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Les diegrsmmes suivanis illuatrent la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICaOCOPY HSOLUTtON TBT CHART lANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 J- |i4 11^ I.I ^ *^ 111^ 1.8 IS 11= III '-^ ^ /^^PUEDjyU^G^Jnc SSy. 1 65 J EasI Mom SIreal ^■^ Rochesler, Nen "ork U609 USA 'JS (716) 482 - OiOO - Phone ^^ (716) 288 ' 5969 - Fa. § Haeckel : His Life, Work, and Companions. nv H. 11. WITTON, SR. liftid hfl\ii-e thii Uttmlttnn Ansoeitifiou May Nth. 1909. HAMILlCN PUBLIC LIBRARV "«""Torj PUBLIC libra:;v APR 2 I 19jb C 1 P V I Haeckel : His Life, Work, and Companions. HV H. H, WITTON, SR. Itniil bffore Ihf llamiUoii AnnociiiUoii May t4lh. HKHI. F7RNST HEINRICH HAECKEL was bon. at Pols. ^ dam, in the province of BrHmlenhnrg. Prnssia Feljrua.y the i6th, 1814, His birthplace is notalile for its royal palace and sonvenirs of Frederick the Great. From liis yontli np his motto was : "Each minute has its value ; piny or work, but do something." His life was in keeping with his motto. In youth he became a good Greek and Lalin scholar ; an acquirement he founil serviceable when he had to coin names for more than three thousand new species. In token of his learning, and as reward for service, during a long life devoted to .science, Haeckel has had conferred on h.m many medals, degrees and diplomas. Of tlie latter he has rece'v^d nearly a hundred from colleges and universities of renown. Haeckel has always deemed himself a child of the nineteenth cenlvry. In that opinion he can hardly be gainsayed, for perhaps no man ever lived in closer.sympathy with the advanced spirit of his age. The science of zoology, to which hi.s life has been devoted, in the times im- mediately preceding our own, stamped on the thoughts and opinions of men an ineffaceable impress. In the si.\teenth and .seventeenth centuries the new light thrown on the world of inorganic matter was hardly more marvellous than was that in the nineteenth cenlury shed on the world of organic life. The doctrine of Copernicus, confirmed a 1 IAi:CKi:i,: mS Ml'I' WOHK, and COMPANinNS iMMulrecl yt'jirs .ittt-rwards Ir ihe ttlcMope of Galileo, niul acctpled as it was hv tlie rt- asoii of the learned aiul iDinmoii sense* of tlie I'lnltitiule, was no nohlt-r tnnliilintion to a knowledge of the universe ih.'ui was made 1)) tlie hiolojjists of the niiK-teentb century. Hercliel's mhiiht' and _;hrLi;- herd's monads may well exeile in thonghlfnl minds admir- ation and reverence, those liy their ^rnndeur. these by their mintilenej'S ; for hoth make known vast regions of the gnat nniverse wliicli, so far as human records show, were never before mn-eiled to m.»rtal vision. Following ♦he wisli of liis father, Haeckel stiiditd medicin- Hnt the bent of his mind was to the study of . oolof^y ; and the woiks of Ooetlie, Alexander Von Humboldt, and Schleidcn. fnrlh;r influenced him in that direction. At that time in Germany a l)and nf notable men, by their skill and invlitslry, did mucli to make biology a new science. Of this group was Von Haer. by birth a Russian, whose ovologital discoveries still keep his name famous. With them also were Schleiden and Schwann, noted for their resi)ective di^t■ovelits in the cell- structure o» v<-getab;^ and animal life ; and Vircliow, who first turned the cell theory to account in pathological inves- tigation. Among others of that hand were Kolliker, the foremost histologist of his day ; and Johaiui Mueller, often referred to as the father of modern physiology. All tliese men were personally known to Hueckel, and several of them were his intimate friends. Gegenbaur, the comparative anatomist. In 1S53 told Haeckel that marine life could l)e prcfiiably studied on tlie Mediterranean coast, and fiist kindled in him the desire to visit the Strait of Messina. Johann Mueller, by viitue of his strong personality and professional s-kill, did much to mould the character of Haeckel. For mi ly years Mueller's portrait had a place over Haeckel's de^k ; and he wrote to a friend : *' Whenever I get tirtd I look tit it and gain fresh strength." He went to Heligoland with Mueller on IIMX'KIU,. MIS I. UK. WORK. AND C()MI'.\N10NS II n zoological rxpt'iliiioii. where the I'la-ili r vva.s well pleased with his pupil, especially with his skill iii skelil..iii> the o'ljecu of their sliiilv ; ami predicted for liitii a biilliant fiiliiie. Haeckels Ilelinolaiid trip furnished liiiii with materials for his first zooloKical essay. It was on the ova of certain fishes —the sconilieresoces— and was printed in Mneller's Arc 'ives fo iSjS. In the same volume was started the well known controversy over Virchow's conten- tion that each liiiman Ijody is a slate composed of millions of iiulividiial cells. In iSji; Haeckel went to Wnrlzbnrj;, where for three years Virchow directed his studies. A quarter of a century afterwards these two nitn differed as to the valne of free discussion in matters of si ieiice ; but at ".V'urlzburg Haeckel was Virchow's assistant, and felt nothing but admiration for the great pathologist and his doctrine. The burdf.i of Virchow's teaching was Monism, the niiily of created things : and thai as the object of medioal scienc, , man is to be regarded as a member of the higher vertebrates subject to the laws of that class. Haeckel was in his twenty-first year, and then, as in later life, cultivated an earnest rever- e itial spirit. His fellow students lie warntd against tlie evil of .scepticism : and for himself took to heart the sr.yi.ig of Faust : " The whole sorrow of humanity oppresses me. Haeckel went with Kolliker in 1856 on a holiday trip to the Riviera. Two or three others, and Mueller himself, were there at the same time ; and together they caught, studied, and made drawings of all sorts of living creatures. Haeckel carried home materials for future work ; and at Berlin, during the following winter, lie prepared for his degree of Doctor, a dissertation on " the tissues of the Cray- fish." He took his degree in medicine in Marc.i, 1858; Ehrenherg, the great microscopisi, presiding on the occa- sion. During the same year lie had a friendly di.scussion with Mueller on the development of the gregaiina ; and, before the 1 :;o-ie of the year, was stricken with grief by news of Mueller's sudden death. I iiai:lki:i. : iiis i.iii;, wokk, and cc.mi'asions It) compliance wit!) his fall.er's wish he then entered on the practice of incilicine. Hut his licart wiis with his zoolo^icnl studies; and to Kain time to follow thtm up. it is said liis hours for consultation were fixed at from five to six o'clock in the niorninK- DuriiiK tne whole year in which he was a medical practitioner, he had but three patients ; not one of whom died iniiler his earnest attention. In the same jear H.^'-^'kel was betrothed to his cousin An.ia Set he. From January, I8,sy, to April, 1N60, Haetkel lived and studied in Italy. Theie is an old saw that Italy is charm- ing in books, but one should never ro there. Thai, how- ever, was not Haeckel's experience. On every side he found there abundant means of enjoyment. He was pleased with the Italian people ; and says that the charm- ing scenery of Sicily nearly seduced him to turn landscape painter, lint an artistic temperament is the exclusive privilege of no one class. Here and there one of every class inherits that endowment. Haeckel was b;essed with it. His house is a gallery of water-colois, his own handy- work ; and a number of bis sketches have been published in Germany as "Travel Pictures." His .son, too, has suc- ceeded to his father's skill, and is a professional artist. Much of Haeckel's time was spent at Messina, then so beautiful, .since, alas ! so desolate. To him the sublime beauty of that Strait exceeded that of the Bay of Naples. As one of Kaeckel's biographers says : " That is a land of ancient myths. The Cyclops hanimer their woik in Etna. Scylla and Charybdis lurk in the Strait. In the days of Homer, when the sun of civilization rested on a corner of Asia, a dim Munchausen world was lived there." More- over it was at Mc^•^iua, that by his thorough study of the radiolaria, Haeckel laid the foundation of his fame. The radiolaiia are microscopic forms of life encased in shells of rare beauty. The shells are siliceous in substance, have projecting radiating spines, and are pierce<l with II \i'aki:i. his i.ii'i;, uouk, \ni> oomimmuns miiuili.- Ili)lf,, llfoli;;!; wlruli in ",IV llu- ;iMH-l"iiilal iiIlllM«l stiiuliirvli-.', .■iiiMiiiil prolnidf^ li.iii; luiii-liki- ilirvails of ils Jtiilislaiiii-, iift-r liio niamu-r i i tlir miii auimalciili', ni'titioplirys m>i, i-dintnoii in fioli watti. Tlit'y wt-re fir-,t foiiiid l)y I';hniilK.-i|! in llu- N'nrtli Siii. win- calli<l l>y liim |«ilM-islinii, riml were iifn-r" arcN ii-iianifil liy Minllir railii)l:ii Tiny liavc l)t-iii fDiiml in many • . s, anil in a fii-,>il «v III- in varions parK (if (lie world, Tli Ilarliniloi"* e.irili, well known to niicrosiopi-iis, has ilii; . abnniiance in many forins, all of wliii li are of txiini>itf liianty. Heforc till- year iHy) Ha-ikil knew hnl little aUinl tlie^e tiny form-, of life ; lint l.y tlie fullowinu year lie had di<- covereil one hnndred and forty-fonr new >picie>. In the Seplenilier of thai ;ear 1- ■ read a paper al>ont thcni at the Scientitk- Conference at Koninnvlinr); ; and in iS(,i he pnl>- lished his "oiiOKniph " Die kadmlaii " in a siimptnons folio volii ■ of nearly six hnnilred pa^es, with a sceond volume . lhirt\-five descriptive platis, fiom his own heantifnl drawings. Study of the radiola'ia occnpitd no small fiactioii of Haeckel's life. The va' of his work is hest seen from his report of these forms ^ life for the iiritish (government. .\s is wel! known, the British ship Challenger, from i,S;2 to tH-(>. made a voyage for exploration of the deep .sea. With the hest appliances o<./e was hnmsili' "P from the bottom of the ocean from nearly four hundred places. Some of these spots were moie than a mile below the snrface of the sea. The residts of that voyage are embodied in fifty qnarto volumes, sold at /too. Of these volumes fonr- fiftlis— forty volumes— are Natural Hl.ii.iry reports by men of uni|neslioned ability. Besides some other forms of life brought home by the Challenger, all the radiolaria diedged from the dei sea were entrusted to Haeckel for'exainiua- tion, classificaliou and descripiion He devoted leu yea s to the task. His rejiorl is in luiglisli. It fills twovolniues comprising 2,750 pages, with 140 large plates, Wlieu the IIAKCKKI.: HIS IJFE, WORK. AND COMPANIONS Challenger's collection was submitted to Haecktl, tlie radiolaria included Sio species. Wlien his report was finished, tiie number was 4.318 species, arranged in 739 genera. It was in that monograph Haeckel first expressed his admiration for Darwin's theory of the origin of species. The ground of that satisfaction was not because the theory itself was new, but for the reason that the mode by which in process of time new species originate was described witli a precision and wealth of illustration before altogether un- kujwn. The belief that plants and animals have been developed from pristine germs, so far from being new, found expression in some of tlie oldest cosmogonits. In point of age it ranks with the earliest speculations of the race. Among other representative men who held that belief may be named Aristotle, Saint Angnsliiif, and Thomas Aquinas. These were great men who influenced the thought of thei. time ages ago. Of a later date were Buffon, Laniark, Geoffroy Saint Hiliare and Erasmus Darwin ; while contemporaneous with Charles Darwin him- self were Wells, Matthews, Chambers and Herbert Spencer, whose essay in the "Leader" in 1852 contrasted the theories of direct creation and evolution of species, in favour of the latter. All these eminent men, with others who might be named, each after his own ideas, held to a theory of the evolution of life in the world. To Init few men were these facts so well known as to Haecktl. Yet Darwin had presented his theory with such logical completeness, lucidity and fi.Uness of illustration from all departments of organic life, that Haeckel wrote : " I cannot refrain from expressing the great admiration Darwin's able theory of the origin of species has inspired in me. This is tlie first great attempt to con.struct a scientific physiological theory of the development of organic life, and to prove that the physiological, chemical and physical forces that to day rule in nature, must also have been in the world of vesterdav." HAKCKKI. : HIS I.IHK, WORK, AND COMPANION'S 7 Haeckel devoted liiniself to popularizing Darwinism, to defending it against opponents, and to supplementing and extending its doctrine. But lie did more than that. He undertook a restatement of biological science, and revision of zoological classification on the basis of evolution. To that strenuous task he brought rare natural gifts, com- prehensive, precise knowledge: and what was also essential to success, an iron constitution. Bolsche, his biographer .says : " From his splendid physique in early manhood, he won at Leipzig a lanicl crown for the athletic deed of leap- ins; twenty feet." And he humorously adds that the night after the contest the friendly host put a pair of dumb-bells into Haeckel's bed, in case he desired to take another spell of exercise before morning. Darwinism and the labours of Haeckel are so inti- mately connected that for a right estimate of his character a summary of thiit theory is relevant and next to indispen- sable. A library would be needed to show the ramifications of Darwin's doctrine. Still a glimpse at the leading facts on which his theory rests, the order in which these facts impressed him, and the chief conclusions he deduced from them may suffice. These may be compres.sed into a few sentences. In his early studies Darwin suspected that .species might be mutable. But, pending due investigation, he suspended judgment. Linnaeus had conferred a boon on science by his use ot combined words denoting genus and species to designate certain differences of organic life. That method admirably served to distinguish the various mem- bers of each family of living things, after the manner that each member of a household is distinguislied by u.se of a conjoint Christian name and surname. Linnaeus, it is said, believed that .someone species of each genus originated from direct creative fiat ; but that kindred species of that genus, other than such an one, were of .secondary origin. But by most of his followers every species was held to be immu- table, and to have been originated by creative fiat. The described species of organic life now exceed half a million ; H IIAKCKKI, : IIIS I.Il'K, WOKK, AND COMl'ANIONS though ill the days of Liiii:acns those known were Iiardlv a twelfth of that niiinlier. To many studious men the species of Linnaeus rt pre- sented typical forms of life lirought into lieing by creative fiat ; t'orms of life capable of reprodiiciiiK offspring; in con- tinuous succession, whicli, like themselves, would remain separate, distinct, inimntable, without variation beyond narrow limits. But to those holding such a theory, the remins of fossil extinct organisms seemed aininuilous. Moreover among those extinct fo.ssils weie strange gigantic creatures. In America the megalherinin was fouiul ; the mammoth was found on the coast of Silieria ; and in England icthyosauria weie found. Numerous txplanations regarding the extinction of these monsters wtre given. Sir Anthony Carlisle, a great surgeon in his day, thought they were just sent down from heaven to .see whether earth would support them, A more ihoughlful explanation was that before the flora and fauna known to man, there were long periods of tranquility in the earth's history, each period having its own plants and animals, and each period being followed by a cataslrophy annihilating one set of organic beings, and ushering in a new creation. This was the widely accepted theory of cataclysms, f3\oured to some degree by no le.ss an authority than Cnvier. But eaily in 1830 appeared the fir.st volume of Lyell's '■Principles of Geology," a work destined to be a landniaik in the history of science. It was from the first recognized as a dispassion- ate, well reasoned refutation of the catastrophic school of geologists, and a lucid exposition of the doctrine that the geological history of the earth has run a course of unifoim continuous development in conforniily with laws like those now in operation. When, in 1831, Darwin, as naturalist on the Beagle, embarkec' for South America on a scientific expedition, he took with him Lyell's newly published volume. And in part from Lyell's reasoning, and in greater part from his IIAICCKia. : MIS IJl-i:, WdliK, AM) COMPANIONS 9 own olisfivritions, Darwin, iifler his five \e;<r\ voyaRC, retnint<l to KnHUiiul a loiifirintd nnil'orinitarian in jTeoloRy, DnriiiK his exiieiliiiim Davwiii kept in mind the snhjcct ciesiined to lie his life work- ihe transniiilation of species. In the Pampas he noltd great fossil animals, armonr-clad after the manner of the armadillos, one .species of which is .scarcely a fool lonj; ; and he had .seen in going southwards that closely allied animals replace one another. And soon after his rctnrn home he commenced to compile note-hooks on the same subject. The fir.-t of these books was opened in 1837, and facts were collected wholesale, for he soys: " I worked on true Kaconiau piinciples." Godwni. in his " Poliiical Justice," puhlislicd in 179,^. pictured an ideal state of society free from crime and nii.sery : and at tlie close of his book he controverted the leaching of Robert Wallace, that ihe advanlnges of such a comnniuity would be nullifitd by ilie excessive population Ihat would ensue. Five years afteiwaids Malihus, in his famous essay, restated the objections of Wallace with greater force. His more comprehensive argument, tersely put, was that popidalion increases in a gecuielriial and means of sidisist- eiice in ati arithmetical ratio : and that vice and crime are liut necessHiy chukson that incieaje of numbers. In the autumn of 1X3S, fifteen months after Darwin began his systematic inquiry, he chanied to read " Maltluis on Popu- lation." He had already learned much as to the struggle for exi>tence going on in the world of life, atid, as he read, the thought .siiuck him that inider such .stress favoumble variations wonhl tend to he preserved, and those unfavour- able to be destroyed. So the reading of Maltlins afforded a provisional iheoiy aiding him to gather in facts, and gave him heart to continue his labours. As his mass of facts accumulated, his views took more definite shape. But not till iH^i, when he had worked five yeais. did lie indulge in Ihe .satisfaction of a slight pencil-wiitteu abstract of his theory. Wh.it lie wrote 10 HAECKEI. : HIS LIFE, WORK, AND COMPANIONS barely filled thirty-five pages. But a longer sketch soon followed ; and in 1856, after more than nineteen years labour, he yielded to tlie advice of Lyell and began to write out his views " pretty fully.'' Darwin's collection of facts e.st-blislied beyond cavil that organisms of the same species differ, no one being exactly like another ; that these various characteristics tend to go down from generation to generation ; and that more organisms come into the world than there is room for, hence the struggle for life which leads to survival of the fittest. Of the particulars leading up to these conclusions regarding variation, heredity, and survival in living organ- isms, all are interesting, many are curious, and one or two should be mentioned. Darwin found that the elephant, though living nearly a hundred y^ars, is the least prolific of animals, having an average of only six yoinig. Yet if that ratio of increase in succeeding generations went on without casualties for 750 years, at the end of that period there would te eighteen millions of elephants living. In the case of flies : the house-fly lays batches of eggs having about 130 eggs in a batch ; and lias five or six batches in a season. In three weeks an egg becomes a fly, itself laying eggs. If all these lived, and half were females, the progeny in one season of a single female fly would be a million cubic feet of flies, reckoning 200,000 flies to a cubic foot. But in fact house-flies vary but little in number from ve.ir to year. The mass perish. Among plants, the hedge-i.iuslard, sisymbrium .sophia, often has in a single plan' three- quarters of a million .seeds. If these, and their products, at the same rate of increase, grew to maturity for three years, the land surface of the globe v.ould not hold them all. But the mass perish by the way-side ; only a few of the fittest survive. Hence arose the conclusion that from such selective action of external conditions come permanent varieties of plants and animals ; and the same causes in long periods of IIAKCKKI. ; HIS I.IFi:. WORK, AND COMPANION'S 11 lime give rist- to species, and in still longer peiiods to diflciences that are generic. Tlins in Diirwin'sowii words ; " From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the prodiiLlion of the highest animals directly follows. As Darwin made these inductions from his store of facts, an essay came to liim with a request that it might be read before the Linneaii Society. It was sent from the Malay peiiinsnla, where its author, Mr. Alfred Rtissel Wallace, a comparatively young Welsh land surveyor, was making search for natural history treasures, as he had previously done in the valley of the Amazon. The paper was entitled : " The tendency of varieties to depart from their original type ; " and to Darwin's surprise it contained exactly the same theory as his own. The essay was read at the Society in 1858, as its author desired ; and at the instance of Lyell and Hooker, a short paper by Darwin, and a letter a year before written by him to Asa Gray were sent with it. Darwin says that the paper by Mr. Wallace was admirably written ; while his own letter to Gray was not intended for publication, and was therefore but an off- hand statement of his conclusions. Neither at the Society's meeting nor in its journsl did tliese papers attract special notice. Prof. Hanghton was ll.e only nian of note to say ill print a word about tlitni ; and his comment was: " What in thefe papeis islrue is not new, and what is new is not true." In the following year, 1859, the "Origin ot cies " was published. If tlie Linnean papers were cool- .eived, •'lewarmlh, friendly and otherwise, which greeted appearance of the complete statement in that book made up for earlier indifference. That work kindled a discussion remarkable for its keenness, duration and maiked ability of the dispu- tants on both sides. Darwin met his earnest opponents with re.spect and digni'.y ; and all ridicule with indifference. For the rest, here it must snfiire to say, when Darwin's 1.' IIAF.CKKI, : HIS I.IFI!, WORK, AND COMl'ANIONS worldly task was done, it had been so faillifnilj done that no spot was deemed by his countiynien a filthig resting place for his ashes, but the venerable Abbey, where, near to her great heart, England treasures the memory of her noble.st and dearest sons. By Hooker, Hnxley, Earl Derby, the Dnkes of Argyle of Dcvonsliire, and by others who also loved him, Charles Robert Darwin was borne to his grave in \Vesti..insler Abbey, a grave nliich fittingly is but a few feet from that of Newton, and is marked only by the simple in.scriplion of his name ai;d dates of birth and death. His life is an additional instance that : — " Kvery trinli tliat vet In brightness rose mul sorrow set. That time to ripeiiinj^ K'ory nurs't. Was called an idle ilream at first." A recent authoritative historian has record; d in the Cambridge McKlern History that Darwin P.rst made effective the idea of evolution which has been applied not only to natural history but " to religion, to philosophy, lo history, to criticism ; and will likely influence the treatment of such subjects in the future even mce than in the past.'' Many problems connected with Darwiinsm arose in Hacckel's mind; thougli special zoological woik claimed much of bis attention. In early life the medu>,-t were liis favourite study. In looking back to the days spent with Mueli'.r on the shores of the Mediterranean in 1.S54, he says : " Never .shall I forget the deligiit with which I first gazed on the Medusa; and strove to .sketch their beauty of form and colour." His eulhusiasui is not surprising. In appearance these little creatuies aie like bubldts in the water. Agassiz, who made them a i.pecial study, and wrote a memoir concerning them in his " Contributions to Natural History," mentions that a friend of his asked if they are " organized water ; " and the Professor thought it was an apropos question, admiiahly d( viiptive. In shel- tered bays cf the Atlantic, Agsssiz foui.d them in such IIAECKEI. : HIS MFK, WORK, AND COMPANIONS 18 slioaN iliiriii,( summer tliat an oar coiihl nol be clipped into the water wiihotit injury to many. And in a shallow of the Mediterranean it is a sight not to be forgotten to watch their iridescent forms flashing in the stnili)iht below the surface of the sea. Mam of Ihein are bell-shaped, though where the clapper of the bell should be there is found a stomach provided with a mouth. Zoologically the medusa; are an order of ocean jelly- fish, of the class hydtozoa. The fresh water polyps, Trcmbley so well described a century and a half ago, are their dwarfed, distant relations ; and the fossil graptolites in the rocks of onr Hamilton escarpment, are .still more di.stafit members of their kindred. Haeckel intenr'-d to describe one family after another of all the medusa; If his scheme was not cicrried to completion, his investigations went further than those of his predecessors who were men of distinction. His work in this field of labour reached over several years His first paper appeared in 1864: and more than two decades afterwards the twenty-eighth volume of the Challenger Reports contained his elaborate memoir on one form of the strange compound social medusai— the syphonophora. Haeckel's " System of the Medusa;," with atlasof fine plates, he published in 1879. It was main' technical— a work written by a specialist for specialists— b . p»vertheless had its popular side. Even in the dry work of naming species, the human, imaginative side of Haeckel's nature could not be hidden. One species he named melusina forniosa after the old charming legend of the water-fay who was wedded to the Prince. His first wife died in her twenty ninth year. Her lo.ss wrung from his heart the cry of Goethe: "What are the hopes and pains built up by man the creature of a day!" Among the names in his list is this note: " This specific name of this most benntifnl of the medusae, the desmonema annasclhe, is in memory of Ainia Sethe. the gifted and refined wife to whom the author of this work owes the happiest years of his life. 14 HAECKEI. : HIS UFE, WORK, AND COMTANIONS III 1866 Haeckel piiblislied his "General Morphology of Organic Life." A second title added that it wasgrou. ded on the theory of descent proponnded by Charles Darwin. Huxley described the book as " one of the greatest scientific works ever published ; " and years after he had written it Haeckel referred to it as a comprehensive, difficnli work that had found few readers. It could hardly be a popular book. The morphologist concerns himself specially with the outer form and internal structure of living beings. To him we are told "every animal has a something in common with all its fellows ; much with many of them ; more with a few; and usually so much with .several that it diffcs little from them." A morphological classification, the; ■■ fore, is one that groups together living things according to their degrees of likeness and difference in structure. In this work Haeckel, wilh much skill and labour, showed how differences between the higlie.'^t animals and highc-t plants decrease as they are traced back, till the protista, embracing the lowest forms of life in each kingdom of nature, can hardly be distinguished one from the other. Haeckel closed tais work in these words: "Our philosophy knows but one Almighty God who domina'cs, without exception, the whole of nature. We .see His activity in all phenomena. The whole inorganic world is .subject to Him, just as much as the organic. The pheno- mena of inorganic nature are just as truly the direct action of the Almighty as is the flowering of the plant, movement of the animal, or the thought of man. We all exist by the grace of God ; the stone as well as the water, the radiol- arian and the pine, the gorilla as well as the Emperor of China. No other conception of God except this, that sees His spirit and force in all natural phenomena is worthy of His all enfolding greatness ; only when we trace all forces and all movements, all forms and all properties of matter to God as the snslainer of all things, do we reach an idea of and reverence for Him that worthily corresponds to His inOnite greatne-ss." II.\i;CKi;i.: Ills I.Il-IC, WOUK, AND COMPANIONS l.'i HaeikersilisciiNsioii of llieKeiura' principles of z(iol<>|;y <iiil 1 Jt, liowevti, divtrl liiiii from iiivtMiKnting speciiil forms of life. The spoiigida liad always attracttil h\» attention. For botanists anil zoologists dnnti^ a long time doubted wlictlier sponges slionld rank as ineinl.ers of tlie animal or vigetable kingdom ; and, moreover, sponges, from their simple strnctiire and plaslic form, Here fitted to throw light on the problem of species. For some time prior to Haeckel's specijl investigation, sponges had been assigned place on the animal border of the protista ; and the animal particles of a living sponge were known o be "a snbac|iieons comnitinity of animal life, in which e.ich tinit takes its statu! by a continiions flowing stream drawing sustenance froni the water as it passes by." F"or five years Haeckel studied the chalk-sponges ; twice taking up abode on the se.-i coast to have specimens for study in their native habitat. His invesligalious showed how next to impossible it is to draw fixed limits for animal species. Varieties of the chalk-sponges he found passed from each other and liack again with such frtquency and with such differences that he humourously said : " You may reckon on one genus and three species ; three genera and twenty- one species ; or thirty-nine geneia with two hundred and eighty one species." His conclusions were that all these forms are transitional and were derived from one ancestral form, the Olyntlpis. In the prosecution of his zoological work, Haeckel became a somewhat notable traveller. In early life his sojournings were confiMtd to the shores of the North Sea, and to various parts of the Mediterranean coast. Bnt in later life he studied the coral reefs of the Red Sea, visited the Canary Islands, and made a memorable voyage to Ceylon by way of India. His Eastern trip, though bi:t of six months duration, furnislied matter for a fascinating book, as well as supplying him with materials for long investigation. His main object was to supplement his favourite collections of Mediterranean life w ith the kindred Ill iiAh'-n:i, : HIS i.ii-i;, wokk, and comimnions life of the Indian Occaii towards the equator. In tlint object he succeeded ; though the heat and nioislnre of the tropics made preservation of Ills collections a task wliicli sorely taxed his limited resources. For six weeks he lived and worked at the Singhalese fishing village of lielligani, on the south-eastern part of the island. There, cut off from Kuropean associations, and with none Init native coniranions, he roamed the forest in quest of plants and 6nimals, dived with natives to tile 1 ot- tom of the sea for corals, microscopically investigated liis treasures, and with his own hands soldered lliem up in air- tight tin cases for future use. For all this strenuous work in tropical heat, during four months sojourn in Ceylon, he e-scaped witiiont a day's illness. These experiences, related as they are with vivacity and humour, and his notes on the physical geography of the island, and the tropical luxuriance of its fauna and flora, n:ake Haeckel's " Visit to Ce; Ion " a pleasant, edifying book of travel. Early in his professional life Haeckel became convinced that accurate knowledge of cell-slruclure was the f( ni da- tion of biological science ; and each frtsh discovery con- iirnied that conviction. Of verltbrales the fertilized germ- cell from which the race is perpetuated, is made np of cell- plasm and nucleus. In each such cell— though a mere .speck- in some particulars like to other cells, there never- theless lurks the potentialities of its race, even, it is said, to the tendency in advanced life to develop special di.sease akin to that endured by its parenls. The nucleus of such a cell contains granular matter, easily stained for mien .s- copic observation, and therefore nanitd chromatin. Recently it has been learned that such chromatin separates into minute bodies known as chrouio?omes ; and to them has been attributed the chief function of heredity. Profes sor Thomson, of Aberdeen, has tabulatfd the actual number of such chromosomes peculiar to sundry species of living things. Forty years ago Haeckel's teaching pointed the H.m;(k!:i. : itis i.iii;, wukk. ami companions i; way to the Inter discovtriin of Sirashcimr, lI.rlHix a"'' their fullowcrs. On these fuels loiiflicliiiK ilitories hnve been I 't tip. Hilt thi siihje.t is ol)Mlire, iitid scitiue moves lit a ra\>h{ pace. Cautious iiieii point oiu ilmt not loiiK ago it was impossible to look thioiiKli solid matter, that (lotjinatisiu is iiiistemlv , ami that " ."cienee commits suicide when it adopts a creed." The fiiiversity of Jena, where Haickel has spent forty-eiKht years of his profe.ssiunal life, is iR-aMlifnlly situated in the valley of tlie Saale, about fifty miles fioiii Leipzit;. The town is famed for its places reminisctnt of (jreat Mien. I.iither spent tlie iiinht theie at the Black Bear tavern, now an Hotel, after his isinpe fuin the Wortbuig, near l-j'.sanach, wlieie his uxiin ai:d iis onifil are siill pre- served. It was at J<iia thai Goetl.e wrote Ids "Hermann and Dorothea," and in another spot u bust of Schiller marks the place where he wiole " Wallenstein." The university dates back to the middle of the sixteenth ceiituiy. It was founded as a centre for the new learning of that day ; and has ever since been noled for willingness to grant able men a hearing for all new learning. liesidts many other notable men, Fichle, Hegel, Oken and Schiller, were kctutets at Jena. But of all the gilt»d men associated willi this famous seat of learning, il is qne.stionable if llie writingsof anyone of them have been .so widely read, in the same time, as those of Haeckel. A few years since a celebration in his honour was held at Jena, when his marble bust, by Kopf, the Roman sculptor, was prt.sented to him. Profe.-soisand heads of universities in all parts of the world, from America to India, contfibuted to the ttstimonial. At the gathering a list of nis books was given. Apart from contributions to scientific journals, the list showed more than forty volumes, having the aggregate of thirteen thonsand pages. His seventieth birthday in 1904 found him in Italy, engaged in 1.: . iie studies. To a Munich journal, HAM LIBRARY IS IIARCKRI.; lilS LIPR, WORK, AND COMPANIONS whicli broiiglit out on tlie occaMoii n upevM iiiiniljrr in lii» honour, he made this reply : " Cerniany has niori.- learned men than I am. They have read more l.^ooks ilian I have. But .'rom my earliest youth, when i.i my fourth year, I plucked flowers and admired butterflies, I have yielded to my heart's inclination and have incessantly studied one great book— Mature. Thin greatest of all Imoks has taught me to know the trne God. As physician. I saw human life in its heights and depths. In my travels through half the glolw I learned the inexhaustible splendour of the earth ; and with pen and pencil I h.nve lu^nestly striven to repro- duce a part of what I saw, and to reveal it to my fellows." \t the beginning of April. 1909, Hae^kel retired from his professorship at Jena. The leisure of his remaining days he will spend in writing a hist»ry of biology. One ' his pupils becomes his successor. His concluding lecture at the university, on the loth of February last, characteris- tically ended with these words: "I am firmly con-Miced that my successor. Prof. Plate, one of my mo pable pupils, will not only fill my place but will snrpas.s Some of Haeckel's speculative opinions haw been warmly controverted during his lifetime, and doubtles., will furnish matter for controversy in the da> s to come. Still, apart from that residuum of error inseparable from human knowledge, time, the great arbiter, bids fair to place on the body of his practical teaching its seal of approval. But, however, that may be, the extent and precision of his knowledge excite astonishment, as his lucid method of im- parting that knowledge compels admiration ; while his ideal of duty, and- his exemplification of that ideal in the deeds of daily life, make it doubtful if any amongst us dare ask to be judged by as high a staj.dard. )N PUBLIC LIBRARY