280 tMay, 1S85. 



favourably the first part, of the Jlrst series, of Mr. Edwards' magnificent work. We 

 have now to congratulate him, and entomologists generally, on the completion of 

 the second series. Fully seventeen years is a large slice of the working time in a 

 man's life. But with characteristic singleness of purpose, Mr. Edwards announces 

 the commencement of a third series in a few months, for which he has in hand 

 abundant materials. Naturally there is much yet to be done. In his list of North 

 American Butterflies (North of Mexico) in the part now before us, 612 species are 

 recognised (irrespective of varieties, &c.), and of only a tithe of these are the life- 

 histories described. 



©bituarii, 



Prof. Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold died at Munich on April 6th, aged 

 81 years. He was born at Wiirzburg on February 16th, 1804, and was cousin to 

 the well-known Japanese traveller and philologist of the same name. Educated for 

 the medical profession, he practised for some time at Konigsberg, until he obtained an 

 appointme'nt at Dantzic in 1835. Subsequently he became professor of zoology and 

 comparative anatomy at Erlangen, Friburg, Breslau, and Munich successively, his 

 appointment at the latter place dating from 1853. Von Siebold published a little 

 systematic entomological work ; but it was in the comparative anatomy, physiology, 

 and biology of insects (and also of other invertebrates) that he made his great re- 

 putation, which was scarcely second to any in Eui'ope, and the results of his lectures 

 and publications largely influenced the studies and thoughts of enquirers into these 

 special branches for many years. It would be impossible here to glance at even a 

 few of his most important memoirs. His text-book on the comparative anatomy of 

 invertebrates, published in 1848, still maintains its reputation. In 1856 appeared 

 what was perhaps his most remarkable work, " Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmet- 

 terlingen und Bienen ", of which an English translation was made the following 

 year by Mr. W. S. Dallas. The statements therein were at first received with much 

 incredulity, and even some derision : but who now doubts their truth ? Partheno- 

 genesis continued one of his favourite studies, and only a year or two before his 

 death he published an important memoir on the subject as observed in Tenthredinidce . 

 Von Siebold will equally be remembered, and his memory respected, as an editor. 

 In 1849, he (in conjunction with Kolliker) founded the " Zeitschrift fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie," which continues the most prominent natural history periodical 

 in Germany. Almost every leading Academy or Society enrolled his name amongst 

 its Honorary Members. In this country he was elected one of the Foreign Members 

 of the Royal Society and of the Linnean Society so long back as 1858, and one of 

 the Honorary Members of the Entomological Society in 1870. Viewed in connection 

 with the most modern school of naturalists, Von Siebold could scarcely be termed 

 a theorist, yet several of his discoveries from actual patient observation were more 

 startling than the speculations of the present day, which are founded too often on 

 a basis of fact with a huge superstructure of imagination. 



END OF VOL. XXI. 



