92 Obituary — Prof. C. Ferdinand t'on Roemer. 



evolution," ^ and it appears unreasonable to expect me to discuss a 

 fundamental principle at second hand, especially with the inadequate 

 materials contained in the Postscript. Until Mr. Jukes-Browne has 

 brought this central idea of Mr. Davison's, which he adopts, into 

 harmony with his own ideas, it would be a waste of my time to 

 traverse his criticisms, some of which present themselves to my mind 

 as exceedingly immatui'e. When this is done I shall be prepared to 

 consider his arguments, and I must also ask him to be good enough 

 to restate the first paragraph on page 28, as after re-reading I fail to 

 understand it. His quantitative illustration is unfortunate as he 

 has only exacted a tithe of what he is entitled to in my figures: — 

 600x500x20 is not five hundred thousand, but five millions. 

 Park Corner, Blundellsands, T. Mellard Eeade. 



Jan. 8, 1892. 



HERR GEHEIMER BERGRATH 

 PROFESSOR DR. C. FERDINAND VON ROEMER, 



FOREIGN MEMBER. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON. 

 Born 5 Jan. 1818. Died 14 Dec. 1891. 

 C. Ferdinand von Romer was born at Hildersheim, in Hannover, 

 in which kingdom his family occupied a position of some distinction, 

 his father being a Councillor of the High Court of Justice, and his 

 elder brother, Frederick Adolph, being a geologist of repute. Until 

 the age of 18, Fei'dinand Romer lived at Hildersheim and received 

 his early education in the Evangelical Gymnasium of that town. 

 In 1836 he removed to Giittingen, where he studied for four years, 

 with the exception of a break of six months at Heidelberg : he had 

 been enrolled as a student of the Faculty of Jurisprudence, but 

 began to attend lectures in natural science, and soon became so 

 interested in this subject as to entirely abandon his legal studies. 

 In 1840 he proceeded to Berlin, and in 1842 the University of that 

 cily conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. in appreciation of a 

 pal?eontological thesis, " De Astartarum genere." Dr. Romer remained 

 here for another three years, devoting his vacations to investigations 

 on the older rocks of Western Germany. His main results upon 

 this subject were published in 1844 in "Das rheinische Ueber- 

 gangsgebirge." In the spring of 1845 he sailed for America ; he 

 made a very extensive tour through the States, and devoted a year 

 and a half to the study of the geology of Texas, and especially 

 of the Palaeozoic and Cretaceous rocks of the western part of that 

 State. He returned to Europe in November, 1847, and settled at 

 Bonn, where he lived till 1855 as a " privat-docent," but occupied 

 mainly in the elaboration and publication of the results of his 

 American expedition. The most important of these was his " Die 

 Kreidebildungen von Texas" (1852), which, with some smaller 

 papers, have been recently described by Prof. Dumble," the chief of 



1 Geol. Mag. June, 1891, p. 272. 



^ E. T. Dumble, Geol. Surv. Texas, Eep. State Geol. 1889, p. xxii. Austin, 1890. 



