January 29, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



]87 



phibia, Reptilia and Aves; the fourth vol- 

 ume, issued between 1891-1893, is devoted 

 to the fossil mammalia. Under his editor- 

 ship appeared also the second part of the 

 great 'Handbuch, ' including the 'Palseo- 

 phytologie' begun by Schimper and con- 

 tinued and concluded by Schenk, and is- 

 sued in 1890. 



These volumes, which together nimiber 

 " 4,315 pages, are richly illustrated and ad- 

 mirably indexed, and constitute a veritable 

 encyclopedia of paleontology. 



Immediately after the completion of this 

 work the author began the preparation of a 

 condensed treatise upon the whole subject, 

 entitled 'Grundziige der Palaeontologie, ' 

 which was issued in 1895, consisting of 950 

 pages. A second revised edition has just 

 appeared (1903). 



We mention this monumental work first, 

 because it was chiefly through this that the 

 influence of von Zittel was exerted. The 

 prodigious progress of paleontology in the 

 nineteenth century was scattered through 

 thousands of monographs and special 

 papers, a hopeless labyrinth' to the student, 

 and an extremely difficult field even to the 

 expert investigator ; it had ceased to be 

 possible to gain a perspective view of the 

 whole subject, not to speak of the difficulty 

 of mastering the details. With remarkable 

 clearness and fullness, with impartial 

 justice to workers in every country, with 

 especially warm appreciation of the work 

 done in America, von Zittel devoted him- 

 self for twenty years to this great task. I 

 had the privilege of studying with him in 

 Munich while he was engaged on the volume 

 on the mammalia, and I was greatly struck 

 with his extremely effective and compre- 

 hensive methods of work, which he carried 

 on while giving a full and delightful course 

 of lectures on the same subject. 



This, however, was only one form in 

 which von Zittel 's infiuence was exerted. 

 He established a great historical collection 



in the Alte Akademie of Munich, in which 

 he gathered from all parts of the Avorld 

 collections illustrating the evolution of 

 plants and of invertebrate and vertebrate 

 animals. Here are to be found not only 

 fossils from all parts of Germany, but rare 

 collections from Pikermi and Samos, from 

 the French Tertiaries, especially the phos- 

 phorites, from North America, including 

 especially a remarkable collection of Cre- 

 taceous fossils made for him by Charles H. 

 Sternberg, as well as a valuable collection 

 of Permian fossils made by Dr. Broili, Mr. 

 Sternberg and others. In addition to these 

 there are remarkably fine specimens secured 

 by exchange and piirchase from the Ter- 

 tiaries of North America, from the Oligo- 

 cene. The same clear judgment which was 

 displayed in the ' Palajontologie ' is evi- 

 denced in the arrangement of this vast 

 collection, so that nowhere else in the world 

 can a student follow with equal ease the 

 whole story of the evolution of life. 



It is small wonder that Munich became 

 the Mecca of paleontologists, young and 

 old. Professor von Zittel had an excep- 

 tionally charming and magnetic personal- 

 ity. His face was full of keen intelligence 

 and enthusiasm. He took the deepest in- 

 terest in the original researches of young 

 men who came to him from various parts 

 of the world, and was unusually generous 

 in placing in their hands much of his rarest 

 material; in fact, the memoirs which were 

 published under his supervision far out- 

 number those which he was able to publish 

 himself, because of his long-continued de- 

 votion to his preparation of the 'Hand- 

 buch.' He occupied a position in paleon- 

 tology similar to that occupied by the 

 lamented Gegenbaur in comparative an- 

 atomy. Among his pupils may be num- 

 bered, with a few exceptions, all .the 

 younger American, most of the German, 

 and many of the younger French and 

 Austrian paleontologists. All bear him in 



