PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 245 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



Cesak Felix Ancey was elected a Corresponding Member of the 

 Society in 1902. He was born at Marseilles on the 15th of 

 November, 1860, and was educated at the College of the Jesuites 

 d' Avignon, where he took degrees in literature, science, and law. 

 Natural history, however, had the greatest attraction for him, and at 

 first he devoted himself to entomology, especially to the study of 

 Coleoptera, and at one time was occupied in the superintendence of 

 the famous collection of MM. Oberthiir of Rennes. However, he 

 subsequently displayed a predilection for the study of conchology, 

 which henceforth was maintained to the end of his life. 



He left France in 1887 to occupy an official position in Algeria, 

 where step by step he rose to the rank of ' administrateur titulaire.' 

 He stayed a long time at Kabylie, until he became the oldest official 

 in that district. He possessed a great capacity for work, was an 

 excellent linguist, and always exhibited a very pleasant and affable 

 manner to friends and acquaintances. The great desire of his life was 

 to have made a scientific journey to the Cape Verd Islands or to South 

 America. However, this hope was never to be realized. He died 

 from fever on October 10th of last year in his 46th year. 



M. Ancey's conchological writings commenced with the year 1881, 

 and continued almost without interruption until the year of his death. 

 Altogether he published about 750 pages, distributed among some 

 1 2 1 different papers. His longest memoirs treated upon the fauna of 

 the Hawaiian Islands, altogether occupying 135 pages. M. Ancey was 

 a member of the ' Nouvelle ecole ' of French conchologists, and 

 consequently many of his so-called species are merely regarded as 

 slight varieties of long-established forms. An instance of this kind, 

 familiar perhaps to some of the members of this Society, is worth 

 recalling. In 1884 he wrote a paper entitled " Mollusques inedits du 

 systeme europeen," in which he described two forms of Hyalmia 

 and eighteen so-called new species of Helix. One of the latter, 

 H. cantianiformis, was from Folkestone ! I think that British 

 conchologists will not admit the possibility of the existence in Kent 

 of a 'new species' of Helix, even as far back as the year 1884. 

 I may mention that no figures accompanied M. Ancey's paper, and as 

 far as I can ascertain most, if not all, of these eighteen forms are still 

 known only by the author's Latin diagnoses. It is to be greatly 

 regretted that the writings of M, Ancey are so inadequately 

 illustrated ; in fact, altogether only five plates and forty-one text- 

 figures accompany his 750 pages. His descriptions in themselves are, 

 however, very good, and many of his "Notes critiques" contain 

 much useful information. M. Ancey contributed two papers to these 

 •' Proceedings," both treating upon the fauna of the Sandwich Islands, 

 and doubtless had he lived others would have been offered for 

 publication. Although we may disagree with M. Ancey in what 

 constitutes a species, at the same time the utility and thoroughness of 

 much of his work must be admitted. E. A. S. 



