1897]. Scientific News. 269 
At first he was much interested in electricity and attended the lect- 
ures of Neander. But about 1837 he took up seriously the work in 
which he became so well known. After some time spent with mathe- 
matics, physics and chemistry, he began studies under J. Miiller, and 
somewhat later became his assistant. 
His being asked in 1841 by Miiller to repeat the observations of Mat- 
teucci in his essay “Sur les phénoménes électriques des animaux,” pub- 
lished at Paris a year previously, led to the historical studies that he 
embodied in his dessertation for the degree of D. M. (Que apud verteres 
de piscibus electricis extant argumanta ”), and to the discovery of the 
main facts of modern electro-physiology. In 1858 hesucceeded Miiller 
as Professor of Physiology at Berlin, and in 1867 was chosen secretary 
of the Berlin Academy. As a result of his forethought the Berlin 
laboratory became the model for similar laboratories the world over, 
for the plans upon which the palatial building in Neu Wilhelmstrasse 
was erected after the Franco German war, were of his designing. 
His papers are numerous, but his great work is that “ On animal 
electricity,” the first volume of which appeared in 1848 andthe last 
only about ten yearsago. In 1878 he published his “collected papers,” 
which comprise all of his scientific work done up to that time except 
what had been embodied in his “'Thierische Elektricitat.” The his- 
torical introduction contained in the first few chapters of his“ Animal 
Electricity,” his essay on university organization (1870), that on the 
present and the past of physiological teaching, and on the relations of 
natural history to natural science (1878), that on the limits of natural 
knowledge (1882) are well known. 
The real greatness of the man consisted, not in the theories that he 
put forth, but in the exactitude of his observations, the excellence of his 
methods, and the large number of new relations that he discovered 
between physical and vital phenomena, As Ludwig taught the world 
how to investigate the mechanics of the circulation, and as Helmholz 
how to determine the time-relations of physiological processes of very 
short duration, du Bois-Raymond not only opened a new field for 
investigation, but also furnished the means of working it. 
Like other great teachers he founded a school, and if his pupils were 
not so numerous as those of some other greater teachers, they occupy 
very important academical positions. (See “ Nature”). 
Prof. Francis E. Lloyd, who now holds a position in the Pacific 
University, Forest Grove, Oregon, has been appointed professor of bio- 
logical science in the Teachers College. 
The Danish Paleontologist, Henrik Julian Posselt, died July 20, 
1896. He was connected with the museum in Copenhagen and was a 
Student of Molluscs and Molluscoids. 
