SS* Geological Society. 



Anselme-Gaetan Desmarest, honorary member of the Royal 

 Academy of Medicine, and Professor of Zoology at the Royal 

 A'eterinary College of Alfort, was the son of Nicolas Desmarest, 

 who has just been mentioned as the predecessor of Montlosier in 

 his theory of tiie volcanic origin of Auvergne. The son also em- 

 ployed himself upon the same district; and published an enlarged 

 and improved edition of his father's map of Auvergne ; — a work 

 which is still spoken of with admiration, for its fidelity and skil- 

 ful construction, by all who explore that country. But the labours 

 of the younger Desmarest were princijjally bestowed upon the 

 other parts of natural history. We possess in our Library, extracted 

 from various journals, and presented us by the author, his " Notes 

 on the impressions of marine bodies in the strata of Montmartre," 

 published in 1809; his "Memoir on the Gyrogonite," published in 

 1810; to which he added, in 1812, the recognition of the analogy 

 of this fossil with the fruit of the Chara, pointed out by his brother- 

 in-law M. Leman ; his review of a work by M. Daudebard de Fer- 

 russac, on the Fossils of Freshwater Formations, in 1813; his me- 

 moir on Two Genera of Fossil Chambered Shells, in 1817; and his 

 "Natural History of the Proper Fossil Crustaceans," published in 

 1822 along with M. Brongniart's "Natural History of Fossil Tri- 

 lobites." In the " Dictionaire d'Histoire Naturelle," the article Ma- 

 locostraces, which contains a complete account and classification pf 

 Crustaceans, is by M. Desmarest, with others on the same sulyect. 

 In this work all the articles on Crustaceans had originally been as- 

 signed to Dr. Leach ; but when the lamented illness of that distin- 

 guished naturalist prevented his finishing this task, it was committed 

 to Desmarest, who carefully studied the labours of his predecessor ; 

 and, with most laudable industry and self-denial, made it his business 

 to follow his method as closely as possible. He also published a 

 separate work on Crustaceans in 1825. 



Count Kaspar Sternberg was one of those persons, so valuable in 

 every country, who employ the advantages of wealth and rank in 

 the cultivation and encouragement of science. He belonged to a 

 younger branch of one of the best and oldest families in Bohemia; 

 and was closely connected with the persons of most elevated station 

 in that country. He was born the 6th of January, 1761, and re- 

 ceived a distinguished education at Prague ; not only, as was then 

 common among the Bohemian nobility, through private tutors, but 

 by following the public course of the university. He was created 

 Canon of the Chapter of the metropolitan church at Ratisbon, which, 

 obliging him to receive the lower degree of holy orders, bound him 

 to celibacy. At Ratisbon, then a considerable place, and the seat 

 of the Diet of the German empire, he formed friendships with seve- 

 ral eminent persons, and especially with Count Bray (afterwards 

 Bavarian minister at various courts), a man of letters, and a distin- 

 guished botanist. Count Sternberg also cultivated botany, and be- 

 came an active member of the Botanical Society of Ratisbon. Du- 

 ring the time that Germany was a prey to the miseries of war, he 

 retired to his hereditary country seat Brzezina, in the circle of Pil- 



