Peter Simon Pallas, a German naturalist, born in Berlin, Sept. 22,1741, died there, Sept. 8, 1811. He studied medicine, but afterward devoted himself to natural history, and after a year's residence in England settled at the Hague. In 1766 he published Elenchus Zoophy-torum and Miscellanea Zoologica, and in 1768 became professor of natural history in the imperial academy of sciences in St. Petersburg. The same year he joined a scientific expedition to observe the transit of Venus and to explore the countries visited. He traversed a considerable part of southern Russia, the Caucasus, and central and southern Siberia, penetrating as far eastward as the frontiers of China, and returned in 1774. In 1777 he was appointed one of a commission to draw up a map of Russia. In 1795 he went to the southern part of the Crimea and built a handsome seat, in which he resided for 15 years ; and in 1810 he removed to Berlin. Among his most important works are the Spicilegia Zoologica (2 vols. 4to, Berlin, 1767-'80); Reisen durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs (3 vols. 4to, St. Petersburg, 1771-6); Novce Species Quadrupedum (4to, Erlangen, 1778-9); Samm-lungen historischer Nachrichten uber die mon-golischen Volkerschaften (2 vols. 4to, St. Petersburg, 1776-1802); Nordische Beitrage, Neue nordische Beitrage, etc. (7 vols. 8vo, 1781-96); Flora Rossica (2 vols, fol., 1784-'8), never completed; Bemerlcungen auf einer Reise durch die siidlichen Statthalterschaften des russischen Reichs in den Jahren 1793-'4 (2 vols. 4to, Leipsic, 1799-1801; English translation, " Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire," 2 vols. 4to, London, 1812); and Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica (3 vols. 4to, St. Petersburg, 1831). He assisted in preparing the vocabulary of all the languages of the empire, Linguarum totius Orbis Vocabula-ria (2 vols. 4to, St. Petersburg, 1786-'9; 2d ed., 4 vols., 1790-'91).