Abstract
EDWARD OSCAR SCHMIDT was born at Torgau on February 21, 1823. When he had finished his preliminary education he was sent to Berlin, where he had the advantage of studying natural history, to which his mind early had a bent, under the superintendence of J ohannes Müller and Ehrenberg. Schmidt, however, proceeded to Jena to take his degree in 1849, and he held the post of Professor of Natural History in the University until 1855. His “Manual of Comparative Anatomy,” which went through several editions, was first published in 1849. Appointed Professor of Zoology in the University of Cracow in 1855, he was obliged, two years afterwards, to quit the country, owing to some unfortunate political complications, and he took refuge in Gratz. He was appointed Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University, and in time was made its Rector. During many of his vacation tours he visited the lonian Islands and other places on the shores of the Adriatic, and, diligently working out the fauna of this almost tideless sea, he became more and more interested in the natural history of the Sponges, with the result that in 1862 he published his well-known and important work, “Die Spongien des Adriatischen Meeres,” to which two supplements were issued in 1864 and 1866, followed in 1868 by a third supplement, which formed part of a new work on “Die Spongien der Küste von Algier.” It will be conceded that this work of Schmidt's marked an epoch in the history of this interesting sub-kingdom. The enormous progress made in our knowledge of the natural history of the Sponges during the twenty-four years that have elapsed since Schmidt put forward his classification, and the immensely improved methods of research, may be said to have revolutionised the subject; but Schmidt's work will always be of value, and the merit of having grasped the leading features of the classification of the Sponges will generally be awarded to him. That he for the most part failed to perceive the proper specific and generic characters of the forms he describes and figures is not to be much wondered at. In 1870, leaving the Sponge fauna of the Mediterranean, he published his “Grundzuge einer Spongien Fauna des Atlantischen Gebietes,” which was followed in 1874 by an account of the Sponges collected by the German Expedition to the North Sea; and his latest contribution to this subject was his work on “Die Spongien des Meerbusen von Mexico, 1879–1880.” In 1872 he was appointed Professor of Zoology to the University of Strasburg, returning thus once more to his fatherland.
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Oscar Schmidt . Nature 33, 392 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/033392c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033392c0