Prof. Karl Alfred Von Zittel

Abstract

GEOLOGISTS and biologists throughout the world VJ will lament the death of Prof. K. A. von Zittel, the accomplished palaeontologist of Munich. For more than thirty years he had been acknowledged as the leading exponent of the science which is intimately connected with the progress both of geology and biology. For a still longer period his charming personality had combined with his wide reputation to attract to the Palaeontological Museum at Munich students of the natural sciences from, all civilised nations. Those who were unable to follow the prescribed university course were at least frequent guests, taking advantage of the unrivalled facilities for study and research among fossils which the professor's laboratories and collections afforded. So highly appreciated, indeed, was the school of palaeontology in Munich that Prof, von Zittel soon began to experience the practical sympathy of several of his wealthy fellow-citizens, who had learned of his fame. In this “manner he was” provided with funds to equip expeditions and purchase collections of fossils beyond the means of most institutions of a similar character. The result was that the Palasontological Museum in the old Academy of Munich, already fine when von Zittel became professor, rose to preeminence among the museums of the European continent. It began to illustrate not only Bavaria and Europe, but every part of the world from which fossils were known; and as the collections were acquired, descriptions of all the important novelties were always quickly published, usuallv prepared by some student-graduate working under the professor's direction.