May 30, 



1895] 



NATURE 



109 



he had to depart from his university and countr)', finding 

 a home again in Switzerland, where he took up the 

 double life of biologist and politician as a Professor 

 at Geneva, and a prominent member of the National and 

 Federal Council. His all-round knowledge is testified to 

 by papers on Alpine geology, petrology, and prehistoric 

 archaeology. Those who were present at the Norwich 

 meeting of the Congress of Prehistoric .\rch;tology in 

 1868, remember his robiist presence and slashing speech. 

 To this subject, at the time rising into notice, belong 

 Vogt's discourses, well known in the English translation, 

 edited by Dr. James Hunt, and published by the .Anthro- 

 pological Society in 1S64 under the title "Lectures on 

 Man : his Place in Creation, and in the History of the 

 Earth.' There is so much forcible reasoning m this book, 

 that it may still be read with profit thirty years after date. 

 It is true that the thesis of the book which gained it 

 favour with the polygenist school, whose desire was to 

 trace the races of mankind to several locally and speci- 

 fically distinct origins, is one which would nowadays 

 hardly find supporters among anthropologists. Vogt 

 held that the various branches of the human race trace 

 their pedigrees to corresponding branches of the anthro- 

 pomorpha. He cannot see " why .American races of man 

 may not be derived from .American apes, Negroes from 

 African apes, and Negritos, perhaps, from .Asiatic apes." 

 In these lectures Vogt shows a by no means admirable 

 mode of controversy by unpleasant epithets, more or less 

 like those which, in Germany as elsewhere, the orthodox 

 world had poured on " infidels "' and " materialists.'' But 

 his sense of humour was blunt, and he evidently did not 

 see that religion, which has swayed the universal 

 human mind from untold ages, is a cosmic force which, 

 by its very immensity, should be out of the reach of 

 jokes like calling a low -type cranium an "apostle-skull.' 

 Even more remarkable in this respect is Vogt's " Kohler- 

 glaube und Wissenschaft," an invective in the name of 

 science on the credulous piety which, in countries where 

 the trade of the charcoal-burner is plied, finds its best 

 example among these isolated ignorant forest-folk. To 

 the newer school of anthropologists, the term "charcoal- 

 burner's belief" suggests quite a different sense. One 

 would sit down by them and question them in order to 

 find sur\iving in their minds ideas which are fossils from 

 the most ancient times. 



As a zoologist Vogt's reputation rests upon less 

 equivocal grounds. The subject supplied him with fewer | 

 opportunities of displaying his anti-theological bias, and ' 

 he brought his great powers to bear upon a number of 

 problems, with the result that he added largely to the 

 progress of zoology. His writings are numerous, and [ 

 range over a wide variety of subjects; and he by no means I 

 confined himself to comparative anatomy, but made [ 

 observations which entitled him to honourable rank 

 among physiologists. In his " Traite d'.Anatomie Com- 

 paree ' he telfs us, in the preface to the second volume, j 

 that he has studied and dealt monogra[)hically with no j 

 less than twenty-two types of animals, belonging to 

 nearly every class of the animal kingdom. Much of 

 this work was begun in the earlier part of his career, 

 when he published many papers and several monographs 

 upon the forms which he has afterwards chosen as types ■ 

 m his text-book. He was an active embryologist in 

 earlier days, and wrote on the development of Kilaria 

 (l842\ Hatrachia (1844), Ccphalophora ( 1856, and Crus- 

 tacea (1873). In 1853 he published observations on the 

 fertilisation of the ovum. He made a special study of the 

 Siphonophora in 1852-54, and produced in 186S an'admir- 

 ably illustrated monograph, entitled " Kechcrches sur les 1 

 Animaux infc'rieurs de la Medilcrrande," which deals , 

 with Siphonophora and pelagic Tunicata. His work on ! 

 Branchipus and Artcmia, published in 1872, is well I 

 known. Vogt's activity did not decrease with advancing 

 years, as is testified by his contributions to current scien- 



tific literature and the publication of his text-book. His 

 abilities were great, and he had a keen appreciation of 

 the importance of the special problems of zoology to 

 which he directed his attention. But his interests were 

 too various, and his work ranged over too great a number 

 of subjects, to admit of his rising to the position of a 

 first-rate authority in any one of them. Had he applied 

 himself solely to one course of study he would, by his 

 powers of investigation and his vigorous method of ex- 

 position, have found a place among the foremost biologists 

 of the centur)'. As it was, he dissipated too much 

 energy and thought in attempting to grasp too wide a 

 range of knowledge. E. B. T. 



G. C. B. 



.At the meeting of the Paris .Academy on May 6, M. 

 Blanchard referred in the following terms to the part 

 X'ogt took in the study of the formation and movement 

 of glaciers, under the direction of Louis .Agassiz. 



"At the beginning of August 1845, .Agassiz arrived at 

 the hospital of Grimsel, accompanied by Carl Vogt, 

 Desor, Nicolet, and two students from Neuchatel. They 

 brought their instruments with them, for they had come 

 with the idea of determining the temperature of the 

 glaciers, of studying the form of the snow, and of ascer- 

 taining in w-hat manner the nevt' forms itself into ice. 



" They had with them two very experienced men as 

 guides ; they resolved to take up their position on the 

 smaller glacier of the Aar, which is of special interest ; 

 the surface is strewn with masses of rock, which produces 

 an effect of a heap of ruins. On approaching the 

 moraine, the investigators perceived that the glacier 

 had advanced considerably since the previous year. 

 .A hut, left by Hiigi, one of the first explorers, ha J 

 disappeared. 



" After a brief survey, they fixed the place of installation 

 near a large block, and the guides set to w-ork to build 

 a small house large enough to hold six people. The 

 walls were built of dry stones ; large flagstones ser\ed 

 as boards ; beds were made of layers of grass, covered 

 with oilcloth and other coverings, and were thought 

 perfect. 



".As a matter of fact, the opening which gave access 

 to the house was verj' small, but still Carl Vogt could 

 enter, and where Carl Vogt could pass evei-y one could- 

 Instead of a door, a curtain was put up. In the night, 

 before going to bed, it was decided that the dwelling 

 should be called the "Hotel des Neufchatelois " ; thisr 

 name was, therefore, cut on the rock in big letters, and 

 time has consecrated it. 



" Does not this reunion of young savants in the solitude,^ 

 in the middle of a nature both grand and sad, offer 

 a curious spectacle to the imagination .' The noises of 

 the pleasures of this world and of public affairs does not 

 ascend as far as the hut on the glacier of the Aar r 

 aspirations and joys, unknown to most mortals, agitate 

 the hearts there. These men, who without effort, with- 

 out regret, renounce comfort for many a long day, dream 

 of penetrating into the deepest secrets of nature ; they 

 discuss gravely most formidable questions, and laugh over 

 many incidents. .Agassiz never loses his good humour, 

 and Uesorabandons himself to joking. Carl Vogt, always 

 sparkling with fun, and himself capable of enlivening an 

 assembly of monks, effectually prevents the possibility of 

 ennui. 



" .Ainongst the investigators, who are stirred by the 

 same thought, peace is never broken ; on the sea of 

 ice, with no other witnesses than the blocks of granite, 

 and the peaks covered with eternal ice, there are. no, 

 rivals. In proportion to the extent of his aptness ever)' 

 one sets himselfwith energy to the common work. Agassiz 

 is the undisputed chief, the recognised master. To bring 

 a stone to the monument he was building, was the only- 

 thing the zealous workers cared about. 



NO. 1335, VOL. 52] 



