296 



NATURE 



[January 25, 1894 



it can be tracked completely across the Atlantic to our 

 islands, and eventually to central Europe on November 

 20. Several vessels keeping logs for the Meteorological 

 Office, with standard instruments on board, have re- 

 corded observations on the storm during its passage 

 across the Atlantic, and the Cunard steamship Lucania 

 was under the influence of the disturbance during the 

 whole of her passage from America to England. During 

 the storm no fewer than 335 lives were reported as lost 

 ■on or near our own coasts, this number being the result 

 of reports received during the four weeks subsequent to 

 the storm. Chas. Harding. 



PA UL HENRI FISCHER. 



THE Museum of Natural History of Paris has 

 suffered a great loss in the person of Dr. Paul 

 Henri Fischer, the well-known zoologist and palaeontolo- 

 gist, who died on November 29, after a long and painful 

 illness. Born at Paris, on July 7, 1835, he received his 

 early classical and medical education at Bordeau.K. He 

 became Interne des Hopitaux of Paris in 1859, and 

 obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1S63. 

 The study of medicine did not prevent him from 

 devoting himself also to that of the natural sciences ; for 

 in 1 86 1 he entered as Demonstrator in the Labora- 

 tory of Palaeontology of the Museum of Paris, under 

 the direction of M. d'Archiac. His researches chiefly 

 concerned the living and fossil mollusca, and from 

 1856 he edited the Joiir7ial de Conchyliologie in col- 

 laboration with M. Crosse. From the position of 

 Demonstrator he rose to be aide-natiiralisie (assistant), 

 and studied with great success the marine animals of the 

 coasts of France, their geographical and bathymetric 

 distribution. He indicated the depths at which a large 

 number of foraminifera, ccElenterata, echinodemata, 

 mollusca, bryozoa, &c. can be collected on the coasts of 

 the west of France. In collaboration with the Marquis 

 de Folin he undertook the study of the animals dredged 

 in the extremely interesting region of the Gulf of 

 Gascony, to which the nam.e " Fosse du Cap Breton " has 

 been given. The two savants discovered a large number 

 of forms hitherto unknown, and many which recalled 

 species only known in the fossil condition. With M. 

 Delesse he made researches on the submarine sediments 

 of the French shores. He was elected member of the 

 Commission of Dredging, and took part from 1880 to 

 1S83, on board the Travailleur 3.nd the Talisman, in the 

 celebrated expeditions directed by Prof. Milne Edwards. 

 In the course of these expeditions he noted the enormous 

 extension of a cold fauna characterised by boreal and 

 arctic species, and reaching as far as Senegal, where it 

 lives beneath a superficial fauna with intertropical 

 characters. Among the writings of Dr. Fischer, which 

 number not less than 300 titles, including books, pam- 

 phlets and memoirs, we may cite : " Paleontologie de 

 TAsie mineure " (in collaboration with MM. d'Archiac and 

 de Verneuil) ; " Mollusques de Mexique et de I'Amerique 

 Centrale"; "Species general et iconographie des 

 coquilles vivantes " ; " Animaux fossiles du Mont 

 Leberon" (in collaboration with MM. Gaudry and 

 Tournouer) ; " Paleontologie de Tile de Rhodes "; "Cetacds 

 du Sud-Ouest de la France " ; " Catalogue et distribution 

 geographique des mollusques terrestres, fluviatiles et 

 marins d'unepartie de I'lndo-Chine ; " Sur les caracteres 

 de la faune conchyliologique terrestre et fluviatile 

 recemment eteinte du Sahara " ; " Sur la faune conchylio- 

 logique de I'ile d'Hainan"; numerous memoirs on the mala- 

 cological fauna of Lord Hudson Island (Pacific Ocean), 

 of Cambodge, of the islands of the Caledonian Archi- 

 pelago, of Aleutian islands, of the Bay of Suez, &c. In 

 collaboration with M. E. L. Bouvier he published papers 

 on the anatomical peculiarities of certain groups of 



NO. 1265, VOL. 49] 



molluscs. Finally, he wrote a remarkable treatise on 

 conchology which has become classical (" Manuel de 

 Conchyliologie et de paleontologie conchyliologique ou 

 histoire naturelle des mollusques vivants et fossiles, suivi 

 d'un appendice sur les Brachiopodes par CEhlert." In 

 this manual the author showed that the classification of 

 molluscs ought to be based not alone on the form of the 

 shell, but primarily on the anatomical characters. 



Dr. Fischer was Chei'alier de la Legion d'Hdnneur 

 and Officier de V Instruction piiblique. He obtained 

 several prizes at the Paris Academy of Sciences, and 

 had been President of the Zoological and Geological 

 Societies of France. He possessed deep erudition, was 

 a charming conversationalist, and after having treated a 

 subject belonging to the domain of the natural sciences 

 or of medicine, he was far from embarrassed if he had to 

 discuss philosophy, literature, or sesthetics. The death 

 of this savant, who was as affable as he was modest, has 

 been a cause for general regret and for deep mourning 

 among his large circle of friends. 



Edmond Bordage. 



NOTES. 

 The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has 

 awarded the Hayden Medal to Prof. Huxley. The medal is of 

 bronze, and, with the balance of the interest arising from a sum 

 of 2,500 dollars given to the Academy by the widow of the late 

 Prof F. V. Hayden, is awarded annually "for the best publi- 

 cation, exploration, discovery, or research in the sciences of 

 geology and palaeontology, or in such particular branches 

 thereof as may be designated." The recipient in 1892 was 

 Prof E. Suess, and in 1891, Prof. E. D. Cope. Prof. J. Hall had 

 the distinction of receiving the first award of the medal in 1890. 



Sir Henry Roscoe has been appointed to the vacancy in 

 the Senate of London University caused by the death of Sir 

 WiUiam Smith. 



An Elliott Cresson Medal has been awarded to Mr. Nikola 

 Tesia, by the Franklin Institute, for his researches in high 

 frequency phenomena. 



M. GuYON has been elected a member of the Section de 

 Geographie et Navigation of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 

 the place of the late Admiral Paris. 



Dr. E. Zacharius, Extraordinary Professor of Botany in 

 Strasburg University, has been appointed Director of the Ham- 

 burg Botanical Gardens. 



Dr. J. K. Hasskarl, who introduced the cinchona plant 

 into Java, died at Cleves, Germany, on January 5, at the age of 

 eighty-two. In 1852 he was sent by the Dutch Government to 

 South America to collect cinchona seeds and plants. He did 

 not confine himself to collecting Calisaya, but gathered seeds 

 and plants of other varieties, some of which were new. In 

 1854 he successfully carried about four hundred Calisaya plants 

 to Java, but two years later he left Java, owing to differences 

 between Dr. Junghuhn and himself on many vital principles of 

 the system of cinchona culture. It is a singular fact, remarks 

 the Chemist and Druggist, that the most valuable of all cin- 

 chonas, the Lea^eriana variety, was not introduced into the 

 Indies by any of the collectors specially appointed by the 

 British or Dutch Governments, but by a private trader in South 

 America, the late Mr. Ledger. 



The annual general meeting of the Geologists' Association 

 will be held at University College, London, on February 2. 

 After the reading of the report and election of officers for the 

 ensuing year, the President will deliver an address on 

 " Geology in the Field and in the Study." 



