164 



NA TURE 



[December 10, 1908 



lawyer. He studied at Paris, where he eventually 

 graduated as Doctor of Sciences. His earliest re- 

 searches were mainly geological, relating to such sub- 

 jects as the dolomitisation of limestone and the origin 

 of flint; but in 1851 he wrote about the skeleton of 

 some star-fishes, and his attainments were so varied 

 that he attracted the notice of the French Minister of 

 .'\griculture and Commerce, who sent him in 1853 on 

 a scientific mission to Syria, Egypt, Greece, and the 

 Ionian Islands. Gaudry's official report appeared as a 

 publication of the French Government in 1855, dealing 

 with the geology, natural products, industries, and 

 possible commercial development of the several 

 countries visited ; but his observations on the geology 

 of Cvprus were so exhaustive that he reserved most of 

 the details for a special memoir, which was issued 

 seven years later by the Geological Society of France. 

 When Cyprus became a British possession in 1878, 

 Gaudry's important work was translated into English 

 and re-published bv the Intelligence Department of the 

 War Office. 



While travelling in Greece, Gaudry's attention was 

 directed to a remarkable accumulation of fossil bones 

 at Pikermi, between ."Vthen.s and .Marathon, which had 

 been discovered and partially examined by the Bava- 

 rians. Collections of the bones had been sent to 

 Munich, and described by Roth and Wagner in the 

 Abhaiidlungen of the Bavarian Academy; but Gaudry 

 realised that more exhaustive exploration would yield 

 important results, and he induced the French .Academy 

 to provide him with means for the work in the 

 season 1855-6. He made a large collection, which was 

 sent to Paris and occupied his attention for the next 

 four years ; in i860 he returned to Pikermi to obtain 

 additional specimens that seemed to be required ; and 

 between the years 1862-7 he published his classic 

 monograph, " Animaux fossiles et Geologic de 

 I'Attique." This work dealt chiefly with the Upner 

 Miocene (or Lower Pliocene) Mammalia, and was the 

 first systematic attempt to arrange extinct animals of 

 successive geological periods in linear series below 

 their surviving representatives, to illustrate the prob- 

 able direction of ev'olution of the several groups. 

 Gaudrv showed clearly that the mammals of Pikermi 

 were links between those of earlier date and those of 

 the present day; and he initiated a plan of detailed 

 comparison, especially of the teeth and feet, which 

 has been followed with great success during later 

 years by those who have investigated the numerous ex- 

 tinct mammalian faunas of North .America. He re- 

 cognised that much additional information on the same 

 subject could be obtained by comparing the Upper 

 Miocene (or Lower Pliocene) mammalian skeletons 

 from France itself with those of earlier geological 

 periods already known from that country. In 1866 he 

 accordingly made explorations at Mont Leberon, in 

 Vaucluse, and seven years afterwards his earlier 

 volumes were supplemented by that on the " Animaux 

 fossiles du Mont Leberon." 



Meantime Gaudry had joined the staff of the Paris 

 Museum of Natural History, first as assistant (1853) 

 and subsequently as professor of palasontologv (1872). 

 Here he came into contact with manv workers, and 

 took part in several other researches while his own 

 special studies were in progress. He was particularly 

 interested in Boucher de Perthes's discovery of flint 

 implements with the bones of extinct Pleistocene mam- 

 mals in the river-gravels of Abbeville ; and when 

 Prestwich and others confirmed this discovery in a 

 communication to the Royal Society in 1850, Gaudry 

 added his testimony in a paper read before the French 

 .Academy at the same time. The problems connected 

 with earlv man continued to interest him to the end, 

 and so recently as 1903 he wrote for L' Anthropologic 



NO. 2041, VOL. 79] 



an essay on the dentition and lower jaw of human 

 skeletons from the Mentone caves, demonstrating their 

 very primitive characters. 



Gaudry's researches on tlie fossil mammals of 

 Pikermi and .Mont Leberon naturally led him to apph 

 his methods of study to other groups ; and he planned 

 a great work which should sketch at least the broad 

 outlines of the evolution of life as revealed by palaeon- 

 tology. It was entitled " Les Enchainements du 

 Monde animal dans les Temps gdologiques," and ap- 

 peared in three volumes between 1878 and i8go, with 

 a supplementary volume, " Essai de Paleontologi<' 

 philosophique," in i8q6. This work is unique as a 

 readable ex|)0sition of the science of palaeontologv, and 

 its beautiful wood-cut illustrations of fossils have never 

 been surpassed. While it was in course of preparation 

 a continual series of original papers recorded the more 

 technical results of the author's researches. 



For fifty years Gaudry devoted unbounded energy 

 to the perfection and arrangement of the collection of 

 fossils at the Paris Museum, and when he retired in 

 1903 his colleagues and friends of everv nationalitv 

 subscribed towards a suitable tribute of admiration. 

 A medal was struck in honour of the occasion. His 

 withdrawal from official duties, however, did not affect 

 his original researches, and until the beginning of his 

 last illness in the summer of this year he was regu- 

 larly occupied with the study of the remarkable 

 extinct mammals of South .America. He arrived in- 

 dependently at Jhe conclusion, which is now verv 

 generally adopted, that the mammals of the southern 

 continent evolved separately from those of the northern 

 hemisphere, and remained in a comparatively back- 

 ward condition. 



The whole of Gaudr3"'s published work is character- 

 ised bv an almost poetic mode of expression ; and 

 while detailed descriptions of the fossils are rarely 

 omitted, they are often dispersed among his illuminat- 

 ing comparisons in such a manner that his writings 

 have sometimes been criticised as unsystematic or 

 superficial. Gaudry's extensive travels, however, had 

 made him acquainted to an unusual degree with the 

 fossils of every land, and he realised the limitations 

 of his science too thoroughly to make the dogmatic 

 assertions concerning genealogies and relationships 

 which are not infrequent in the works of some of his 

 followers. In the existing state of knowledge, he was 

 satisfied with broad outlines which could be used for 

 guidance in future more detailed research. 



Gaudry became a member of the Institute of France 

 in 1882, and a foreign member of the Royal Society 

 in 1895. .Among foreign honours there was none he 

 appreciated more highly than that of the Wollaston 

 medal, awarded to him by the Geological Society of 

 London in 1884. .An excellent portrait of him appears 

 in the Geological Magazine for Februar}', 1903. 



A. S. W. 



NOTES. 



Dr. F. Walker Mott, F.R.S., has been elected 

 Fullerian professor of physiology in the Royal Institution. 



The next iiieoting of the Australasian Association for 

 the Advancement of Science is to be held in Brisbane in 

 January, 1909. 



The annual meeting of the British Science Guild will be 

 held on Friday, January 22, at the Mansion House, by per- 

 mission of the Lord Mayor. Mr. Haldane, president of 

 the Guild, will be one of the speakers. 



It is announced from Stockholm that the Nobel prize 

 for physics has been awarded to Prof. G. Lippmann, and 

 not to Prof. Planck, as was stated last week. Prof. 

 Lippmann left Paris for Stockholm on December 4. 



