44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



brother of three elder sisters, who took au intelligent interest in 

 their father's favourite pursuits ; one was an accomplished artist, 

 assisting father and brother by her pencil and brush to the end of 

 her days. In such surroundings the boy developed into a Naturalist 

 by heredity and example, but from his earliest years his interest 

 concentrated itself in collecting and studying shells. This interest, 

 however, was not allowed to interfere with the claims of school, 

 and throughout his school-years he distinguished himself as au 

 industrious and conscientious worker, while, on the other hand, 

 he associated but little with his school-fellows, nor did he exhibit 

 any taste for their games. 



At the University of Tiibingen he passed through the regulated 

 curriculum of a medical stvident ; at the same time his natural 

 history studies expanded upon a wider and safer basis under the 

 tuition of Hugo Mohl, Quenstedt. and Kapp, and the structure 

 of animals and their distribution in space and time claimed at this 

 period his special attention. Having received his M.A. degree, 

 he migrated in 1855 to Berlin, to which University he, like other 

 contemporary Zoologists, was attracted by the fame of Johannes 

 von Midler. He accompanied the latter on one of his vacation 

 tours to Norway, and soon after his return obtained an appoint- 

 ment at the Zoological Museum, which was then under the direction 

 of Lichtenstein. To this institution he remained attached for the 

 remainder of his life, a period of nearly half a centur}'', eventually 

 rising to the rank of Second Director in 1887. The division of 

 Invertebrates (exclusive of Insecta) was assigned to his custody, 

 and the collection of Mollusca, which Hugh Cuming had not 

 considered worthy of a visit to Berlin, grew under his fostering 

 care into what is now beyond doubt the most important in any of 

 the Continental Museums. This growth was due not only to 

 the incorporation in the Berlin Museum of celebrated collections 

 like those of Albers, Dunker, and Pactel, or to the steadily 

 increasing influx of materials from the newdy-acquired German 

 possessions, but also to his own efforts as a collector in many 

 parts of Europe, and particularly in the Far East. In 1860 he 

 joined as Naturalist the Prussian Expedition of the ship ' Thetis,' 

 and accompanied it during the first two years of the voyage. Eor 

 the two following years he explored independently, but with the 

 consent and aid of the Prussian Grovernment, the Fauna and 

 especially the Mollusca of the Suuda Islands and Moluccas. The 

 preparations for this long voyage, and his desire to become 

 personally acquainted with the treasures of the Cumingian and 

 other collections, brought him to England on a visit of several 

 months' duration — the only visit which he paid to this country. 

 His name, however, soon became familiar to English Malacologists 

 through the excellent reports on Mollusca which he annually 

 contributed for twenty years to the ' liecord of Zoological 

 Literature ' founded by his friend Dr. Giinther ; the first appeared 

 in 1865, less than a year after his return from the East. 



