58 PEOCEEDINCxS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Professor Paul Pelseneer upon " Spirula " ^ marked the closing act of 

 his zoological career, as it did that of the zoology of the "Challenger" 

 expedition, in both of which we as Englishmen and zoologists do 

 indeed glory. All tlirough his active life Huxley was at heart 

 a malacologist ; and although his published papers on Mollusca are few 

 and far between, his llcde Lecture,- and discourses such as those he 

 gave to working-men in 1883 on " Shell Fishes," show that his love 

 for the Mollusca never waned, and that the exigencies of other 

 occupations alone prevented him from returning to them in earnest. 

 "Well do I remember the eventful morning on which he received 

 the Spirula from the hands of Sir Wyville Thomson ; how he at 

 once collected the necessaries for working out "the last of the 

 Belemnites," as he loved to call the little creature ; how, with almost 

 childish delight, he then and there buried himself in the task of 

 investigation ; and how, years later, after an interval of enforced 

 abstinence from work, he on more than one occasion remarked that 

 he could finish it within a month. It was not to be. The hand of 

 death was near, to take from some of our number a dearest friend, 

 and from all the man who with Darwin and Spencer revolutionized 

 thought, by direct application of principles deduced from the study 

 of animal life. 



No one interested in topics involving Marine Zoology will need to 

 be reminded of the claims of Loven. Eighty-six years of life are not 

 voiichsafed to all working naturalists; and long or short their lives, few 

 have there been whose earnestness, singleness of purpose, and devoted 

 application to consistent, conscientious work, have in any measure 

 approached his. His writings on the Mollusca of the Scandinavian 

 seas, although in a measure eclipsed by the brilliance of that which 

 he accomplished later on the Echinodcrmata, will remain conspicuous 

 for their wide range, and for the desire to determine all that was 

 ascertainable about the structure and distribution of the animals 

 before generalizing upon them. As a stimulus to others they have 

 been productive of good results, and in connection with the initiation 

 of Arctic research they will remain classical. Nor must we forget 

 that he was the first to describe the comparative morphology of the 

 radula, and to use that organ for purposes of classification.^ 



The name of Bracebridge Wilson has a special claim upon us, 

 through our Secretary, who is now working out some of his Chitons. 

 In the intervals of a busy life as a pedagogue, Mr. Wilson was many 

 years dredging Port Phillip and Bass Strait. Our veteran Carter 

 worked for years at Wilson's Sponges, and Agardh at his Algae. 

 The recent brilliant investigations of Dendy into the Sponges have 

 been performed on his material. Spencer has worked out his 

 Hydroids, Hickson his Alcyonarians, Haddon his Actiniae, Spencer 



^ Huxley and Pelseneer, "Rep. of the Voyage of II. M.S. 'Challenger,'" 

 Appendix (Zool., part 83). 



- Nature, vol. xxviii, p. 187. 



^ Jjoven, in a paper remarkable for its thoroughness. Of vers. K. Yet. Akad. 

 Ilandlg. 1847, p. 175. 



