Januarys, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



51 



and each claimed the privilege of stretching 

 its work over the whole unsurveyed area 

 of the West. Thus in this j'ear each party 

 had geological and topographical parties 

 covering the same ground in Colorado, 

 which was a deplorable dissipation of en- 

 ergy Avhen so much ground was untouched 

 by either party. As time went on, this 

 friction increased to such an extent that the 

 influence of one party with Congress was 

 used to curtail the appropriations allotted 

 to the other. 



At first glance it would seem that such 

 disagreement among men, whose sole ob- 

 ject was avowedly the advancement of 

 science, was most unfortunate, but here 

 again the truth of the old saying about an 

 'ill wind ' was again proved, for Congress, 

 unable to decide of itself on the merits of 

 the contending parties, referred the matter 

 to a committee of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and, acting on their report, passed 

 a bill terminating all the previously exist- 

 isting explorations and creating the United 

 States Geological Survey. Thus, instead 

 of a number of rival organizations with no 

 necessity of concordant action between 

 them, and each liable to pass out of exist- 

 ance at any time by the failure of Congress 

 to pass its annual appropriation, there has 

 resulted the present organization, which 

 forms a constituent part of the Department 

 of the Interior, and has thereby acquired a 

 permanence which invites the best scientific 

 talent of the country to take part in its 

 work. S. F. Emmons. 



U. S. Geological Survey. 



PBOFESSOB EUGEN BAU3IANN. 

 On the 2d of ISTovember, 1896, occurred 

 the death of Dr. Eugen Baumann, professor 

 of chemistry in the medical faculty of the 

 University of Freiburg, in Baden. The de- 

 ceased was born in Wiirtemberg, in 1846, 

 and obtained his early education at Stutt- 

 gart. After studying chemistry, physics 



and natural sciences, at the Stuttgart Poly- 

 technicum, where he worked under Fehling, 

 he served an apprenticeship as apothecary 

 in his father's emploj'ment, and in 1870 

 passed the pharmacists' examination at 

 Tiibingen. This was the occasion of his 

 first meeting with Hoppe-Seyler, to whose 

 encouragement and inspiration his career 

 as an investigator owed its beginning. A 

 life-long friendship was formed between the 

 two men, and only a few months before his 

 death Baumann paid fitting tribute to his 

 great teacher in an obituary published with 

 Kossel.* 



Already an assistant to Hoppe-Seyler, 

 Baumann obtained his doctor's degree at 

 Tubingen, in 1872, with a dissertation on 

 vinyl compounds. f When Hoppe-Seyler 

 was called to take charge of the instruction 

 in physiological chemistry in the newly 

 opened German university at Strassburg, 

 Baumann accompanied him thither as his 

 first assistant, and in 1876 became ' Privat- 

 docent ' in chemistry. At the opening of 

 DuBois Beymond's new physiological insti- 

 tute at Berlin, in 1877, Baumann was ap- 

 pointed to have charge of the chemical 

 laboratory ; upon his departure from Strass- 

 burg the medical faculty honored him by 

 conferring the degree of doctor medic. 

 honoris causa. In 1882 Baumann was ap- 

 pointed professor extraordinarius in the 

 Berlin medical faculty, and in October, 

 1883, he accepted a call as successor to v. 

 Babo at Freiburg, where he labored with- 

 out interruption until his death. He de- 

 clined the call to succeed Hoppe-Seyler at 

 Strassburg and only recently the title of 

 ' Hofrat ' was bestowed upon him. 



Baumann's earliest researches were in- 

 tended to throw light upon the behavior of 

 sarcosin in the organism. To this period 

 belong the beginnings of the researches on 

 the aromatic substances of the body — a 



* Zeitsohrift fiir Physiologische Chemie, Band 21. 

 t Ann. Chem. Pharm. Band 163. S. 308. 



