Obituary — Professor Ralph Tate. 89 



and then as President (1878-80), by which time he had established 

 it under the new title " The Eoyal Society of South Australia." 

 In the twenty-four volumes issued up till now we find no less than 

 ninety-one papers contributed by him : a few of these are botanical, 

 others are on general geology, such as glaciation, but the greater 

 number are on the Tertiary beds of the continent and their fossil , 

 Mollusca. On this subject he contributed also to the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society of Tasmania, of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales, and of the Australian Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, of which he was President in 1893. How broadly and 

 firmly he thus laid the foundation of our knowledge of Molluscan 

 phylogeny in the Australian province may be judged from 

 a Catalogue of Tertiary Australian Mollusca in the British Museum 

 issued in 1897. Out of 380 species therein recognized from the 

 Australian continent, 225 are species established by him and 90 

 more are determined or recorded in his writings ; every one of his 

 species (with a single doubtful exception) is accepted by the author 

 of that catalogue, and only four corrections of names are suggested. 

 This is probably a ' record ' result. 



In 1888 Professor Tate took over the editorship of the Transactions, 

 and with one short intermission continued it to the last. In 1893-5 

 he was again President as ' Governor's Eepresentative,' and he 

 took occasion to congratulate the Society on the position its Trans- 

 actions had attained, and to thank the early contributors for their 

 self-sacrifice for its sake in sending their papers to a publication 

 then so obscure. Soon afterwards he learnt the price he had himself 

 paid in doing the same. In the Autumn of 1896-7 he paid a visit 

 to this country, and unhappily the opportunity was not seized of 

 giving him that recognition of the value of his work which 

 undoubtedly would have long ago been his had he remained in this 

 country or sent his papers to European publications. He was 

 somewhat disappointed at this, but let us hope he was a philosopher. 

 At all events, he continued his work in his adopted country with 

 undiminished zeal, and only the approach of his final malady put 

 a period to his activity. Early this year heart trouble gradually 

 became more serious, and brought his useful and honourable life 

 to a conclusion on September 20th. He was twice married, and 

 leaves behind him several children all well established in life, as is 

 his own reputation in the minds of all paleeontologists. 



J. F. B. 



List of the scientific papers by Professor Ealph Tate, F.L.S., 

 F.G.S., deceased, late of Adelaide University, South Australia : — 



." Flora Belfastieusis," 8vo, Belfast, 1863, pp. 92. 



" On the Liassic Strata of the Neighbourhood of Belfast" [1863]: Quart. Journ. 



Geol. Soc, 1864, vol. xx, pp. 103-111 ; Phil. Mag., 1864, vol. xxvii, p. 562. 

 " On the Correlation of the Cretaceous Formations of the jSTorth-East of Ireland" 



[1864]: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1865, vol. xxi, pp. 15-44; Phil. Mag., 



1864, vol. xxviii, p. 562. 

 " A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pterocerm of the Cretaceous Rocks": Geol. &Nat. 



Hist. Hep., 1865, pp. 91-93. 



