Obituary— Prof. F. A. Quemtedt. 237 



Molasse of Switzerland, because "lie has no personal observations to 

 record " on them. But is not this in effect admitting that he is 

 making wide generalizations on a rather limited experience, or, in 

 other words, falling into an error too common among British geolo- 

 gists? But still more serious a defect is his silence as as to my main 

 argument, which briefly stated is this : " I think I have a fairly good 

 knowledge of British rocks ; I can identify the majority of the Bunter 

 pebbles (not of one rock species only) with rocks which occur in situ 

 in the Highlands and as pebbles in later Palaeozoic beds in Scotland 

 down at least as far as Arran, but I have as yet failed to find them, 

 either in situ or in older conglomerates in the southern half of 

 England, or to discover a spot in which we may assume them to be 

 hidden from our sight." 



T. G. BONNEY. 



OBITTJABY. 



FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON QUENSTEDT. 



Born 9th July, 1809 ; Died 21st December, 1889. 



By the death of Prof. Quenstedt, Science has to mourn the loss of 

 the Nestor of German geologists. He was born at Eisleben in 

 Saxony, and after the death of his father, a member of the Gendar- 

 merie of that town, he was adopted by his maternal uncle, a school- 

 master at Meisdorf ; here he learnt Latin and music, and by the 

 latter accomplishment managed to earn sufficient money to go to a 

 University. He went to Berlin in 1830, and having overcome his 

 uncle's wish that he should devote himself to theology, Quenstedt 

 threw himself into the study of natural science and philosophy ; he 

 worked especially at crystallography and mineralogy under Wiess 

 and Mitscherlich. After the conclusion of his University course, 

 Quenstedt was appointed an Assistant in the Berlin Museum ; his 

 two principal papers published at this time were " Ueber After- 

 krystalle des Serpentins" and "Die Entwickelung und Berechtung des 

 Datholiths." In 1837 he was appointed Extra Professor at Tubingen, 

 and in 1842 he was promoted to the full Chair of Geology, Miner- 

 alogy, and Palaeontology. Here he laboured for more than fifty 

 years, investigating the palaeontology and geology of Wiirtemberg, 

 building up the collection of the University, and popularizing the 

 study of geology in the neighbouring district. That the last object 

 was not the least in Quenstedt's ambition is illustrated by the fact 

 that the first work he published in his new home was a small popular 

 volume, " Schwaben, wie es war und ist." Immediately after his 

 appointment at Tubingen, Quenstedt began the work on the Suabian 

 Jurassics, with which his name will always be associated. His 

 " Flozgebirge Wiirttembergs " (1843) was the first fruit of his 

 labours in this field. In order to compai - e this series with that of 

 other areas, Quenstedt made a number of walking tours in France, 

 North Italy, Savoy, etc. A serious illness of the lungs in 1859. due 

 to over-exposure, compelled him to abandon these annual excursions; 

 he had however already acquired the knowledge he sought, and his 

 " Her Jura " had appeared in the previous year. 



