252 



NA TURE 



[January 12, 1899 



Mr. J. E. S. Moore in Lake Tanganyika during his 

 recent expedition to Eastern Africa. As Mr. Moore has 

 shown in our columns (N.\TURK, vol. Iviii. p. 404), there 

 are two faunas in Lake Tanganyika, the normal fresh- 

 water, and what Mr. Moore proposes to call the " Halo- 

 Jimnic '' group, the latter being evidently of marine origin. 

 That this is the case has been conclusively shown by 

 Mr. Moore's studies of the splendid collection of 

 molluscs which he obtained in that lake. It would 

 therefore be naturally expected that the results of the 

 examination of Mr. Moore's fishes, which has been 

 undertaken by Mr. Boulenger, would likewise show the 

 presence in Lake Tanganyika of a certain number of 

 "Halolimnic" or marine fishes. This, however, does 

 not prove to be the case. Mr. Moore's fishes, Mr. 

 lioulenger informs us, do not yield any such startling 

 results as the mollusca and other invertebrates. The 

 fishes of Tanganyika, though very novel and very re- 

 markable, do not embrace any marine forms. This may 

 be due, as Mr. Boulenger observes, either to the origin 

 ■of the present fish-fauna not reaching as far back in time 

 as that of the molluscs, or to the incompleteness of Mr. 

 Moore's series. The latter explanation is probably the 

 correct one, as Mr. Moore met with great difficulty in 

 <lredging in the deeper water of Tanganyika, only one 

 fish having been obtained from a depth of about 400 

 feet. This [Bat/iyba/cs ferox), although of a new genus 

 and species, belongs to the widely-spread .African family 

 Cichlids. 



Altogether, the fishes obtained by Mr. Moore in Lake 

 Tanganyika are referred by Mr. Boulenger to thirty-five 

 species, belonging to the families Serranida;, Cichlid^e, 

 MastacembelidiL", Silurid.e, Cyprinidre, Characinidic, 

 Cyprinodontida; and Polypterid:^. It would thus seem 

 that in general characters the Tanganyikan fish-fauna, 

 so far as it has been yet ascertained, does not materially 

 ■differ from the fish-faunas of the other great African 

 lakes, but that most of the Tanganyikan species and 

 many of the genera are distinct, the family Cichlid:i-- 

 alone having furnished types of ten new genera in the 

 present collection. 



In his introductory remarks to the present memoir, Mr. 

 Boulenger has taken the opportunity of putting together 

 lists of the fishes already known to be found in Lake 

 Kyasa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake \'ictoria and Lake 

 Kudolph. From the first of these we are now acquainted 

 with thirty-seven species, from the second with forty- 

 three, from the third with only nineteen, and from the 

 fourth (Lake Rudolph) with only nine. These lists, Mr. 

 Boulenger points out, must be taken as giving a very 

 inadequate idea of the piscian inhabitants of the great 

 African lakes, owing to the manifest incompleteness of 

 the collections upon which they are based. Of the other 

 lakes nothing whatever, unfortunately, can be said at 

 present, only one species of fish having been yet brought 

 from the great .Albert Xyanza. It is evident, therefore, 

 that there is a fine field for the enterprising ichthyo- 

 logist in the great African lakes. 



PROFESSOR ALFREDO ANTi/NES 

 K A NTH AC K. 



BY the death of Prof Kanthack the science of 

 pathology has lost one of its ablest and most 

 indefatigable exponents, and the University of Cam- 

 bridge, for the second time in less than fifteen months, 

 a brilliant occupant of its chair of Pathology. 



.\t the closing meeting of the Pathological Society, 

 last summer, it was noticed by several of Prof Kan- 

 thack's friends that he appeared to be less energetic 

 and vigorous than usual. After this the work of the 

 long vacation appears to have told upon his health so 



NO. 1524, VOL. 59] 



seriously, that even during the course of a short holiday it 

 was remarked at the opening of the Pathological Labor- 

 atories at Liverpool that he still appeared to be far from 

 well. In spite of this few were prepared to learn, about 

 the middle of December, that Prof Kanthack was suflfer- 

 ing from a malignant growth, the symptoms of which 

 had first been indicated by jaundice and severe ab- 

 dominal pain — a diagnosis that was afterwards confirmed. 

 He died on December 21, i8g8. 



Alfredo An tunes Kanthack was the second son of 

 Emilio Kanthack, Pard, Brazil, and \'ictoria his wife, both 

 born in Permambuco. He was born at Bahia on March 

 4, 1863, and spent the first few years of his life in Bahia 

 and Ceani, Brazil. He was brought to (lermany in 1869, 

 being placed under the care of Pastor Hoppe of 

 .•\rtlenburg on the Elbe, father of the present Prof. 

 Edmund Hoppe of Berlin. In 1870 he was sent to 

 Hamburg, where he was first taught by a strict disciplin- 

 arian, " a tyrannical pedagogue but excellent teacher of 

 elementary subjects." During this period he is described 

 as " being by no means brilliant but extremely diligent." 

 Early in 1875 he went to school in the Wandsbeck 

 Gymnasium, near Hamburg. In 1876 he was transferred 

 to the Gymnasium of another Prussian Government 

 school at Liineburg, and in 1878 to the Gymnasium at 

 Giitersloh, where he greatly distinguished himself In 

 1881 he came to Liverpool, where his parents were then 

 residing, and continued his studies for a short time in 

 the Shaw Street College (Classical Department). In 

 1882, after passing his LTniversity of London matricu- 

 lation examination, he commenced his arts curriculum, 

 and continued his studies in science and medicine under 

 Mitchell ISanks, Caton, Mott and other well-known 

 teachers of the Liverpool medical school, graduating B.A. 

 in 1884, B.Sc. in 1886, M.B. and B.S. (in each instance 

 with honours), F.R.C.S. Lond. in 18S8, and M.D. Lond. 

 in 1892; whilst in 1897 he proceeded to the degree of 

 M.A., and became a Fellow- of the Royal College of 

 Physicians, London. After completing his medical 

 curriculum Dr. Kanthack, in 1889, proceeded to Berlin, 

 and there, as part of the result of his studies under 

 \'irchow and Krause, he contributed an admirable 

 paper to X'irchow's Archil' on the histology of the 

 larynx, a paper which at the time gave rise to a lively 

 controversy. Dr. Kanthack maintaining his original 

 thesis with marked ability and success. Whilst in 

 Berlin, too, he worked uijder Koch, and here, as in 

 the pathological laboratories, he attracted the atten- 

 tion and received the special encouragement of his 

 teacher. Shortly after his return from Berlin, and prob- 

 ably as the result of an expression of opinion on the part 

 of his teachers — \irchow and Koch — he was appointed 

 one of the Special Commissioners along with the late 

 Dr. Beaven Rake and Dr. Uuckmaster, by a joint Com- 

 mittee of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal 

 College of Surgeons and the Executive Committee 

 of the National Leprosy Fund, to investigate the pre- 

 valence, the pathology and the treatment of leprosy in 

 India. 



In iSgi Dr. Kanthack was appointed John Lucas 

 Walker Scholar under the late Prof Roy, and in suc- 

 cession to Dr. William Hunter. During the time that 

 he held this scholarshij) in Cambridge, he published, 

 along with Mr. Hardy, a paper on the wandering cell in 

 the mammalia, in \.\\<i Jounuil of P/iys/c/cj^y, and a paper 

 on the behaviour of wandering cells, in the Proceedings oi 

 the Royal Society, vol. lii. These papers are of special 

 importance as indicating that, although thoroughly ac- 

 t|uainted with Metschnikofl^s work and all that that author 

 had to advance in support of his phagocytic theory, Dr. 



Kanthack had made, during his slay in Germany, an 

 accurate forecast of the destination to which the work 

 that was being carried on in Germany by Koch's pupils 



