Vol. 62.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OE THE PRESIDENT. liii 



He was born, of a distinguished Silesian family, at Karlsruhe, 

 on May 5th, 1833. He was educated at Breslau, and, from 1852 

 to 1856, at the University of Berlin. Here his main study was 

 geology, under Beyrich. But of his Berlin teachers, Richthofen 

 probably owed most to the inspiration of the geographical teaching 

 of Karl Hitter, whose philosophic spirit lived on in the work of his 

 greatest pupil. Bichthofen began research in petrology, and his 

 first paper ' Ueber den Melaphyr,' the thesis for his doctorate, was 

 published in 1856. It shows, in its full account of the literature, his 

 historic sympathies, and also the value which he already attached to 

 tectonic problems. Till 1859 he was engaged in geological surveys 

 in the Tyrol and in Hungary. Most of his writings at this period 

 deal with the eruptive rocks of Central Europe and the dolomites 

 of the Tyrol. His interest in economic problems is shown by his 

 paper on the ores associated with the Hungarian trachytes. It was 

 during this period that Richthofen developed the first of the three 

 important geological hypotheses with which his name will always 

 be associated — the origin of the dolomite-blocks of the Tyrol. 



Rich thof en's surveys were interrupted in 1859 by his appoint- 

 ment as geologist with Count von Eulenburg's mission to Eastern 

 Asia. This expedition enabled him, between 1860 and 1862, to make 

 contributions to the knowledge of the geology and geography of 

 Ceylon; Formosa, Japan, ^ava, the Philippines, Siam, and Further 

 India. He left the mission in China on its return to Europe in 

 1862, and travelled overland to Moulmein. After a short visit to 

 India he crossed to California. Here he spent six years. The 

 chief result of his work there were his memoirs on the Comstock 

 Lode (1866) and his ' Natural System of Volcanic Rocks ' (1868). 



In 1868 he returned to China, which was now open to travellers. 

 Here he was occupied, until 1872, in the extensive journeys during 

 which he collected the material for his great work, ' China,' and 

 discovered the vast coal-fields of Shantung, thus enabling the 

 world to realize the economic importance of China. His work has 

 had a marked influence on world-politics, for his appreciation of 

 the value of Kiaochau led to its selection as the base of German 

 operations in the Ear East. He returned to Europe in 1872, and 

 was appointed Professor of Geology at Bonn, in 1875; but he was 

 allowed to defer beginning his duties there till he had published 

 some of the results of his Chinese travels. 



He taught at Bonn from 1879 to 1883, when he accepted the 

 Chair of Geography at Leipzig. In 1886 he was appointed Professor 



