SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, t8S3. 



HERMANN MULLER.^ 



The sad news has just reached tliis country 

 of tlie death of Professor Miiller, at Prad. on 

 the 2oth of August. 



Since the death of Mr. Darwin. Dr. MiilliT 

 has occupied the position of most prominence 

 among students of the mutual relations be- 

 tween flowers and insects, — a studj- which, in 

 the last decade, has contributed as much as 

 any branch of t)iology to 

 the substantiation of the 

 main points of adaptive 

 evolution. Miiller was 

 born at Miihlberg. Sept. 23, 

 1820, and was a younger 

 brother of the well-known 

 Brazilian naturalist, Fritz 

 Miiller, much of whose 

 work has passed through 

 his hands before its pub- 

 lication. 



Between 1848 and 18.^2 

 he studied at the universi- 

 ties of Halle and Berlin, 

 devoting himself to natural 

 history. In the latter j-ear 

 he passed the Oberlchrer e.Kaminations. and 

 served his novitiate in the Berlin realschule. 

 In 1854 he received his first appointment as 

 teacher in the school at Schwcrin, and the 

 following year took the natural sciences in the 

 realschule at Lippstadt, wiiere he remained as 

 teacher and director until his death. 



Previously to the attainment of his degree, 

 Dr. Miiller had siiown considerable zeal in 

 natural history explorations, which were con- 

 tinued, in 1855, in the vicinity of Krain, where 

 lie did some especially interesting work on the 



• The portrait on this piigc is engraved from a pbolO|;ra|>li by 

 Ophoven of I.lppatatit, kindly furnished by I'rof. William Tre- 

 leoae of the Unlvvnilly of WIecODain. 



No. 36.— 1888. 



blind insects found in the caves at this place, 

 the results of his studies appearing in the Stet- 

 tiner enlomologische zeitschrift for 185()-57. 

 .Vfter settling at Lippstadt, he gave particular 

 attention to botany and entomology, working 

 up. in particular, the local phenogainic flora, 

 and later tiie mosses of Westplialia, sets of 

 which were distributed by him between 18G4 

 and 18(i6. 



About this time the classical work of Dar- 

 win on the fertilization of orchids b}- insects 

 directed his attention to tlie pollination of 

 flowers. — a subject, which, 

 neglected since the time of 

 Sprengel, was then attract- 

 ing several biologists. His 

 familiarity with AVestpha- 

 lian plants and insects 

 fitted him especiallj- for 

 work of this nature ; and 

 his first contributions^ 

 showed that he was also 

 possessed of the requisite 

 powers of oltservation and 

 interpretation. 



From this time on, his 

 leisure was given to field- 

 work in tliis specialty, 

 many of his summers be- 

 ing spent in the Alps. While Delpino, Ililde- 

 brand, and others were not slow to follow- 

 in the steps of Mr. Darwin, showing, both 

 from the structure of flowers and the results of 

 many careful exi)criinents, how they must a 

 priori be fertilized, Jliiller observed, in addi- 

 liun, how their pollination is actually eH'ecled ; 

 and our knowledge of the degree to which the 

 reciprocal adaptations of floweri? and tiieir 

 visitors extends may be set down as in large 

 part the result of his labors. 



Ill the past ten years, numerous papers from 



'-' Iteubachtun^cn an WcBlfiilisclien orcbldeea ( Verhandt. 

 nahir/i. vtr. Prruit. Itheinl. u. Wrt{fSleni, 1808) and Anwen- 

 diing der Darwineche lehre auf blencn {ibid., 1872J. 



