88 Ohitiiary I^otice. 



From 1847 Heer devoted his attention almost exclusively 

 to fossil insects and plants ; and now his researches became 

 of wide-world interest. This was the epoch of ponderous 

 volumes, issued latterly at the instance of several Govern- 

 ments, by a solitary student, rarely now seen on the street, 

 except passing from the study to the lecture-room. Heer 

 had no literary coUaborateurs, excepting — -and that for a 

 year or two — the late M. C. T. Gaudin of Lausanne. But 

 I lis first great work, On the Fossil Insects of the Tertiary 

 Deposits of (Enitig en ^ was begun at the earnest instigation, 

 with pecuniary aid, of his life-long friend, Escher von der 

 Linth. Escher possessed a moderate fortune, which was 

 freely spout in aiding Heer's researches. This was done, 

 as far as possible, without the recipient's knowledge, and 

 when that was impossible, in such a W'ay as to make him 

 i'eel he was conferring an obligation on the donor. The 

 most distinguished scientists in Europe visited the little 

 room in Zurich, piled with books and cabinets, with its 

 solitary sofa, on which Heer reposed after his short but 

 quickly-recurrent spans of w-ork, They have more than 

 once testified to the heroic devotion of the attendant, Heer's 

 onl}^ daughter. During the last twelve years, Heer was 

 usually found reclining on a couch, a wooden board 

 stretched along it, on which were fossils, plates, books, or 

 manuscripts he was studying ; whilst beside him his daugh- 

 ter waited, ready to change the invalid's weapons of work. 

 Sixteen thick quartos represent some of these labours. 

 Up till 1874 Heer's separated published papers ranked in 

 the Royal Society's Catalogue as 95. 



But what of the stability of such extensive work? 

 Heer's conclusions touched many of the most novel points 

 of modern speculative geology, such as a Miocene Atlantis, 

 a uniform warm climate in Tertiary times extending even 

 to the northern Arctic zone. Many scientific writers 

 accept these conclusiojis as admitted data. What of the 

 verdict of strict classificatory science ? The subject is 

 beset with difiiculties. The over-multiplication of species 

 in fossil botany, as well as the uncertainty as to the true 

 specific characters of some widely-distributed trees, from 

 which we are accustomed to argue as to recent climatal 

 changes, occur at once to every worker in this field. 



