254 
NA TORE. 
[JANUARY 14, 1904 
Prof. von Zittel had the advantage of beginning his 
great life-work at the early age of twenty-seven. Born 
at Bahlingen, in Baden, on September 25, 1839, he 
completed his education in the Universities of Heidel- 
berg, Paris, and Vienna, and in 1863 he became teacher 
of geology and mineralogy in the polytechnic at 
Carlsruhe. 
Munich. 
the accurate determination and comparison of fossils. 
He had already written two important memoirs on the 
bivalved shells from the Cretaceous Gosau formation, 
which had been published by the Vienna Academy. 
He was then beginning to study the so-called 
Tithonian formation, on which he issued an important 
memoir in 1870, determining that it was equivalent to 
the Purbeck and Wealden formations of western 
Europe. These and other researches of a similar 
nature gradually impressed upon von Zittel the 
necessity for a fundamental revision of the whole 
science of palwontology, as it was then understood, 
and the preparation of a comprehensive treatise on the 
subject which could be used as a work of reference. 
der Palzontologie,’? which was begun in 1876 and 
completed in four volumes in 1893, and this was the | 
He | 
thoroughly studied the fossil representatives of each | 
systematic basis of nearly all his future research. 
group of the animal kingdom in order from the 
Protozoa to the Mammalia, and his original observ- | 
ations were not only incorporated in the ‘* Handbuch ”’ 
itself, but also formed the subject of many special | 
papers and memoirs. Quite at the beginning of his 
task he met with unusual difficulties in the classifi- 
cation of the sponges, which necessitated his abandon- 
ing the projected treatise until he had devoted three 
years to his classical ‘* Studien tiber fossile Spongien,”’ 
which were published by the Royal Bavarian Academy 
between 1877 and 1879. Almost simultaneously with 
the early work of Sollas in the same direction, von 
Zittel devised a means of studying the fossil sponges 
in thin sections under the microscope, and his novel 
researches eventually led to.a systematic arrangement 
of the Porifera, which has been confirmed in all its 
essential features by subsequent investigations of both 
extinct and living forms. Some of his memoirs re- 
lated even to the Vertebrata, and those on the Chelonia 
and Pterodactyls from the Lithographic Stone of 
Bavaria (Palaeontographica, 1877, 1882) are especially 
valuable contributions to science. 
On occasional excursions Prof. von Zittel still de- 
voted himself to purely geological work, and among | 
his published observations may be _ particularly 
mentioned those on the glaciation of the plain between 
Munich and the Alps, made in 1874 and 1875. Only 
in one instance, however, did he undertake researches 
of a geological nature on a large scale, namely, when 
he accompanied the Rohlfs Expedition to the Libyan 
Desert in 1873-74. The important results of these 
investigations were presented to the Royal Bavarian 
Academy as a “ Festrede’’ on March 20, 1880, and a 
more detailed report (reprinted from the Palaeonto- 
graphica) was issued as a separate work in 1883 
under the title “‘ Beitrage zur Geologie und Palzonto- 
logie der Libyschen Wiiste.”? In this volume von 
Zittel’s geological treatise was supplemented by a 
series of detailed descriptions of the fossils by Fuchs, 
Mayer-Eymar, Schenk, and other palzontologists. 
The Palaeontographica, to which reference has | 
been made, is a serial devoted solely to illustrated 
memoirs on fossils, founded by the eminent German 
paleontologists W. Dunker and Hermann von Meyer | 
in 1846. From 1869 until his death Prof. von Zittel 
NO. 1785, VOL. 69] 
In 1866 he succeeded Oppel as professor | 
of geology and paleontology in the University of | 
At this time he was interested in questions | 
of stratigraphical geology, which depended much on | 
was its responsible editor. 
| various Mesozoic and Tertiary periods. 
He accordingly planned his now famous ‘‘ Handbuch | 
The Munich school was 
thus provided with ample means for publishing 
paleontological researches, and the editor’s former 
pupils have for many years been the principal con- 
tributors to its pages. Although Prof. von Zittel him- 
self was the main factor in the production of many of 
these memoirs, he always regarded his share as merely 
that of a helpful teacher, and did not overshadow the 
plodding student by adding his own name as joint 
author. 
For the purposes of elementary or less specialised 
teaching the professor published a large and valuable 
series of lecture-diagrams of palzontology (‘‘ Pala- 
ontologische Wandtafeln,’’ 1879-91), and as soon as 
his great ‘‘ Handbuch ”’ was finished he began at once 
to prepare an up-to-date epitome of it in one volume, 
which appeared in 1895 as the ‘‘ Grundziige der 
Palezontologie.’? Von Zittel also sometimes attempted 
more popular writings, such as his little readable 
volume on rocks and fossils, named ‘* Aus der Urzeit,”’ 
which appeared in 1872, with a second edition in 1875. 
This work contained some interesting maps of the 
distribution of land and sea in Europe during the 
His last essay 
of general interest was an address on ‘‘ Palzeontology 
and the Biogenetic Law,’’ read before the Inter- 
national Congress of Geologists in 1894 and published 
in English in Natural Science, May, 1895. 
The address just mentioned was almost the only 
occasion on which Prof. von Zittel ventured to express 
any opinions on the philosophy of biology or the solu- 
tion of fundamental problems. Apart from his brilliant 
researches on sponges, indeed, scarcely any of his 
work can be regarded as suggesting important novel 
points of view. His ‘‘ Handbuch ”’ contains innumer- 
able new facts obtained by personal observation, and 
they are accompanied by many proposed changes in 
classification or nomenclature, but only a small pro- 
portion of these emendations have proved acceptable 
to those who have pursued later research. His com- 
prehensive treatment of palzeontology has stimulated 
the progress of the science and has been of immense 
value, not because it suggests problems, but because 
it is a monument of judicious industry and thorough- 
ness in the collection and presentation of the known 
facts. Von Zittel’s ‘‘ Handbuch”’ is indeed a trust- 
worthy dictionary for reference rather than a guide to 
profitable lines of inquiry; and when the Americans, 
under the direction of Dr. C. R. Eastman, attempted 
a few years ago to infuse more philosophy into an 
English edition of the section Invertebrata of his 
“ Grundztige,’’ Prof. von Zittel did not hesitate to ex- 
press his dissent in conversation. A second edition of 
the first part of the ‘‘ Grundztige ’’ has just appeared, 
in which none of the American paleontologists’ 
changes are admitted. To understand the author’s 
position it is only necessary to quote a sentence from 
his address of 1894 :—‘‘ An important part is played 
to-day by subjective opinions, and when I think of the 
anxiety with which we elders—we who received our 
scientific education before the Darwinian era—pro- 
ceeded to found a new species or genus, and compare 
it with the light-hearted manner in which to-day 
species, genera, families, and orders are set up and 
again put down, I am herein most forcibly impressed 
by the difference between then and now. The domin- 
ation of the Linnazan and Cuvierian principles 
| threatened systematic biology with soulless paralysis : 
the unbridled subjectivity of recent times may easily 
lead to anarchy.’’ 
A very striking instance of Prof. von Zittel’s tire- 
less industry in judicious compilation is his valuable 
“Geschichte der Geologie und Palzontologie bis dem 
| Ende des 19ten Jahrhunderts,”’ published by the Royal 
