480 Obituary— Professor des Cloizeanx. 



not up till now sufficiently attempted this part of the subject ; I hope 

 to do so on a future occasion. Meanwhile the elucidation of the 

 features themselves, the preparation of cross-sections of the sub- 

 merged caiions, escarpments, and other phenomena, have occupied 

 so much of my time and have been of such absorbing interest that 

 I have thought it better to leave the question of geological age 

 and mode of formation to the future. This part of the subject 

 I hope to deal with when the paper, now nearly written, shall 

 have been brought before one of our scientific societies during the 

 ensuing session. Edwakd Hull. 



OBITTJ.^E,"Z'. 



PROFESSOR DES CLOIZEAUX, Memb. Inst, de France. 



BoKN 1817. Died May, 1897. 



Monsieur Alfred L. 0. des Cloizeaux, the eminent French 

 mineralogist, was a Membre de I'lnstitut de France and a Foreign 

 Member of the Koyal Society. He was Professor of Mineralogy 

 in the Museum of Natural History, Paris, and was elected 

 a Foreign Member of the Geological Society of London in 

 1884. Sir Warington Smyth, when receiving the Wollaston 

 Medal of that Society on behalf of M. des Cloizeaux, said : " It 

 is more, especially in the wide and successful application of 

 Wollaston's invention of the ' Reflecting Goniometer ' that Des 

 Cloizeaux has attained so deserved an eminence, following closely 

 upon the steps of Pi'ofessor Miller, to whom, in his admirable 

 " Manuel," he pays so high a compliment." Des Cloizeaux's first 

 paper was published 54 years ago, and was the beginning of a long 

 series treating of the forms and optical characters of crystals. 

 After being Professor of Mineralogy for eighteen years at the Ecole 

 Normal Superieure, he was appointed to the charge of the minerals 

 at the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, in which office he remained until 

 he reached the limit of age prescribed by the rules of the French 

 Civil Service. His fame rests upon the thoroughness and accuracy 

 of his systematic investigation of the crystals of minerals, more 

 especially as regards their optical properties. The results are 

 incorporated in his " Manuel de Mineralogie," a standard book of 

 reference. Professor des Cloizeaux died, in the 80th year of his 

 age, in May, 1897. Monsieur Damour, his friend and co-worker 

 for fifty-three years, writes : " In everything he applied himself 

 to the spread of all that he deemed useful, just, and wise. All 

 those who knew him honoured him and loved him. His name 

 as a savant remains in the history of Mineralogy ; he there 

 occupies the most honourable place among the foimders of this 

 science, and among those who have contributed to its progress and 

 advancement." 



