lvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [vol. lxXV, 



.1.880. So early as 1877 Williston began to publish small papers, 

 but Prof. Marsh discouraged his original researches on fossils, and 

 he turned instead to dipterous insects, on which he became one of 

 the leading authorities in the United States. From 1886 until 

 1890, Williston was Professor of Anatomy at Yale, but in the 

 latter year he returned to Kansas to become Professor of Geology 

 and Anatomy and Dean of the School of Medicine in the University 

 of Kansas at Lawrence. In 1902 he removed to the newly- 

 instituted chair of Palaeontology in the University of Chicago, 

 where he continued active researches until nearly the time of his 

 death, on August 30th, 1918. While at Lawrence, Williston's 

 most important original work was his investigation of the reptiles 

 found in the Chalk of Kansas, and the results were finally sum- 

 marized in 1898. in a well-illustrated volume of the University 

 Geological Survey of Kansas (vol. iv. Palaeontology, pt. 1). He 

 continued the same researches at Chicago, where he published not 

 only valuable papers on Plesiosaurs and Pterodactyls, but also a 

 little semi-popular volume on 'Water Reptiles' (1914). During 

 the last decade, however, he devoted attention chiefly to the 

 Permian Reptiles from Texas and Missouri, describing important 

 collections which he had acquired for the University of Chicago. 

 Besides original papers he prepared a small well-illustrated volume 

 on 'American Permian Vertebrates,' issued by the Chicago Uni- 

 versity Press in 1912. A complete list of his papers up to date, 

 was printed by J. T. Hathaway at New Haven in 1911. Williston 

 was a lovable friend and inspiring teacher, and left many devoted 

 pupils, of whom some have already made important contributions 

 to Vertebrate Palaeontology. [A. S. W.] 



August Rothpletz, one of our Foreign Members, whose much- 

 discussed work on the tectonic structures of the Alps rendered his 

 name familiar to a wide circle of geologists, was Professor of 

 Geology & Palaeontology in the University of Munich. Born on 

 April 25th, 1853, Rothpletz graduated at Leipzig in 1882, and 

 was engaged for a time in the geological survey of Saxony. In 

 1884 he became a Privat-Dozent at Munich, was preferred to the 

 post of extraordinary Professor there in 1895, and succeeded to 

 the University Chair in 1904 on the death of Zittel. He was an 

 •enthusiastic and inspiring teacher. 



Besides his Alpine researches, of which the more important 

 results are contained in his ' Geotektonische Probleme ' (1894) and 



