Ohltuari/—C. F. Liltkcn—Ii. Crahj. 191 



CHRISTIAN FREDERIK LUTKEN. 



Born at Soii.0, Octobeu 4, 1827. Died at Copenuaokx, Feiiuuauy 6, 1901. 

 Professor Lutken, whose death, some two years after his 

 resignation of the Directorship of the Zoological Museum at 

 Copenhagen, removes another veteran from the ranks of the aihnirably 

 trained and hard-working Scandinavian naturalists, was best known 

 as a describer and classifier of living animals. But while, in 

 common with the leaders of palaeontology, he insisted that " only 

 from the organization of the living form can we learn to uiulei'stand 

 that of the extinct,'''' so also he was at one with the more eminent 

 zoologists in recognizing that only by a study of extinct forms can 

 we perceive the true I'elationships of the living. And it is because 

 he put his creed into practice for over half a century that the close 

 of his labours calls for the affectionate regret of geologists. That 

 a notice should appear in this Magazine is moreover specially 

 appropriate, since it was to it that he turned on the few occasions 

 when he desired to address English readers in their own language. 

 We allude to his notice of Loven's memoir on Leskia viiraltilis 

 (Geol. Mag., 1868, p. 179), his notes on the Ophiuridas (1870, p. 79), 

 and his criticism of Professor Kner's writings on the Ganoids and 

 on Xenacanthus (1868, pp. 376 and 429). His own great memoir 

 on the classification of the Ganoids appeared in Palaontographica 

 (1873-75). Fi'om his many allusions to fossil Echinoderms we 

 may select as early evidence of his penetration the constant 

 opposition that he raised to the idea that the anus of the stalked 

 echinoderms was a proboscis or mouth, and his severe criticism 

 (oddly overlooked by later writers) of the division of the Crinoids 

 into a Paljeozoic and a Neozoic group. As a systematist the 

 characteristics of his work were thoroughness, accuracy, and caution : 

 qualities less showy than lasting. He was not a brilliant speculator 

 on the phylogeny of unknown forms, but an advocate of, and an 

 adept in, the synthetic method : " I mean that method which, giving 

 up all preconceived ideas, patiently puts genus to genus, until 

 families are formed, and family to family after their natural affinities, 

 until the whole systematic building stands before us." It is work 

 of this nature that will stand, that will vindicate the claiuis of 

 paleontology to be heard, that will justify systematic /.oology as 

 a serious attempt to solve the problems of life, and tliat will keep 

 «cience itself from the ridicule of the unlearned. We can ill spare 

 such workers; but Lutken was a leader and a teacher as well as 

 a student, and his monument is to be found not only in the books 

 that he has left, nor even in the rich and well-arranged museum of 

 Copenhagen, but also in the school of active and earnest zoologists 

 that will long do honour to Denmark. E- A. B. 



ROBERT CRAIG. 

 We regret to record the death at Gleuganiock, on the 14th 

 January, of Robert Craig, in the 80th year of his age. Mr. Craig 

 took an active interest in geology, and from his occui-ation as 



