Obituary—H. M. Klaassen. 191 
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HENDERICUS M. KLAASSEN, F.G.S. 
Born 1828. Diep January 22, 1910. 
We regret to record the death at Croydon, in his 81st year, of 
Mr. H. M. Klaassen. He was born at Kritzum in Hanover, where 
his father was the minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. After 
the ordinary school education in his native town he was trained for 
business, and in his twentieth year he came to England, and having 
gained experience he started on his own account as a seed factor on 
the London Corn Exchange in Mark Lane. The undertaking was 
successful, so that he was enabled to retire from business in 1874. 
He then followed his natural bent toward science, and attended 
the courses of lectures on Chemistry, Zoology, and Geology at 
University College, London. His predilection for this last-named 
science was greatly stimulated by John Morris, at that time Professor 
of Geology at the College, and he was induced to join the Geologists’ 
Association in 1875, and was elected a Fellow of the Geological 
Society in 1877. 
In 1883 Mr. Klaassen contributed a paper, ‘‘On a Section of the 
Lower London Tertiaries at Park Hill, Croydon,” to the Proceedings 
of the Geologists’ Association, in which a detailed description was. 
given of the character of the beds and their fossils exposed in a deep 
cutting on the Woodside and South Croydon Railway. During the 
eighteen months the cutting was in progress Mr. Klaassen visited 
the work regularly every day, and thus secured a complete record of. 
the beds exposed, and moreover he discovered some fossil bones which 
were described by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., as in part belonging to 
a new species of mammal which was named Coryphodon Croydonensis, 
and in part to a gigantic species of bird, larger than an ostrich, which 
received the name of Gastornis Klaasseni! in honour of its discoverer. 
A second paper by Mr. Klaassen, ‘‘ On the Pebbly and Sandy Beds 
overlying the Woolwich and Reading Series on and near the Addington 
Hills, Surrey,” was contributed to the Proc. Geol. Assoc. in 1890. 
Mr. Klaassen was an earnest supporter of the Croydon Natural 
History and Microscopical Club, and he took a prominent part in 
founding a school in Croydon for the secondary education of girls in 
connexion with the Girls’ Public Day School Company. Endowed 
with a genial temperament and sound judgment he won the regard 
of numerous friends, by whom his memory will be kindly cherished. 
ROBERT MARCUS GUNN, M.A., F.R.C.S., F.G.S. 
Born 1850 (21851). Diep Dzcemerr 2, 1909. 
Mr. Guyn, who was a distinguished ophthalmic surgeon, had devoted 
his leisure during many years to the collection and study of fossils. 
Born at Dunnet, in Caithness, he belonged to the Clan Gunn, and was 
son of Marcus Gunn of Culgower, on the eastern coast of Sutherland. 
1 See E. T. Newton, ‘‘ On a Gigantic Bird from the Lower Eocene of Croydon, 
Gastornis Klaasseni, Newton’’: Proc. Zool. Soc., May 5, 1885, and Grou. Mace., 
1885, p. 362. 
