SMITH : DR. PAUL FISCHER. 3 



The generic name, I may mention, should rightly be accredited 

 to Keferstein, as Blainville's original and corrected descriptions are 

 both wrong and inadequate, and it is quite clear that he did not 

 understand the genus. KefersteinV description is much the better, 

 and I think, with Stoliczka, that it should be accepted. 



DR. PAUL FISCHER. 



By EDGAR A. SMITH, F.Z.S., 



Zoological Department, British Museum, London. 



It is with the deepest regret that we have to record the death of 

 this distinguished palaeontologist and malacologist. It is a great 

 loss to our favourite science, and France has truly to mourn one 

 of her most illustrious writers on Malacology. Many of Fischer's 

 fellow-countrymen have been great malacologists or conchologists. 

 Adanson, Cuvier, Lamarck, Draparnaud, Lacaze-Duthiers, Moquin- 

 Tandon and Deshayes, are some of the greatest pioneers in con- 

 chology ; but we may safely say, without fear of contradiction, 

 that Fischer has done as much to advance the study of this 

 subject generally, as most of these. 



Paul Fischer was born in Paris on the 7th of July, 1835. For 

 many years he held the office of Aide-naturaliste of the chair of 

 Palaeontology at the Jardin des Plantes, and was also a member 

 of the Commission of Sub-marine Dredging. He died on the 

 twenty-ninth of November last year, at the comparatively early 

 age of 58 years. 



Among his principal works, we may mention — " The Palaeon- 

 tology of Asia Minor," written in conjunction with MM. dArchiac 

 and De Verneuil; "The Land and Freshwater Mollusca of Mexico 

 and Central America, 1869-92," in collaboration with M. Crosse; 

 " The Fossil Animals of Mount Leberon," in conjunction with 

 MM. Gaudry and Tournouer 1873 ; " The Palaeontology of the 

 Isle of Rhodes, 1877;" "The Cetacea of the South-West of 

 France;" Reports upon the Brachiopoda obtained during the 

 Scientific Expeditions of the " Travailleur " and "Talisman" and 

 the Prince of Monaco's yacht " Hirondelle," in conjunction with 

 D. P. CEhlert. 



4. Zeit. f. wiss Zool., 1864, vol. xv., pp. 118-26. 



