Apeil 4, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



509 



habit, the latter being a deep water form; 

 Physa gyrina is a species common in small 

 ponds, while P. Integra prefers river bor- 

 ders and P. sayi inhabits larger ponds and 

 lakes; and similar variations in habit may 

 be found in the species of various genera 

 such as Bifldaria and Vertigo among ter- 

 restrial genera, and Amnicola and Fisid- 

 ium among aquatic genera. 



It is, therefore, not safe to jump at con- 

 elusions on the basis of mere relationship. 

 A strident of geology who would correctly 

 measure the conditions which prevailed dur- 

 ing the time of deposition of the various 

 fossiliferous Pleistocene formations must 

 not only accurately identify the fossil spe- 

 cies, but he must learn to know the habits 

 of the modern representatives of the same 

 species.^ Bohumil Shimek 



The State University of Iowa 



SAMSAT HEATLEY TBAQUAIB 

 Ichthyologists all over the world have read 

 with profound regret of the death of Dr. Ram- 

 say Heatley Traquair, the eminent authority 

 on fossil fishes. Dr. Traquair had long been 

 regarded as the dean of paleiclithyology, and 

 had been revered by those in his field, both for 

 his personality and his scientific achievements, 

 as few men ever were. It was a shock to them 

 to realize that he was no more among them. 

 His work in ichthyology was of a fundamental 

 kind, like that of Huxley or of Johannes 

 Miiller in zoology, and much of it has long 

 since become incorporated among the estab- 

 lished principles of the science. Indeed, Dr. 

 Traquair may be regarded as the founder of 

 modern paleichthyology, and his name, we be- 

 lieve, will stand next to that of Louis Agassiz, 

 as the most illustrious in the history of this 

 science. 



" A supplementary table of mollusks, containing 

 twelve lists of fossils and six lists of shells ob- 

 tained from modern drift along streams and lakes, 

 has been published by the author, and will be sent 

 on application to members who are specially 

 interested. 



Ramsay Heatley Traquair was born at 

 Rhynd, Perthshire, July 30, 1840. He was the 

 youngest son of a Scottish minister. As a 

 boy, he was sent to a preparatory school in 

 Edinburgh, where his quiet bearing and 

 studiousness attracted the attention of his 

 teachers. Almost from childhood he mani- 

 fested a deep love of nature, and as a boy he 

 frequented a small natural-history shop kept 

 by an old woman in Edinburgh, where were 

 displayed minerals, fossils and shellfish: these 

 no doubt stimulated his imagination and 

 helped to nurture a growing love of natural 

 history. As he grew older, he would go on 

 excursions into the hills around Edinburgh in 

 quest of paleichthyological specimens. On 

 one of these trips, the story runs, he found a 

 nodule with a portion of a palfeoniscid fish, and 

 was greatly surprised to learn that no book 

 then available gave an adequate account of it. 

 It was his ardent love of natural history that 

 led to his choice of medicine as a profession, 

 for this was the only science, at that time, that 

 afforded both a foundation for natural history 

 studies and the means of a livelihood. He 

 entered the University of Edinburgh as a stu- 

 dent of medicine in his seventeenth year, and 

 he seems to have been a good student. His 

 holidays were spent in collecting and studying 

 fossils. As the end of his studies approached, 

 it became more and more plain to him that he 

 ought not to practise his profession but seek 

 an opening in science. He took his degree in 

 1862, receiving a gold medal for his thesis on 

 the asymmetry of flatfishes. In this year, too, 

 he published his first paper, " On the Occur- 

 rence of Trilobites in the Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone of Fifeshire." 



For several years after graduation he held 

 minor posts in the school of medicine, first as 

 prosector and later as demonstrator of anat- 

 omy. This period afforded him an opportu- 

 nity of acquiring skill in making anatomical 

 preparations, besides allowing him to be near 

 his favorite fossil hunting grounds. During 

 1866-67, he held the professorship of natural 

 history in the Agricultural College at Ciren- 

 cester, where he taught botany and devoted 

 his spare time to the study of local geology 



