EDITOE'S PEEFACE. 



The great reputation which Professor Vogt enjoys in 

 Germany as a naturahst and as an independent thinker, 

 and the favourable reception of many of his works* by 

 the scientific men of Europe, has induced the Council of 

 the Anthropological Society of London to publish, with 

 the sanction of the author, a translation of his recent work 

 entitled " Vorlesungen iiber den Menschen, seine Stellung 

 in der Schopfung und in der Geschichte der Erde." 



* As none of Professor Vogt's works have, to my knowledge, been trans- 

 lated into English, it may, perhaps, not be out of place to give here a bio- 

 graphical sketch of our author, which is condensed from Meyer's " Grosses 

 Conversations Lexicon :" — 



Carl Vogt, the eminent naturalist and parliamentary orator, was born at 

 Giessen, July 5, 1817. He received his education fixst at the Gymnasium, 

 and subsequently at the University of Giessen, where he studied chemistry 

 under Liebig. In 1835, he followed his father — the celebrated author of 

 Pharmaco -Dynamics — to Berne, where he studied physiology under Valentin. 

 Having taken his degree as Doctor of Medicine, he repaired to Neufchatel, 

 where he pursued the study of zoology and geology in conjunction with 

 Agassiz. He then, on the recommendation of Liebig, became Professor of 

 Zoology in the University of Giessen, which he left on the breaking out of the 

 revolution of 1848. Having been elected a member of the German Parliament, 

 where he always voted with the opposition, he fled, after the failure of the 

 Baden insurrection, to Switzerland, settled at Berne, until he was, in 1852, 

 appointed Professor of Geology in the University of Geneva. Besides 

 numerous contributions to scientific journals. Professor Vogt is the author 

 of many sterling works, among which are the following : — Becherches sur 

 V emhryogenie de Salmones, 1843 ; Im Gebirg und auf den Gletschern, 1844 ; 

 LeJirbuch der Geologic und Petrefaktenkunde, 1846; Ocean und ISIittelmeer, 

 1847; Untersuchungen ilber Thierstaaten, 1851; Zoologische Brief e : Lehrbuch 

 der Zoologie, 1853-51, 2 vols, j Bilder aus dem Thierleben, 1852; Kohlerglaube 

 und Wissenschaft, 1855 ; Die Kiinstliche Fischzucht, 1859 ; Grundriss der Geol- 

 ogic, 1860. 



