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OBITUAEY. 



Eev. W. H. Dallinger, LL.P. D.Sc. D.C.L. F.E.S. F.L.S. F.Z.S* 



President 1884-5-6-7. Secretary 1891-1907. 

 Vice-President 1908-9. 



Plate XXII. • 



William Henry Dallinger was born at Devonport, on July 5, 

 1840. Even when young he evinced a liking for natural science, and 

 at one time contemplated entering the medical profession, but his 

 devout spirit and religious temperament predominated, and while 

 still a youth he elected to serve in the Wesleyan ministry. In 

 1861 he was appointed to his first circuit, that of Faversham, 

 and subsequently travelled those of Cardiff, Bristol and Liverpool. 

 Till 1880 his life was that of the ordinary circuit minister, but 

 his leisure hours were devoted to a study of science, and to ac- 

 quiring a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek and German. 



In 1880 he was appointed Governor and Principal of Wesley 

 College, Sheffield, and after a successful eight years' headship he 

 resigned this post in 1888 in order to become a minister without 

 pastoral charge, so that he might have more leisure to follow 

 his scientific studies and prosecute his researches. 



The last 21 years of his life were spent chiefly in scientific 

 pursuits and in giving lectures on microscopical and biological 

 subjects, such as " The Infinitely Little," " An Hour with the 

 Microscope," " Spiders," " The Lowest and Smallest Forms of 

 Animal Life," the last of these being delivered before the British 

 Association at Montreal in 1884. 



The researches which made his name famous began about 1870, 

 when in conjunction with J. Drysdaie, he published a series of 

 papers on the Life-history of Monads. Many of the experiments 

 and observations bore directly on the question of spontaneous 

 generation, then a subject of burning interest, and the results of 

 their inquiries had a great share in determining the decision, 

 though it must be admitted that the protagonist, Dr. Charlton 

 Bastian, still stands to his guns. Perhaps the most interesting 

 of these researches was that which showed how certain Flagellates, 

 normally living at a temperature of 60° F., could, by a gradual 

 raising of the temperature of the circumambient fluid, be 

 accustomed not only to live but to thrive at 158° F. The 

 only material structural difference detected in these organisms 

 was a marked vacuolation. Though these observations on Monads 

 were practically all Dallinger's scientific work, it was the patient, 

 untiring, continuous method which rendered them truly scientific. 



