July 20, 1893] 



NA TURE 



271 



was everywhere. The facts of classification, of palaeont- 

 ology, of geographical distribution, of organogeny ceased 

 to be intelligible. It was necessary to tread through the 

 barrier of a limited time, and of the belief in the per- 

 manence of specific forms. Alors parut Darwin.'^ 



The influence of Darwin was conspicuously shown in 

 the remarkable book which De Candolle published in 

 1873, under the title of " Histoire des Savants." He lays 

 botany aside, and going back to the studies of his 

 academic life, starts afresh underthe inspiration ofthenew 

 ideas. But he does this with the same reserve and almost 

 sceptical spirit which characterises all his writings. The 

 facts must evolve their own consequences He is re- 

 ported to have said that '• he was a botanist by inheritance 

 and a statistician by birth." But he applies to the treat- 

 ment of his data a statistical method which is positively 

 fascinating in the skill with which it is employed, and the 

 interest of the results to which it leads. I must content 

 myself with a single conclusion, the undoubted validity 

 of which, it seems to me, is often overlooked. 



" Heredity neither gives scientific men special nor 

 e.xtraordinary powers ; but only that combination of moral 

 and intellectual qualities which may be directed accord- 

 ing to circumstances and the choice of the individual to 

 scientific study or to any other serious or definite object." 

 If we slightly enlarge this conclusion by regarding extra- 

 ordinary aptitude for particular branches of scientific 

 discovery (or any other field of intellectual or artistic 

 activity), as a sort of exceptional sport from an already 

 specialised race, it appears to me that we have the whole 

 root of the matter. A very distinguished man of science 

 has been known to hazard the opinion that if he had 

 turned his attention to law, he would probably have 

 become Lord Chancellor. I think that he only erred on 

 the side of modesty, and that he would equally likely 

 have been Prime Minister. 



But I must pass on. In iSSo De Candolle published 

 his Phyiographie. This is a useful book, indispensable 

 to the taxonomic workshop. It elaborates and enforces 

 the admirable principles of plant descriptive work laid 

 down by Linnsus, which make the study one of no 

 small value as an educational discipline. The book will 

 always have its value as keeping alive an admirable 

 tradition. Would that its example and precepts were 

 more taken to heart by many modern botanists who fail 

 to see that a description is one thing, a luminous and 

 logical diagnosis a totally different one ! 



Finally, in 1883, Dc Candolle published his"Origine 

 des Plantes Cultivces." This sprang from his prefatory 

 studies for the Geographic. It is an altogether admirable 

 book]: not perfect certainly, or complete, and faulty per- 

 haps more especially in the difficult matter of handling 

 the philological evidence. Vet I know of no one who 

 could have put together the material in a more masterly 

 way, or who could have presented the conclusions de- 

 rivable from it in a form more likely to carry conviction. 

 Here I must close. As I began by saying, a great 

 figure has passed away. Distinguished in appearance, 

 his manners though reserved, were always exquisitely 

 urbane. If he lacked enthusiasm of a demonstrative 

 sort he made up for it by extreme sobriety of judgment 

 and inexorable persistence. He was singularly kind to 

 all who were disposed to engage in botanical work ; 

 and would spare no pains to help and even aid, 

 with his own accumulated materials, those who 

 were willing to undertake a research. He died beloved 

 by his family, revered by his countrymen, and loaded 

 with distinctions. He was a Foreign Member of the 

 Royal .Society,a Gold .Medallist of the Linnean Society, 

 a D.C L. of Oxford, and an LL.D. of Cambridge ; and 

 the possessor of the order which perhaps confers the 

 greatest distinction on a scientific man, the " oour le 

 mdrite" of Prussia. W. T. Thisblton-Dver. 



NO. 1238, VOL. 48] 



CARL SEMPER. 



A GREAT investigator has left us, and one more 

 ■'*■ vacant tablet of the Hall of Fame has received its 

 inscription. 



Carl Semper, born July 6, 1832, at Altona, near Ham- 

 burg, a son of the celebrated architect, Gottfried Semper, 

 at first destined for the Royal Navy, but afterwards 

 student, graduate, Privat-Docent, and for twenty-five 

 years Professor of the University of Wiirzburg, has 

 merited eminence as a traveller, a zoologist, a teacher, 

 and an investigator. 



The range of his " Thun und SchafFen " — his doing and 

 making — is so wide that but scant justice can be paid 

 to his labours within the short space of this article. 

 As that of a travelled naturalist and the writer of 

 important works of travel his name is honourably known 

 to the geographer, while his investigations in pure 

 zoology are among the most brilliant and weighty 

 of the past thirty years. 



Even in this field of science there was a many-sided- 

 ness about the observer, impelling him to work for the 

 increase of knowledge in systematic zoology, comparative 

 anatomy, embryology, comparative histology, and 

 physiology. 



His travels in the Philippine and Palau or Pelew Islands, 

 for which he expended nearly the half of the large fortune 

 inherited from his father, resulted in many valuable 

 memoirs on various groups of invertebrata, the joint 

 work of himself and others. Semper's " Holothuria," 

 and his special studies of mollusca — a group in which 

 he was a leading authority — may only be mentioned. 

 His book on the " Palau-Inseln im Stillen Ocean" is un- 

 fortunately less known — at least, in this country — but in 

 the opinion of good authorities there are few more de- 

 lightful works of travel, and fewer still in which the 

 observational powers of the naturalist find as full play. 



Of Semper's molluscan work only a specialist can speak 

 as it merits. I know not if he completed all that he 

 intended to do, but I have a lively remembrance of the 

 immense stores of material and drawings which he 

 possessed ten years ago. 



To experimental physiology he made many contri- 

 butions in the Existenz-bedingungen der Tiere and 

 elsewhere. 



But the works of all others which established his 

 reputation as a university professor were undoubtedly 

 those on comparative embryology. 



Among these, " Das Uro-genitalsystem der Plagio- 

 stomen " is preeminent. In this and other priceless 

 memoirs was laid the solid foundation on which the ten 

 volumes of the Arbeiten aus dein Zoologisch- 

 sootoinischen Institut zu Wiirzburg were gradually built 

 up. The intensity and ardour with which he devoted 

 himself to the problems of embryology also laid the be- 

 ginnings of the long years of ill-health which have just 

 closed with his death. 



Though his work cannot be described as having escaped 

 unscathed from the fierce embryological battles of recent 

 years, most of it still stands intact, and is destined to re- 

 main, associated with the name of Semper, as part of the 

 classic literature of vertebrate morphology. 



With recapitulation embryology he had no sort of sym- 

 pathy, and his polemics against Haeckel clearly defined 

 his position as an opponent of the so-called " Law of 

 Ontogeny." He was of those whose embryological work 

 is based rather on the idea that organs, not organisms, 

 repeat parts of their ancestral history in their develop- 

 ment. 



Of the departed master — " Der Chef," as his students 

 affectionately termed him — a pupil cannot write without 

 feeling. Long before his death the great number of his 

 pupils, who had become occupants of University chairs. 



