478 Obituary — Dr. A. Milne- Edwards. 



1863 to 1879. Professor Hans Bruno Geinitz was elected a Foreign 

 Member of the Geological Society of London in 1857, and was 

 Murchison Medallist in 1878. 



ALPHONSE MILNE- EDWARDS. 



Born Octobbb, 13, 1835. Died April 21, 1900. 



By the unexpected death of Milne-Edwards a gap has been 

 created in the foremost ranks of noted palaeontologists and zoologists 

 that it will be hard to fill ; indeed, so long has his familiar name been 

 ^ household word with us that it is still impossible to realize our loss. 



Sprung from English stock, being the grandson of Bryan Edwards, 

 M.P., a West Indian planter who settled at Bruges, Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards, son of the celebrated Henri Milne Edwards (1800-1885), 

 was born in Paris, 13th October, 1835, and in his career followed 

 closely in his father's footsteps. 



He took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1860 and of Science 

 in 1861 ; became an Assistant Naturalist at theJVIuseum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle in 1862 ; Assistant Professor at the Ecole superieure de 

 Pharmacie in 1864, and Professor there in 1865 ; Assistant Professor 

 of the Zoological Laboratory of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in 

 1869, and Director in 1880 ; he was also appointed Professor of 

 Zoology at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in 1876, and finally 

 its Director in 1892, He was elected a member of the Academy 

 of Science, Section Anatomy and Zoology, in 1879, and of the 

 Academy of Medicine in 1885. He was elected a foreign member 

 of the Zoological Society of London in 1876, and in 1882 a Foreign 

 Correspondent of the Geological Society. 



His earliest papers were physiological, but he next turned to 

 the study of Crustacea, both recent and fossil, while in 1863 he 

 published his first paper on fossil birds, entitled " Memoir sur la 

 distribution geologique des Oiseaux fossiles." Three years later 

 the first part of his monumental work, "Eecherches anatoraiques 

 et paleontologiques pour servir h I'histoire des Oiseaux fossiles 

 de la France," was issued, a work which when completed in 1871 

 extended to two volumes of text and two of plates. In it he 

 showed the possibility of forming a classification of birds by means 

 of their "long bones." Concurrently there appeared (1866-73) 

 his " Recherches sur la Faune ornithologique eteinte des lies 

 Mascareignes et de Madagascar." 



"While these are the more important of his palfeontological works 

 they by no means represent a tithe of his scientific writings. He 

 was associated with his father in bringing out the " Eecherches pour 

 servir a I'histoire naturelle des Mammiferes " (1868-74), and with 

 Grandidier in the volumes (1878-81) on Birds in the latter's 

 " Histoire physique, naturelle, et politique de Madagascar." He was 

 also keenly interested in the question of the distribution of animal 

 life at great depths in the ocean, and it was at his instance and 

 under his superintendence that the submarine surveying vessels the 

 " Travailleur " and " Talisman " were sent out by the French 

 Government ; his work receiving acknowledgement in 1884 in 



