jAinjABT 22, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



ia9 



vestigator, teacher and author of far-reaching 

 influence, and not less distinguished as a nat- 

 uralist than universally beloved for his sweet 

 simplicity of character and attractive person- 

 ality. In him were happily combined that 

 temper of mind and delicate sensitive spirit 

 which proclaimed him not only as a fine type 

 of the cultured scientific gentleman, but re- 

 vealed him likewise as an homme de cceur, 

 rich in human sympathy. Greatly as we de- 

 plore his loss, we may be glad that such a 

 shining exemplar has graced our science. It 

 is pleasing to contemplate him as a naturalist 

 and interpreter of nature, but better still as a 

 humanist. We honor him for his devoted 

 service, we revere him for the lofty ideals he 

 realized as a man. Much is expressed in the 

 title by which his pupils and colleagues scat- 

 tered over two continents were wont to address 

 him: maitre venire. His predominant trait 

 was rightly characterized in an address deliv- 

 ered by his successor in the museum. Professor 

 Boule, on a memorable occasion in the spring 

 of 1903 : " L'essence de votre nature, cher 

 maitre, c'est la bonte meme." All who have 

 enjoyed the privilege of personal acquaintance 

 with the late president of the institute will 

 concur in that sentiment. 



The main facts in the life history of Pro- 

 fessor Gaudry are briefly told. Born at Saint- 

 Germain-en-Laye, near Paris in 1827, eldest 

 son of a well-known advocate, as a youth fond 

 of natural history pursuits and amateur col- 

 lector of fossils at Montmartre, awarded the 

 degree of doctor of science at the age of 

 twenty-five and appointed assistant professor 

 of paleontology at the Paris Museum the fol- 

 lowing year, we find him undertaking his first 

 serious work as a naturalist whilst engaged on 

 a scientific mission to the Orient and islands 

 of the ^gean in 1853. His first publications 

 date from the same year, and at this time he 

 began his long-continued and classic studies 

 of the late Tertiary vertebrate fauna at Pik- 

 ermi in Attica. The results of this work, pub- 

 lished 1862-7, under the title of "Animaux 

 f ossiles et geologie de I'Attique," together with 

 its sequel on fossil vertebrates from Mont 

 Leberon, won for him recognition as a leader 

 in his special field, and constitute probably his 



most enduring monument in the province of 

 descriptive paleontology. Other technical 

 memoirs followed, among which it will suffice 

 to mention those on Actinodon (1887), Dry- 

 opithecus (1890), pythonomorphs (1892) and 

 Patagonian vertebrates, the last subject being 

 one upon which he was still engaged at the 

 time of his death, on the twenty-seventh day 

 of November, 1908. 



Excellent as are these special monographs, 

 it is through his more popular, or at any rate 

 less strictly technical, or perhaps we should 

 say more broadly philosophical, writings, that 

 Gaudry's name is most widely known both 

 among his own countrymen and abroad. These 

 brilliaaitly written essays, published in tripar- 

 tite series during the years 1878-96, the first 

 having for title " Les Enchainements du monde 

 animal," have exercised an incalculable influ- 

 ence in spreading evolutionary ideas and in- 

 culcating sound notions of paleozoology. It 

 has been said that a philosopher is always 

 something of a " poete manque." This quality 

 on the part of the author is strongly marked 

 in the three volumes in question, and mani- 

 fests itself not only in style, but in ideas, not 

 only in the main theme under discussion, but 

 in many a charming and naive excursus, the 

 effect of which is to make his work most ex- 

 hilarating reading. His object is to present, 

 as he tells us in one place, some things to 

 instruct the mind, and yet others to satisfy the 

 soul. And we must admit that he succeeds 

 very well in both these aims. He was artist 

 to this extent at least, that he sought in nature 

 an ideal standard of truth and beauty, and 

 made that standard effective in all human re- 

 lations. 



To the typical French mind, as to the an- 

 cient Greek, is commonly attributed a quick 

 and accurate intuition, facile power of gen- 

 eralization, and a fondness for broad, compre- 

 hensive views as applied to any subject. Pro- 

 fessor Gaudry well exemplified these racial 

 characteristics. An analyst so far as involves 

 the merely mechanical collection of facts, his 

 genius consists in synthesis, in the rational 

 coordination of his material after it has been 

 laboriously brought together. In the early 

 days of evolutionary discussion he incurred 



