548 



NA rURE 



[October 7, 1897 



fanciful speculation, it is at least significant that it 

 should have presented no improbability to the mind of 

 an observer before whom the insects concerned were 

 constantly present as a living reality. 



The work on mimicry was brought to a close with the 

 ■account, published in 1883, of the torn wings collected 

 from specimens of an inedible butterfly, Acrcea t/ialia, in 

 ■order to show that a protected insect was not immune 

 from tentative attacks on the part of birds. Still, even if 

 the evidence thereon be regarded as conclusive, it 

 scarcely indicates the difference in amount between the 

 attacks made on protected and unprotected species 

 respectively, which miist exist under MLiller's hypothesis. 

 And in view of the doubts which have been expressed by 

 competent observers as to the prevalence of butterfly- 

 ■destruction on the part of birds, the subject calls for 

 further and more exhaustive investigation. Since Miiller's 

 ^vork, little progress has been made on the study of 

 mimicry by observations on the living forms. 



Amongst the many other entomological subjects investi- 

 •^ated by him are cases of dimorphism in fig-insects and 

 in gnats, in a species of which he found two kinds of 

 females, one large-eyed and honey-sucking, the other 

 small-eyed and blood-sucking ; the case-making of 

 Phryganeidae and the development, in some cases very 

 remarkable, of several species of aquatic insects. As 

 recently as 1895 he published in the Transactions of the 

 Entomological Society of London a paper on the meta- 

 morphoses of an aquatic fly, the material for which, how- 

 ever, had been worked out some fourteen years previously, 

 when the drawings were made. These are, perhaps, the 

 best published examples of his skill as a draughtsman. 



In botany Miiller's work, like that of his brother, the 

 author of " Die Befruchtung der Blumen," deals mainly 

 with the fertilisation of plants, and includes a number of 

 important observations on heterostylism, hybridisation 

 and self-sterility, many of which are recorded in Darwin's 

 "Animals and Plants under Domestication " and "Cross 

 and Self-fertilisation of Plants." The experimental 

 results obtained, e.g. in the fertilisation of orchids, are of 

 ^reat interest ; in a series of cases he was able to 

 establish a progressive gradation in self-sterility from 

 species in which the flower was sterile to its own pollen 

 but not to that taken from other flowers on the same 

 plant, up to those in which entire fertility was only to be 

 obtained by crossing, the pollen of a different species 

 being prepotent. Most remarkable of all, in certain 

 species the pollen of a flower was found actually to have 

 a destructive effect upon its own stigma. 



His later years were mainly given over to botanical 

 studies, but the period was clouded with a succession of 

 (misfortunes which he bore courageously, not losing his 

 interest in research, although his activity was diminished. 

 For him science meant the advancement of knowledge, 

 and he looked for no practical benefits for himself from it. 

 Assuredly they did not come unsought. As far back as 

 1880 he suffered gravely from the destruction of his pro- 

 perty by a flood, a loss which drew from Darwin a touch- 

 ing expression of sympathy and a desire to aid. At a 

 iater period the Brazilian Government, with singular 

 illiberality, deprived him of his post without pensioning 

 him, and left him in straitened circumstances ; and as 

 recently as 1894 he was imprisoned by rebels and tried 

 by court-martial. In the same year the death of his wife 

 took place, but the bereavement, heavy as it was, did not 

 ■affect him so deeply as did the loss of a beloved daughter, 

 herself an excellent observer, who, at eleven years of age, 

 ■discovered the circumnutation of Linuni. She died at 

 Berlin, and the blow deprived her father for a long time 

 of all desire for work. But his indomitable enthusiasm 

 overcame even this trouble, and his researches were 

 carried on up to the last year of his life. 



To call Miiller by Darwin's happily-bestowed title is to 

 recognise not merely the energy, perseverance and 



NO. 1458, VOL. 56] 



capacity for observation which he brought to his work, 

 but also the discrimination which led him to the choice 

 of subjects for study and the closely-reasoned and phil- 

 osophic interpretation of his results. If his name is not 

 associated with any marked advance in thought, except 

 on one or two special questions connected with natural 

 selection, it is because he found his intellectual faith in 

 the theory which he set himself to developing and 

 strengthening. He was content, in fact, to assist in the 

 building of the structure of which another was architect, 

 and in this task his services have been great. It may be 

 questioned whether any other naturalist, save Darwin 

 himself, has given the world so large and original a mass 

 of observations of the kind by which natural selection 

 has been most strongly supported. 



To take a just and comprehensive survey of his labours 

 is by no means easy. His papers are scattered through 

 many journals, and a full bibliography of them is as yet 

 wanting ; even the list, down to 1883, given in the 

 "Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers" is in- 

 complete, omitting as it does all his contributions to 

 " Kosmos." Moreover, they cover a wider range than 

 most naturalists take for their province, and yet are far 

 from containing the whole of his results. Not a few of 

 his notes have been made public by the friends to whom 

 he communicated them with characteristic generosity ; 

 others still lie buried in his letters and memoranda. And 

 a reference to such papers as those on mimicry makes it 

 plain that but a part of his published observations have 

 found their way into common scientific knowledge, and 

 many still wait to be incorporated into the fabric of 

 biology. 



More than five-and-twenty years have passed since 

 Darwin wrote to Miiller : " I earnestly hope that you will 

 keep notes of all your letters, and that some day you 

 will publish a book, * Notes of a Naturalist in S. Brazil,' 

 or some such title." But the idea did not attract, and 

 the wish, though echoed by many friends, was destined 

 to remain unfulfilled. One can therefore but express the 

 hope that, now that his labours are ended, such a record 

 of them may be given to the world as shall form a worthy 

 memorial of so earnest and single-minded a lover of 

 nature. W. F. H. B. 



NOTES. 

 We invite attention to the change of address of the pub- 

 lishers of Nature, announced in our advertisement columns. 

 After Saturday next, October 9, all communications for the 

 editor of Nature should be sent to St. Martin's Street, 

 London, W.C. 



We regret to announce that Dr. Charles Smart Roy, F.R.S., 

 of Trinity College, Professor of Pathology in the University of 

 1 Cambridge, died on Monday night, at the age of forty-three 

 j years. 



\ The Accademia dei Lincei have just elected Prof. G. H. 

 I Darwin, F.R.S., and the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, M.P., 

 ' F.R.S., foreign members of the Academy. 



It is stated in the Athemtum that the well-known Dr. Adolf 

 Harnack is engaged on a " History of the Prussian Academy 

 of Sciences," which is to appear in the year 1900, the two 

 ^ hundredth anniversary of its foundation. 



The annual address of the President of the Royal Photo- 

 graphic Society will be delivered at the meeting of the Society 

 , on Tuesday next, October 12. The presentation of the medals 

 I will take place on the same evening. 



] The Geological Magazine makes the following announcement 

 [ with reference to the forest-bed of the Norfolk coast : — This 

 j interesting deposit, so rich in organic remains, has been care- 



