July 24, 1913] 



NATURE 



535 



words, a master of dramatic effects, who, with a 

 sure hand, shaped before their eyes a brilliant 

 texture of knowledge, ending always by laying 

 down a finished carpet on which they might walk 

 with reposeful security towards their own looms. 

 His excellence in teaching the general ground- 

 work of the subject was unique. Backed, as it 

 was, by admirable practical classes, in which the 

 niceties of technical skill required for the collec- 

 tion of evidence were instilled, and a whole field of 

 evidence of a particular type displayed, it provided 

 an educational basis of unsurpassable value. No 

 one acquainted with his work will scent exaggera- 

 tion in the statement that in this matter he was 

 superb. 



Outcome as this excellence was, in part, of 

 unstinted effort and elaborate pains, and of a 

 fully-developed desire to satisfy a genuine ambi- 

 tion for success in such teaching, it was also 

 largely the result of native temperament and 

 talent. A cheerful and courteous man, kindly to 

 the core, generous to a fault. Humble with a 

 knowledge of his own limitations, reverently serv- 

 ing undiscussed ideals, alight with enthusiasm. 

 Of wide sympathy, singularly well-informed, of 

 great culture, and most refined taste. Qualities 

 such as these, and an evident sincerity in his 

 devotion to his subject, necessarily won home to 

 receptive and humane minds. 



If at any time his manner caused irritation, 

 then I take it this may be attributed to an excellent 

 and uncommon quality, which was at times of 

 great public service. He was essentially aesthetic, 

 exquisitely sensitive to every light and shade in 

 the inanimate, and in the animate character ol his 

 surroundings necessarily seeking harmonies, and 

 as necessarily, therefore, arranging them. Neither 

 inviting admiration nor in any way impelled to- 

 wards dominance, nevertheless he was alway 

 quietly to the front to make certain that the 

 scene was set, the players grouped, and a satisfy- 

 ing ensemble produced. Wherever such initiative 

 was welcomed, as often in social matters where 

 it is most rare, he was admirably successful. 

 Arriving in Liverpool in 1891 as the first occu- 

 pant of the newly endowed Holt Chair of Physio- 

 logy, the complete sincerity of these qualities 

 enabled him to give invaluable support to those 

 able men who were then watchfully tending the 

 growth of the university spirit within its bound- 

 aries. There, with his wife, he gained a great 

 social success without underlying thought other 

 than to give his best, and to obtain the best 

 from others. His accomplished predecessor, 

 citizens of great importance and benevolence, 

 colleagues and students, he turned into grateful 

 friends not of himself alone, but into mutual 

 friends. That he was so signally capable of assist- 

 ing in an obviously large and progressive move- 

 ment, the development of university ideals of free- 

 dom in thought, in work, and in teaching, within 

 a great and typical centre of commercial industry, 

 must have had a reflected influence on his own 

 character, and given him an added courage and 

 skill in dealing with public affairs. 

 NO. 2282, VOL. 91] 



Leaving Liverpool in 1895 to occupy the Wayn- 

 flete Chair of Physiology in Oxford, he returned 

 to scenes already familiar. He was frankly 

 pleased with this great and different opportunity ; 

 thinking it no small thing that he was entrusted 

 with the banner carried so loftily by his distin- 

 guished master, whose influence had been largely 

 responsible for the shaping of his career. If it 

 is right to regard as ambition the desire to win 

 complete recognition in a life-work not chosen 

 from motives of dominance or gain, then it was 

 his ambition which was now completely satisfied. 

 In return for this satisfaction he endeavoured to 

 perform the duties of this post of honour with 

 anxious care and unflagging industry, shirking no 

 responsibility. That he has proved equal to the 

 task is evident from the continued success of the 

 Oxford school of physiology, and from the value 

 and numbers of its alumni who have passed out 

 into, and maintain with credit, positions of great 

 importance. 



To his personal friends who have tramped 

 through the mists of Cumberland fells, or wan- 

 dered'through the picture galleries and churches of 

 foreign towns, with a companion so brimful of 

 cheer and interest, or who have heard him tell 

 the tale of his one participation in a cavalry charge 

 in Zululand, or have listened to his renderings 

 of Devonshire songs, his death has brought an 

 intimate sense of loss. 



To his wife and family, the centre of so much 

 mutual love and understanding, we can do no 

 more than offer sincere sympathy. 



J. S. Macdonald. 



NOTES. 

 Dr. R. von Lendenfeld, professor of zoology and 

 rector of the German University of Prague, who died 

 on July 3, aged fifty-six, had many friends and 

 acquaintances in this country, where he resided for a 

 time. He began his scientific career by travelling in 

 Australia, where he studied chiefly marine sponges 

 and ccelenterates. The results of his investigations 

 were published, partly in English, as "A Monograph 

 of the Australian Sponges," and other papers in the 

 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales, and partly in Gorman, as a series of memoirs, 

 entitled "Leber Colenteraten der Siidsee." After his 

 Australian trip he was for a time assistant in the 

 zoological department at University College, London, 

 and while in England produced, besides other works, 

 his " Monograph of the Horny Sponges," published by 

 the Royal Society, based chiefly upon material col- 

 lected in Australia. Much of his earlier work was 

 somewhat Haeckelian in the method of treatment, and 

 later investigation has failed to confirm the accuracy 

 of many of his statements, notably the existence of 

 a nervous system in sponges alleged by him. Subse- 

 quently he published some works on sponges jointly 

 with Prof. F. E. Schulze, of Berlin, and later, after 

 he obtained the chair of zoology at Czernowitz, he 

 published a monograph of the sponges of the Adriatic 

 in a series of memoirs. When called to Prague he 

 continued to publish, from time to time, systematic 



