556 OSWALD HEER. 



the public good; but his scheme for "civilian billetting" (by which 

 wealthy people having rooms to spare in their houses would have 

 been compelled to billet artisans employed in public works) leads one 

 to infer that his statesmanship was not equal to his science. Nev<!r- 

 theless, there can be no question about his large-hearted charity. He 

 instituted the " Credit Fourier," which flourishes in great prosperity to 

 this day ; he also founded the " Caisse de Retraite pour la Vieillesse," 

 and several other agricultural charities, which, though less successful, 

 afford great assistance to aged workmen. Louis Napoleon ustd to say 

 in jest that the whole of the War Minister's budget would not have 

 been enough to realize M. Dumas's benevolent schemes ; and once, 

 half dazzled, half amused, by one of the chemi^^t's vast sanitary pro- 

 jects, he called him " the poet of hygiene." 



It was to be expected that a man Avorkingwith such eminent success 

 in so many spheres of activity, and at one of the chief centres of the 

 world's culture, should be loaded with medals, and marks of distinction 

 of every kind. It would be idle to enumerate the orders of knighthood, 

 or the learned societies, to which he belonged, for, so far from their 

 honoring him, he honored them in accepting their membershi]). It is 

 a pleasure, however, to remember that he lived to realize his highest 

 ambitions and to enjoy the fruits of his well-earned renown. France 

 has added his name in the Pantheon 



" Aux Grands Hommes la Patrie Reconnaissante." 



OSWALD HEER. 



OsAVALD Heer, the most eminent investigator of the fossil plants 

 and insects of the tertiary period, died on the 27th of September last, 

 shortly after he had entered upon tlie seventy-fifth year of his age. 



He was born at the hamlet of Nieder-Utzwyl, in Canton St. Gallen, 

 Switzerland, August 31, 1809, passed most of his youth at Matt, in 

 Canton Glarus, where his father was the parish clergyman, pursued 

 his academic and professional studies at the University of Halle, and 

 was ordained as minister of the Gospel in the year 1831. The next 

 year he went to Zurich, where he resided for the rest of his life. Here 

 he studied medicine for a time, but soon devoted himself seriously to 

 entomology and botany, of which he was fond from boyhood. In 1834 

 he became Privat-docent of these sciences; in 1852, when the Univer- 

 sity of Zurich was developed, he became its Professor of Botany, and 

 in 1855 he took a similar chair in the Polytechnicum. Most of his 



