62 



OBITUAEIES 



CHARLES HERBERT HURST 



Born September 1855. Died May 1898 



Dr C. H. Hurst was an alumnus of the Manchester Grammar School, 

 where he gave an indication of his future bent by attaining a high 

 position on the science side. After an interval spent in business he 

 entered the Royal College of Science under Professor Huxley, and in 

 1881 was bracketed equal with his friend Dr John Beard at the head 

 of the list in biology. In the same year he entered the Owens 

 College as a student, and in 1883 was appointed demonstrator 

 and assistant lecturer in this institution under the late Prof. Milnes 

 Marshall. 



He filled this position for more than eleven years, and earned the 

 gratitude of the students by his clear and vigorous teaching and by 

 his constant readiness to assist all who were in earnest in their 

 studies. In 1895 he left the Owens College, much to the regret 

 of his colleagues, in order to fill a similar post in the Royal College 

 of Science, Dublin. 



Hurst's published writings are not numerous. Ill health prevented 

 him from doing much more than the engrossing nature of his college 

 duties demanded. His most important work was probably his share 

 in the production of the " Junior Course of Practical Zoology," which 

 has made the names of " Marshall and Hurst " household words 

 wherever biology is studied. Many of the drawings are from his 

 pencil, for he was an excellent draughtsman ; and almost the whole 

 work was done by both authors, very few paragraphs being written 

 by either alone. 



In 1889 he took advantage of a prolonged leave of absence to 

 study in Leipsic under Leuckart, where he made an interesting 

 addition to our knowledge of the developmental history of Culex, for 

 which he was awarded the degree of Ph.D. In 1891 he undertook 

 a new line of zoological work, in the shape of a systematic criticism 

 of Biological Theory. The result of this was a series of papers 

 published in Natural Science, in which many popular and orthodox 

 views were attacked in a trenchant and unsparing manner, which, 

 though it could cause no offence to those who knew the man and his 

 honesty of purpose, was undoubtedly misunderstood by some who 

 were not personally acquainted with him. Space forbids entering 

 in detail into these papers individually ; it must suffice to mention 

 as examples " The Nature of Heredity " {Nat. Sci., vol. i.), " The 

 Function of Tentaculocysts " (Nat. Sci., vol. ii.^, " The Recapitulation 

 Theory," and the series of papers on Archaeopteryx, and to say that 

 they contain many observations of force and justice, though some of 



