OBITUARY. 



JOHANN JAPETUS SlMON StEENSTRUP. 



The death is announced at Copenhagen of Dr. Steenstrup, 

 formerly Professor of Zoology at the University of Copenhagen 

 and Director of the Museum of that city. Dr. Steenstrup was 

 born in 1813, and had thus reached the eighty- fifth year of his 

 life. He published much on Natural History, but he will be prin- 

 cipally remembered by his work on the subject of "Alternation of 

 Generations." Our best course is to quote Geddes and Thomson 

 on this point. " The progress of marine zoology and the study 

 of parasitic worms gave naturalists like Sars, Dalyell, Loven, 

 Von Siebold, and Leuckart early glimpses of many alternations 

 in life-history, but Steenstrup was the first to generalise the 

 results. This he did (1842) some twenty years after Chamisso, 

 in a work entitled ' On the Alternation of Generations ; or, the 

 Propagation and Development of Animals through Alternate 

 Generations, a peculiar form of fostering the young in the lower 

 classes of animals." In 1849, Owen submitted this essay to stern 

 criticism, and subsequently " the labours of some of the foremost 

 naturalists have both extended Steenstrup's observations and 

 rendered them more precise." 



The late Professor also studied the prehistoric remains found 

 in his own country, both as regards fauna and flora, and in 1866, 

 in conjunction with Sir John Lubbock, contributed a memoir to 

 the Ethnological Society of London " On the Flint Implements 

 recently discovered at Persigny-le-Grand." He was appointed 

 to his zoological Professorship and Museum Directorship in 

 1845, previous to which he had acted as Lecturer on Mineralogy 

 at Soroe. In 1885 he retired into private life. 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. I., July, 1897. 2 a 



