i86 



NATURE 



\yuly 9, 1874 



general classification of Gasteropoda and Pelecypoda 

 (Lamellibranchiata), including both fossil and recent 

 forms, which has hitherto been attempted. This classifi- 

 cation was largely supplemented by original anatomical 

 research, and it has been adopted in one, at least— we be- 

 lieve in two — of the principal museums in Germany. 



Dr. Stoliczka was born in Moravia in May 1838. After 

 completing his university course he joined, whilst quite 

 young, the Imperial Geological Institute of Austria, where 

 he soon distinguished himself by his pal;eontological 

 work, and became especially known for researches 

 amongst the Bryozoa, fossil and recent. The collection of 

 specimens belonging to that class obtained by the Novara 

 expedition was intrusted to him for description. Amongst 

 his principal early contributions to paIa;outology were 

 papers on the fossil fauna of the Hicrlatz and Gosau beds. 



In 1S62 he joined the Geological Sur\ey of India, and 

 at once commenced the study of the magnificent series of 

 Cretaceous fossils obtained by Messrs. H. F. Blanford, 

 C. Oldham, and the other officers of the Survey engaged 

 in the Madras Presidency. The descriptions of these 

 fossils have only recently been completed, and extend 

 altogether to about 1,500 quarto pages illustrated by 178 

 plates. There can be no doubt of the rank of this work ; 

 it is one of the most complete monographs ever pubhshed 

 of any fossil fauna whatever. The numerous duties con- 

 nected with the post of Pateontologist to the .Survey 

 occupied so much of Dr. Stoliczka's time that he was only 

 able to devote a few months in three different years 

 to field-work. To this field-work we owe valuable 

 reports on the western Himalayas, Thibet, and Kachh, 

 the last not yet published. In the year 1S6S he accepted 

 the honorary secretaryship of the Asiatic Society, and 

 during the five years he held the post he raised the natural 

 history portion of the Society's journal to a position it Iiad 

 never approached before, this improvement being due 

 no less to his own contributions than to the aid he was 

 always ready to afford to all engaged in zoological 

 inquiry. 



When, last year, a mission was despatched by the 

 Indian Government to Yarkund and Kashgar, Dr. Sto- 

 liczka was selected to accompany it as naturalist and 

 geologist. It would have been impossible to have found 

 anyone more competent for the post, but many of his 

 friends knew the risk he ran, and he was well aware of it 

 himself, for his health had been seriously affected by ex- 

 posure in former years in the higher regions of the Hima- 

 layas, and he needed rest and a change to Europe. His 

 life has been a sacrifice to the study to which he had 

 devoted it. He was seriously ill at one time when cross- 

 ing the high passes on his way to Yarkund, but recovered, 

 and his letters from Kashgar gave glowing accounts of his 

 discoveries, and now when returning loaded with the 

 spoils and notes of nearly a year's research in one of the 

 least-known parts of Central Asia he has fallen, just as 

 his friends were in hopes of welcoming him b.ick amongst 

 them. This is not the place to speak of his many amiable 

 qualities, but few men were more widely known in India 

 or more universally beloved and esteemed, and the gap 

 he has left in the little band of Indian naturalists and 

 geologists, as well as amongst the far wider circle of his 

 private friends, will be long unfilled. W. T. B. 



OBSERVATORIES IN THE UNITED STATES 



ONE of the most salient points in the scientific pro- 

 gress of America is undouljtedly the marvellous 

 multiplication of first-class obseivatories during recent 

 years. The genius of her people, the skill of her artists, 

 and the wise liberaUty of states and individuals have com- 

 bined to bring about a state of things which those in- 

 terested in Astronomy in any country on this side of the 

 Atlantic may regard with the intenscst envy. Undoubtedly 

 our own observatories are already distanced in everything 



except Tactivity. In number, ' instrumental equipment, 

 breadth of design, the American institutions are unsur- 

 passed ; and although the Americans themselves say they 

 want men with such world-wide names] as Peirce, Win- 

 lock, Nevvcomb, Young, Peters, and many others that we 

 might mention, who know no resting on old laurels, it is 

 difficult for an Englishman to acknowledge that the idea 

 is well founded. 



A very interesting and well-illustrated article on 

 United States Observatories appears in a recent number 

 of Hiirper's Monilily. .Some of the illustrations, which 

 we are enabled to give by the courtesy of the Editor, 

 give a good idea of the scientific wealth to which we 

 refer, and of the progress that has been made, for while 

 little more than thirty years ago it could not be said 

 that there was one astronomical observatory in the 

 United States, to-day it is safe to place the number of 

 all classes, pulDlic and private, beyond fifty. 



Cincinnali Observatory. — One of the most strenuous 

 advocates for the establishment of public observa- 

 tories in the United St.ates was John Ouincy Adams, 

 who had made astronomy a favourite pursuit. He 

 had very just conceptions of what ought to be the cha- 

 racter and aims of a true observatory. It must steadily 

 labour for discovi-ry. It must be fully equipped for this, 

 and be provided with a /(V.fti«//f'/ who could give their 

 whole energies to that series of observations, running 

 through many years, which alone can secure valuable 

 additions to astronomical knowledge and insure its bene- 

 fits to men. For the establishment of such an institution 

 he had made his well-known appeal to Congress in 1825. 

 He was ridiculed ; but he remained as strenuous an advo- 

 cate as ever for the establishment of observatories of the 

 first class both at Washington and at Cambridge. In the 

 very year before this address at Cincinnati he had urged, 

 in his place in Congress, the perpetual appropriation of 

 the whole interest of the then unappropriated Smith- 

 sonian fund for an observatory for the people. 



"The express object of observatories," said he, "is the 

 increase of knowledge by new discovery. It is to the 

 successive discoveries of persevering astronomical obser- 

 vations through a period of fifty centuries that we are 

 indebted for a permanent standard of time and for the 

 measurement of space." 



The year 1843 was, however, an era in the history of 

 United States observatories, and Cincinnati was their 

 birthplace. Her institution and those of Cambridge 

 and Washington sprang up, and the enthusiasm of the 

 era started others, whose equipment has been secured 

 largely by their success. 



As early as 1S05, Cincinnati may be said to have had a 

 practical working observatory. In that year the first 

 Surveyor-General of the United States, Colonel Jared 

 Mansfield, received, after a delay of at least three years in 

 their construction and Iransport.ation from London, astro- 

 nomical instruments ordered by Albert Gallatin, Secretary 

 of the Treasury, and paid for by President Jcfierson out 

 of his oii<n cottiiii^ent fund, " since no appropriation for 

 them had been made by law." The instruments, which 

 were said to have been excellent of their kind, were a 

 3-foot reflecting telescope, a 30-inch portable transit in- 

 strument, and an astronomical pendulum clock. Years 

 afterward, they were placed in the philosophical depart- 

 ment of the Military Academy at West Point. In the 

 house of the Surveyor-General, at Cincinnati, they were 

 used in making numerous and interesting astronomical 

 observations. The orbit of the comet of 1807 was calcu- 

 lated, eclipses of different kinds were observed, the longi- 

 tude of the observatory determined, and other observations 

 of importance made from 1807 to 1813, all of them out- 

 side of the usual duties of the mere surveyor. 



Our next date is at the end of the lapse of forty years. 

 We are brought then to the marked era in astronomical 

 interest already referred to, and to the labours of those 



