OBITUARIES. 



HENRY ALLEYNE NICHOLSON, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., ETC. 

 Boen 1844; Died January 19, 1899. 



The name of Henry Alleyne Nicholson has been so long familiar to successive 

 generations of students of zoology and palaeontology, that it must have been 

 a surprise to many to learn that his life had reached its close in only its fifty- 

 fifth year. 



His father, Dr. John Nicholson, was distinguished as a Biblical scholar, and 

 was the son of a former President of Codrington College, Barbados. H. Alleyne 

 Nicholson was born at Penrith on September 11, 1814, and received his school- 

 training at Appleby Grammar School. He was also for a time in the hands of 

 Francis Newman. He commenced the systematic study of natural science in 

 the University of Gottingen, and from 1862 till 1867 he was a student of 

 science and of medicine in the University of Edinburgh, graduating B.Sc. in 

 1866, and M.B. and CM. in 1867. The study of medicine at that period offered 

 the best access to the higher educational positions in natural science, and it was 

 for this reason that he appears to have entered upon the study. In both 

 science and medicine he was a most successful student, gaining high honours 

 in the several classes. In 1866 he received the Baxter Scholarship as the most 

 distinguished graduate in science for the year, and in 1869, on taking the degree 

 of M.D., he was awarded the Ettles Medical Scholarship as entitled to the 

 highest place for the year among the medical graduates of Edinburgh. 



While yet a student he had turned his attention to the geology of his native 

 district, and had studied it with such care that he received the gold medal for 

 his doctorial thesis "On the Geology of Cumberland and Westmoreland." 

 Devoting himself to natural science, Nicholson became, in 1869, Lecturer on 

 Natural History in the Extra-mural Medical School in Edinburgh, and delivered 

 courses of lectures in zoology and in geology during about two years. In 1871 he 

 was offered, and accepted, the Professorship of Natural History in Toronto, in 

 Canada. In 1874 he was appointed, almost at the same time, to the Chair of 

 Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin, 

 and to that of Biology in the College of Science, Durham. He chose the 

 latter, and performed its duties during two sessions. In 1875 he was offered 

 the Chair of Natural History in the University of St. Andrews, and he held it 

 until 1882, when he succeeded Professor Cossar Ewart in the Chair of Natural 

 History in the University of Aberdeen. At that time the winter course in 

 Aberdeen, attendance on which was compulsory for graduation in Arts, consisted 

 of a hundred lectures, chiefly on zoology, the last two months or so being devoted 

 to geology. The summer course, on zoology alone, was suited more especially 

 for medical students. 



In consequence of the changes rendered necessary in the curricula by the 

 Ordinances of the Scottish Universities Commission, geology acquired a more 



247 



