158 



NA TURE 



[December 19, 1895 



jaws if the fly had been unable to lay its eggs in an 

 abundant supply of highly nutritive food. 



The illustrative table will render it easier to realise 

 that in insects as a general rule, special development 

 upwards involves special development downwards in an 

 earlier stage, and also that only a very moderate differ- 

 ence between the extreme forms of the larva and the 

 adult can arise without a resting-stage. Abundance of 

 food, and a life without exertion, often render the larval 

 skin soft and extensible. Since in insects the chitinous 



cuticle furnishes a chief part of all the organs of loco- 

 motion, of prehension, and of special sense, a soft, 

 extensible skin involves complete degeneration. This 

 may last throughout the whole larval period, during which 

 the external conditions are usually the same. Then 

 comes the sudden change to a stage in which a maximum 

 of activity and intelligence is called for. 



It will be evident to those who have previously studied 

 the subject that Fritz Miiller has been my chief guide in 

 this discussion. We owe much both to Brauer and to 

 Lubbock, but I think that we owe to Miiller, and in- 

 directly to his master, Charles Darwin, the most con- 

 siderable advance in the philosophy of transformation 

 that has been made for two centuries. 



L. C. MlALL. 



LUDWIG RUTIMEYER. 

 T^HIS distinguished naturalist was born at Biglen, in 

 J- the Canton Bern, in 1825. His father was the 

 parish clergyman, but was shortly afterwards made 

 superintendent of the Orphanage at Bern. Here Ludwig, 

 when old enough, attended the High School, going when 

 sixteen years of age to the Gymnasium. At this time he 

 made the acquaintance of Bernhard Studer, and with him 

 made several excursions to the surrounding Alps. In 

 1843 he entered the University of Bern, with the intention 

 of following his father's profession, and for some years 

 devoted himself to theological studies ; but all the time 

 he seems to have been more or less attracted to the 

 study of natural history, and, as we believe, partly in- 

 fluenced by the companionship of Peter Merian (the well- 

 known palaeontologist of Basel, born 1795), Riitimeyer 

 took up the medical faculty about 1848, and for the rest 

 of his life devoted himself to to the study of comparative 

 anatomy. He soon extended his travels, and we find 

 him in 1850 at Paris, where, among many others, he met 

 EHe de Beaumont. In 185 1 he visited the south of 

 France and Italy, going as far as Palmero. In 1852 he 

 came to London, and made the acquaintance of Owen and 

 Murchison. Returning to Bern, he published " Vom 

 Meer bis zu den Alpen," the substance of which he had 

 given as a course of popular lectures. He filled the post 

 of teacher in the Technical School, and seems at this period 

 of his life to have had the not unusual struggle in striving 



NO. 1364. VOL. 53] 



to make both ends meet. He married in 1855, and 

 through the influence of Peter Merian he was appointed 

 to the recently-founded chair of Zoology and Comparative- 

 Anatomy at Basel, which post he held until his death, 

 which took place on the 26th of last month. 



It is not necessary to give a list — it would be long one 

 — of Riitimeyer's published works. He was scarcely 

 settled at Basel before memoir after memoir came from 

 his pen. One of the earliest, laid before the Natural 

 History Society of Basel, was " On Recent and Fossil 

 Swine," showing then the tendency his thoughts were 

 taking. Perhaps the work by which he will be the longest 

 remembered by, will be " Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten in 

 der Schweiz." In this quarto volume we have a careful 

 series of researches into the natural history of the wild 

 and domestic mammals of Middle Europe, which attracted 

 great attention at the time, from the preciseness of its 

 details and the wideness of its speculations. It was pub- 

 lished in 1861, a couple of years after the first publication 

 of " The Origin of Species " ; but many of the details had 

 been laid before the Society of Antiquaries of ZUrich in 

 the previous year, and the author was fortunate in having 

 the assistance of such investigators as Keller, Morlot, 

 Uhlmann, Troyon, and Forel. 



Personally Riitimeyer was extremely amiable ; he was 

 a good teacher, after what is now being called the old 

 type ; minute investigation he never attempted ; he left 

 the microscope to others, beginning his life at the parting 

 of the ways, and interested chiefly with the study of fossil 

 forms, he always remained a morphologist. 



NOTES. 

 Thp: Paris Academy of Sciences has awarded the Lecomte 

 prize of 50,000 francs to Prof. Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh for 

 their discovery of argon. 



The French Chamber of Deputies has unanimously agreed 

 to refer to the Budget Committee a proposal to contribute to the 

 Pasteur statue. The Committee and the Government will decide 

 on the amount. 



In connection with the visit of the British Association to- 

 Liverpool in 1896, meetings of the sub-committees have been 

 held under the presidency of Sir W. B. Forwood and Mr. E. K. 

 Muspratt. The principal result is to make some alterations in. 

 the places of meeting of the various sections. It had been 

 arranged that the reception and the central offices should be in. 

 St. George's Hall. It has now been arranged that the sections 

 of physics, chemistry, zoology, and physiography shall hold 

 their meetings at University College, that the Town Hall shall 

 be placed at the disposal of the economic section, and that St. 

 George's Hall and the Walker Art Gallery shall be devoted to 

 the remaining sections of geology, engineering, anthropology, 

 botany, &c. It was announced that Prof. J. J. Thomson had 

 accepted the presidency of the mathematics and physics section, 

 while Mr. J. E. Marr will preside over the geologists, and Prof. 

 E. B. Poulton, Hope Professor at Oxford, the section of zoology. 

 The local secretaries hope to be able to puWish shortly a com- 

 plete list of those who have accepted nomination as presidents 

 in the remaining sections. 



The benefactions recently showered upon American educa- 

 tional institutions are bewildering in their multiplicity and 

 munificence. Among the latest reported are several tracts of 

 land purchased near the new site of the University of the City 

 of New York in the annexed district of New York City, and 

 intended for the benefit of that university. Mr. Frederick Baker 

 has paid 35,000 dollars for a lot which he intends to devote to the 

 erection of a hall. Several acres have come into the possession, 

 of the Dutch Reformed Church, and on these a church will be 



