Obituary. 173 



Shortly after taking liis degree as Dr. Med., Rudolph Blasius 

 ■was attached to the Medical Service in the war of 186G and 

 afterwards in that of 1870/71, when he was promoted to be 

 "Stabsarzt'' (Surgeon-Major) and awarded the "iron- 

 cross." 



After the last war Blasius left the military service and 

 in 1874 settled in his native city as a physician. Taking 

 Hygiene as his special study, lie was elected, in 1879, 

 Professor of this science and of Bacteriology at the Ducal 

 Technical High School (Carolo-Wilhelmina). Although 

 most actively engaged in this line, as well as in literature 

 and in public lectures, Blasius further utilised his position for 

 the benefit of his birthplace by becoming, by tJie confidence 

 of his fellow-citizens, in 1879, a member of the municipal 

 assembly and later on an alderman of the City. 



It is wonderful how Blasius, notwithstanding all these 

 pressing duties, managed to do actual work also in Orni- 

 thology, to which, educated in that science when a boy by 

 his father, he was deeply attached. His doctoral dissertation 

 on the structure of the egg-shell "^ dealt with this science, but 

 he subsequently produced a great number of papers, partly 

 concerning his various travels in many parts of Europe and 

 partly on the subject of migration. When the first Inter- 

 national Ornithological Congress was held at Vienna in 1884, 

 under the auspices of Crown-Prince Rudolph of Austria, 

 and a " Permanent International Ornithological Committee " 

 was founded, Blasius was chosen President of this looselv 

 organised institution, and, along with Professor vou Hayek 

 of Vienna, edited the new quarterly Journal ' Ornis ' until 

 1891. This periodical contains several papers by Blasius, 

 who also contributed largely to the 'Neue Naumann,' as 

 the new edition of the classical work of the celebrated 

 original author is called. Last, but not least, Blasius was also 

 for many years President of the " Deutsche Ornitliologische 

 Gesellschaft " at Berlin, and was always working for the 

 protection of birds and animals in general. 



* 'Ueber die Bildung, Struktar und systematise-lie Bedeutung' der 

 Eischale der Vogel ' (1866). 



