234 [October, 



Baron Charles Robert v. d. Osten Saeken died on May 20th last at Heidelberg, 

 In him one of the greatest Dipterologists of the second half of the nineteenth 

 century has passed away. Born on August 21st, 1828, he became interested in 

 entomology at the early age of eleven. Entomologlcus nascitur nan fit — but it was 

 not until 1854 that the jSrst of his writings appeared in pi'int, and even at the com- 

 mencement he sketched the classification of the TipuUdse, with which family his 

 name will always be most closely associated. Even as his first paper indicated his 

 future favourite study, so his appointment in 1856 to be Secretary of Legation for 

 Eussia in Washington was seized by him as an opportunity of making personal 

 acquaintanceship of noted entomologists during his journey, a habit which he con- 

 tinued for the next forty years. Probably every prominent student of Dipterology 

 in Europe or North America was visited by him, and many of them frequently. 

 Twenty-one years of his life were spent in the United States, and it is due to him 

 that the Americans are now enabled to have their collections of Diptera better 

 arranged and better named than is the case in any other country. Another twenty- 

 seven years were spent in Heidelberg, and produced valuable contributions to 

 science, winding up witli a " Record of my Life Work in Entomology," in which he 

 reviewed his work of fifty years, and also gave a series of most interesting records 

 of his contemporaries in work. 



Though fully conscious of his own powers he was never a man who sought to 

 put himself forward, and he was always ready to give all the information he could 

 possibly obtain to any other worker. Thus, for instance, he sent all the new species 

 of Diptera which he could collect in America to Herrmann Loew for description, 

 whereby Loew described 1350 new species. On the other hand he hated careless 

 work, and sooner or later he criticized it most severely, and above all he disliked 

 anybody to superficially criticize his own work. Probably no entomologist was ever 

 more "thorough" in his work, and his bibliographical collection in Dipterology 

 was unrivalled, and his was not merely a Library but notes were made by him from 

 every work, so that he practically never missed a record of what had been previously 

 written. VVhen he left America he presented all his American Collection of Diptera 

 to the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Mass., and during the re- 

 mainder of his life he never attempted to form any definite collection, but studied 

 the specimens in various Museums, and his memory was marvellous as to what he 

 had seen. He had, however, formed a very different and very exhaustive collection 

 of quite a different nature during his residence at Heidelberg, as he had obtained 

 large photographs of nearly all the works of the great Painters, and in many cases 

 was enabled by this means to detect originals from copies ; this collection must be 

 of very considerable value, and it is to be hoped that he fulfilled his wish to bequeath 

 it to one of our British Colleges. 



It is impossible to enumerate his works on Diptera in a short retrospect, nor is 

 it necessary, because his own " Record " gives them thoroughly, but it is possible to 

 remark that very few men have been so thoroughly adapted to be a " Master " in 

 his studies as w^as the case with Osten Saeken. Absolute master of almost every 

 European language ; possessor of adequate means to associate in any company ; of 

 noble birth, which would give him admission to any rank of society j of diplomatic 



