710 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
on the Ammonites of the Hallstatt beds. This was a very decided 
trend toward paleontology, and even toward the most. philosophical 
paleontology, that which seeks to reconstruct the filiations of living 
beings and to learn the laws of their mysterious evolution. 
In spite of the brilliant qualities which shone in his first essays, 
the University of Vienna did not appear at all eager to open its doors 
to the new paleontologist; and the difficulties he encountered while 
seeking his doctorship more than once very nearly discouraged him, and 
almost led him to enter commercial life where his family would have 
been happy to have placed him. Success came, however, in 1857, and 
Eduard Suess was designated professor extraordinary of paleontology 
at the university. He retained this position until 1862. The death 
of Zippe having at that time made vacant the chair of geology, Suess 
succeeded him at first as professor extraordinary, then, in 1867, as 
professor ordinary. The paleontologist was transformed, little by 
little, into a geologist; and this geologist successively preoccupied, 
with local stratigraphy in the immediate vicinity of Vienna, then 
with Alpine stratigraphy, was later to turn to the Alps and by the 
prolonged contemplation of this great chain of mountains, to become 
a master of structural geology, and a little later the uncontested 
master of all geology. 
Eduard Suess possessed in an extreme degree the qualities which 
make the professor worthy of the name, and even those accomplish- 
ments which make great orators; his nobility of presence, the beauty 
and solemnity of his features, the softness and warmth of his voice, 
the ease of speech and abundance of imagery; the continual tendency 
to soar in lofty flights to the summits of his philosophy, into those 
high regions above the clouds where the noise of human conflict does 
not reach; the gift of animating all he touched, and, by the splendor 
of form and enthusiasm of utterance, of making ideas and objects 
live; finally, the love of conquering, of instructing, of increasing his 
own store of knowledge, and of fully engaging his audience. From 
the very first year of his course the professor became celebrated. 
People crowded the amphitheater; they followed bim on excursions 
which he directed to the environs of Vienna. His reputation extended 
throughout the whole city. His book on the Viennese subsoil, ‘‘ Der 
Boden der Stadt Wien,” appeared in 1862, revealing a new way of 
considering geology and of connecting it with human geography 
and sociology. In the same work were considered the relations 
between the formation and composition of the subsoil and the life of 
the citizens. This book soon passed from the confines of science into 
the midst of average culture and decided the political career of 
Eduard Suess; for he had two careers running parallel, one devoted 
to the highest and most disinterested science, the other, that of an 
ardent citizen, a passionate defender of municipal interests and 
