumes, we have (1) our author's ' Naturalist of Cumbrae,' pub- 

 lished in 1891, and giving a chai-ming account of the life and 

 work of the veteran west-coast marine biologist David Eobertson ; 

 and (2) his ' History of Crustacea ' (1893), published in the Inter- 

 national Scientific Series — an extremely useful Avork. which has 

 supplied many students and teachers with the most recent 

 information and correct nomenclature in regard to the British 

 species of Podophthalmata, Cumacea, and Isopoda. 



One of the latest and perhaps the most valuable of Stebbing's 

 works is his volume of 'Das Tierreich ' (21. Lieferung, Amphi- 

 poda : I. Grammaridea, Berlin 1906), which gives abundant evidence 

 of his untiring labour and exhaustive research. This colossal 

 work gives masterly diagnoses of every known species of the 

 group, and must for long remain the standard work on the 

 subject. The amount gf skilled labour expended upon this book 

 and upon his ' Challenger ' report is almost appalling to con- 

 template. 



It is impossible to allude on this occasion to the numerous 

 useful papers on Amphipoda pubHshed by our Medallist in the 

 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' and elsewhere, 

 between 1874 and 1908 — and each one of them bringing a welcome 

 contribution to science — but I shall mention in conclusion a few 



* But his scientific career apparently began in 1869 with a paper on 

 " Darwinism," read before the Torquay Natural Historj^ Society, and re-pub- 

 lished in his little volume entitled 'Essavs on Darwinism ' (Longmans, Green, 

 &Co.: London, 1871). 



