Prof. Dr. Hilbrand Boschma 22 April 1893 - 22 July 1976 : Obituary and bibliography

Hilbrand Boschma, professor emeritus of systematic zoology and former director of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History), Leiden, Netherlands, passed away on 22 July, 1976, in Leiden at the age of 83. Born of peasant stock in IJsbrechtum, Wymbritseradeel, in the province of Friesland, Boschma studied botany and zoology at the Municipal University of Amsterdam, taking preliminary courses in Latin and Greek. He obtained his doctorate at Amsterdam University on 23 June, 1920, after presenting a thesis entitled "Das Halsskelet der Krokodile". His promotor was Prof. Dr. C. P. Sluiter. In October, 1920, Boschma left for the former Dutch East Indies, where he stayed until September, 1922. While there he studied problems of embryology and functional morphology in Reptilia and Amphibia, as well as bud-formation and other biological phenomena in stony corals. He joined the Danish Expedition to the Kei Islands, 1922, as an associate of the Danish zoologist Dr. Th. Mortensen, a circumstance which was to have a decisive influence on Boschma's subsequent career. He returned to Leiden in October, 1922, to take up the post of chief assistant at the Zoological Laboratory of the State University at Leiden, the director of which at the time was Prof. Dr. P. N. van Kampen. On 23 August, 1923, he was promoted to lecturer in zoology and was charged with teaching comparative embryology of invertebrates. After December, 1925, he also gave lectures in general zoology for medical students. He was appointed reader in zoology on 1 July, 1927, and, on 16 April, 1931, officially succeeded Van Kampen as professor of general zoology. His inaugural lecture was entitled "Het Soortbegrip" (The Species Problem). When Boschma took up his duties as professor of zoology, comparative anatomy — tightly interwoven