20 PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



cerned, in the main it has been done solely in the discharge of 

 my official duties at Kew, where I have myself obtained help 

 from friends and colleagues, amongst others our distinguished 

 Fellows Sir Joseph Hooker, the late Mr. Bentham, and. from my 

 old colleague and our much honoured friend Mr. Baker. For 

 my own part tLe worst of it is that I feel that I cannot consider 

 myself worthy of this honour ; for this reason, that I am almost 

 absolutely destitute of the great hankering after research — the 

 getting behind things — characteristic of modern research ; I am 

 generally content to enjoy them in a passive sort of way. Another 

 act similar to this came to me some years ago at the hands of the 

 President of the Council of the Eoyal Society, who conferred a 

 Royal Medal upon me. Instead of exchanging it for some appa- 

 ratus for research, some rare book, or some powerful lens, I 

 exchanged it for a little water-colour drawing. I can hardly 

 persuade myself that I am a scientific man, and therefore having 

 any claim upon the Society. It remains for me to thank you 

 and the Council heartily for the honour which you have done 

 me. 



The obituary notices of deceased Fellows and Foreign Members 

 were laid before the Meeting by the Secretaries. 



Obittjaet jN'otices. 



Heemann Cael Conead Buemetstee was born at Stralsund 

 in 1807. He studied Medicine at Halle, and graduated as Ph.D. 

 in 1829. In 1842 he was elected to the Chair of Zoology at 

 Halle in succession to Professor Nitzsch, and he held that post 

 until 1848. He then visited Brazil, and in company with Lund, 

 the Scandinavian naturalist, explored a large tract of country 

 and made extensive collections. On returning to Europe his 

 specimens were deposited, in the Halle Museum, and the results 

 of the journey were published in the ' Systematische Uebersicht 

 der Thiere Brasiliens,' and the ' Erliiuterungen zur Fauna Bras- 

 iliens.' Burmeister did not, however, remain long in Halle, but 

 again returned to South America and became Director of the 

 Museum of Natural History at Buenos Ayres, a post which he 

 held until shortly before his death. He published, in 1861, his 

 ' Eeise durch die La Plata-Staaten,' which is regarded as the 

 standard work on the Vertebrates of the Argentine Republic. 

 During the last thirty years he has studied with unremitting 

 zeal the Fossil Mammalia of the same country, the results of his 

 work being mostly published in the * Anales del Museo Publico 

 de Buenos Aires.' He was also the author of a large number of 

 papers on Zoological subjects communicated to various European 

 scientific societies and journals. He was elected a Foreign 

 Member of this Society in 1851. He died at Buenos Ayres o.u 

 the 2ud of May, 1892. 



