SKETCH OF OSCAR SCHMIDT. 697 







would have been sufficient to give him an honorable position in 

 science for all time. 



" The second period begins in Gratz. Some contributions to 

 the knowledge of the prehistoric vertebrate fauna of Steiermarck 

 resulted from Schmidt's keen observations of Nature during an ex- 

 cursion in the Alps. But the Adriatic, so near, enticed him into 

 new paths, and offered an inexhaustible field for work in the 

 sponges. Aside from his contributions to the theory of the Ba- 

 ikybius and to the systematics of the Gephyrea, the sea sponges con- 

 stituted the object of his studies during the whole period of his 

 residence in Gratz, and were the occasion of yearly journeys to the 

 Adriatic coasts. The results reached by Schmidt in this field placed 

 him in the foremost rank of contemporary investigators, while his 

 occupation with the sponges marked the completion of a revolution 

 in his view of Nature by converting him to Darwinism. After 

 his work the characteristic fluid form of the sponges became a clas- 

 sic subject in the study of the transmutation theory. 



" At the time of the appearance of Schmidt's first work on the 

 sponges of the Adriatic (in 1862), just enough of their anatomy and 

 physiology had been made known through individual labors, espe- 

 cially those of Lieberkiihn, to prove their animal nature ; and then, 

 also, the sponges first found a place in the fifth edition of Schmidt's 

 Handbook of Comparative Anatomy. But any one who under- 

 took either in the Adriatic or the Mediterranean to make his 

 way through the immense wealth of the forms would have found 

 himself without help of any kind. It was therefore Schmidt's pur- 

 pose to lay the basis, through exact description and definition of 

 the forms, for continued investigation through which the study 

 might be further advanced. He carried out this purpose, recog- 

 nizing in the skeleton parts what survived amid the changes, clearly 

 defining the species and genera, nineteen of which were new, and 

 brilliantly demonstrating his talent in systematization. "While in 

 the first supplement, in 1864, which brought up the histology of the 

 sponges, he still acknowledged himself an adherent of the old school, 

 he expressed the hope in the second supplement that science might 

 some time come upon the track of the genealogical relations of 

 species; and, in the memorable rector's address of November 15, 

 1865, he openly signalized his passage to the new theory, and pro- 

 claimed it, with all the youthful enthusiasm and carelessness as to 

 consequences characteristic of his nature, as the gospel of the re- 

 search of the future. 



" The idea of utilizing the great reproductiveneness of the 

 sponges for artificial cultivation was suggested to Schmidt during 

 his studies of the Dalmatian fauna, and his experiments in this direc- 



