^# 



NA TURE 



[April 7, 1898' 



observations, it would be a matter for congratulation. 

 When a meteor is observed by two or more practised 

 observers, the results usually work out very well ; but in 

 the case of large fireballs witnessed by a great number of 

 persons, the descriptions are often very conflicting and 

 dubious, and the discussion of such materials is seldom 

 either profitable or trustworthy. W. F. Denning. 



RUDOLF LEUCKART. 



RUDOLF LEUCKART, whose death removes one 

 of the most eminent figures in the zoological world, 

 was the son of a bookseller, and was born on October 7, 

 1822, at Helstedt, which until 1809 had been the seat 

 of one of the universities of the state of Brunswick. A 

 taste for the study of natural history was probably 

 hereditary in the family, for his uncle, Friedrich Sigis- 

 mund Leuckart (1794- 1843), was a zoologist of no mean 

 reputation. The subject of our sketch began his career 

 as an author at a comparatively early age, for whilst still 

 a student at the University of Gottingen he completed 

 the " Lehrbuch der Zootomie " of his teacher, Rudolf 

 Wagner. After serving for a time as assistant m the 

 Physiological Institute of his alma mater, he received in 

 1850 the appointment of extraordinary professor at 

 Giessen, which the genius of Liebig had then raised to 

 a position of great importance among the universities of 

 Germany. 



He had already shown what manner of man he was 

 by the publication of two treatises, " Beitrage zur Kennt- 

 niss wirbelloser Thiere" (in conjunction with Heinrich 

 Frey, 1847) and " Ueber die Morphologic und Verwandt- 

 schaftsverhaltnisse der wirbellosen Thiere" (1848), in 

 which the great division Radiata of Cuvier was broken 

 up into Coelenierata and Echinodermata. He further re- 

 cognised Metazoa as divisible into six types — Coelenierata, 

 Echinodermata, Vermes, Arthropoda, Mollusca and Verte- 

 brata — and thus initiated a system which, in its main 

 features, is still maintained at the present day, and must 

 be recognised as a stroke of genius in a young man of 

 some twenty-five summers, working at such an early 

 stage in the history of morphological science. 



In 1855 he was made ordinary professor, and in 1870 

 removed to Leipzig. As a teacher he was clear and 

 stimulating, and his remarkable success in this depart- 

 ment of scientific work is attested by the volume issued 

 in commemoration of his seventieth birthday, in which 

 about 139 men of science, including many of the most 

 eminent zoologists of the day, are proud to acknowledge 

 themselves his pupils. 



As an investigator he fully realised the promise of his 

 early youth. His knowledge was as accurate as it was 

 extensive, and that to a degree which only becomes com- 

 prehensible when we remember that unaided he con- 

 tributed for nearly forty years a masterly summary of 

 current researches into the natural history of the lower 

 animals to the pages of the Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte. 

 It is clearly impossible to give anything like a detailed 

 account of such an active and many-sided career in a 

 moderate space : let it suffice to recall his insistence on 

 the division of labour in the animal kingdom, his re- 

 searches on the reproduction of bees and of the Cepha- 

 lopoda, his recognition of the ciliated organ of Heteropoda 

 and Pteropoda as an osphradium, and his reference of 

 Neomenia to the Mollusca. 



Undoubtedly, however, his greatest energy was de- 

 voted to the study of parasitic life in general and to the 

 life-history of the parasitic worms in particular. He at 

 once recognised the importance of the methods of ex- 

 perimental helminthology introduced by Kiichenmeister, 

 and demonstrated the life-history of nearly all the 

 bladder-worms then known by rearing them in suitable 

 hosts. He was the author of epoch-making researches 



NO. 1434, VOL. 57] 



on Trichina and on the Pentasiomida, and contem- 

 poraneously with the Englishman, A. P. Thomas, worked 

 out the life-history of the Liverfluke. His work on the 

 " Parasites of Man," the first volume of which has been 

 translated into English, is a perfect cyclopaedia of in- 

 formation derived from the writings of others and from 

 his own observations. He has passed away full of years 

 and full of honours, leaving a name which will ever be 

 venerated by zoologists of every tongue and nation. 



NOTES. 

 The first soiree of the Royal Society, to which gentlemen 

 only are invited, is fixed for Wednesday, May 1 1. 



On Saturday last (April 2) the Council of University College, 

 London, elected Prof. H. L. Callendar, F. R.S., to the Quain 

 Professorship of Physics, about to become vacant by the re- 

 signation of Prof. G. Carey Foster, who in a few months will 

 have held his Professorship in University College for thirty- 

 three years. Prof. Callendar, who has been Professor of Physics 

 in McGill College, Montreal, will enter upon his duties ir> 

 London in October next. 



Sir William Turner, F.R.S., professor of anatomy in the 

 University of Edinburgh, has been elected a corresponding 

 member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He has also been 

 elected president of the General Medical Council, in succession 

 to the late Sir Richard Quain. 



Prof. H. C. Bumpus has been appointed director of the 

 laboratory of the United States Fish Commission Station at 

 Wood's Roll. 



Sir Samuel Wilks has been re-elected president of the 

 Royal College of Physicians of London. 



M. RiCHET has been elected a member of the Paris Academy 

 of Medicine. 



A "Jardin de Kew" is to be established in the neighbour- 

 hood of Nantes by a rich citizen of that town. The new 

 botanical garden will be planned on the same lines as the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew, and special attention will be given to the 

 cultivation of plants useful in French colonies. It is hoped 

 that the garden will eventually do for French colonial 

 possessions what Kew does for British colonies. 



The Paris correspondent of the British Medical Journal 

 announces that a recent decree authorises the University of Paris 

 to borrow 68,000/. for the purpose of building laboratories where 

 physical science, chemistry, and natural history will be taught 

 for the benefit of students who are preparing for the examination 

 for Science Certificate. Part of the money is to be applied to 

 the completion of the Laboratory of Vegetable Biology belong- 

 ing to the University of Paris at Fontainebleau. 



The policy exemplified by the following appointment, an- 

 nounced in Science, might be adopted with advantage in this 

 country : — Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, has been appointed attachd to the 

 United States Embassy in Berlin. Dr. Stiles's duty will be 

 to keep the Agricultural Department informed on important 

 discoveries and other matters of interest to agricultural science, 

 to defend American meats, fruits and other exports against un- 

 just discrimination, and to advise the Secretary of Agriculture 

 from time to time concerning the purity of the food products 

 that are shipped from Germany to the United States. It is said 

 that the appointment of Dr. Stiles will probably be followed by 

 other similar appointments, and it consequently represents an 

 important advance in the application of scientific principles to 

 diplomatic and commercial affairs. 



