Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

LINNEAN SOCIETY Or LONDON. 45
With the completion of his masterly work on the zoological
results of his voyage ('Die preussische Expedition uach Ost-Asien,
Zoologie'), in 1879, his position as one of the foremost mala-
cological authorities was firmly established. But althougli shells
were his first, and remained his best love, his training, his wide and
accurate knowledge, and his intimate acquaintance with zoological
literature, enabled him to take up subjects from many different
branches of zoology, and to treat of general questions, such as the
distribution of animals, with a sense of responsibility which is
often missed in the work of the compiler and even of the
specialist.
The amount of work accomplished by Martens is truly astonishing.
The arrangement aud care of the collections in his custody must
have occupied by far the greater part of the day ; yet he found
time for the preparation of some 200 papers for the press, for
the systematic aud detailed study of some important faunas, like
the Land and Freshwater Molhisca of Central America, A'enezuela,
and German East Africa, the marine Fauna of Mauritius and the
Seychelles, the mollusks collected by Max Weber and by the
German Deep-sea Expedition, 1898-9, for the preparation of
monographs of the genera Nerita, Neritiiia, and Navicella. The
whole of this published ^^•ork is characterized by painstaking
accuracy, discipline of method, conservative principles, respect for
classical form, and tolerance towards the views of others. His
principal aim was the elucidation of facts.
Martens would have been satisfied, and would have felt himself
amply rewarded by the general high esteem in which the world of
science held him; but numerous honours succeeded each other in
due course : the University of Eostock made him an honorary
Doctor of Philosophy ( 1872), whilst the Berlin University placed
him on the list of Extraordinary Pi'ofessors (187o); the Prussian
Government i*ecognized his eminent services by bestowing upon
him the title Geheimer Eegierungsrath (1899). The Zoological
Society elected him a Corresponding Member in 1865 and a
Foreign Member in 1885 ; since 1899 he was one of the Foreign
Members of the Linnean Society.
A \\'ife and daughter mourn his loss. For his early friends he
retained the most affectionate regard ; to help his fellow-labourers
was to him a pleasurable duty. A man without guile, he had no
enemy. [A. Guntheb.]
Alpheus Speing Packard, who died on 14th February, 1905,
was born at Brunswick, Maine, U.S.A., on 19th February, 1839.
He was inclined towards ^Natural History from his early youth,
and after some preliminary studies in Bowdoin College, he joined
a scientific expedition to Labrador and Greenland, where he laid
the foundation of the broad views of nature which characterized
all his work. Between 1861 and 1864, while occupied with a
medical course at Harvard, Packard came under the influence of