170 



OBITUARY. 



William Thomas Suffolk. 

 Born February 18, 1831 ; died January ], 1900. 



Mr. Suffolk became a Fellow of the Microscopical Society of London 

 as far back as 1863, and was for \ears a Member of the Council, 

 before he was appointed Treasurer in 1893 in succession to Mr. Frank 

 Crisp. Of singularly retiring and undemonstrative nature, his labours 

 on behalf of this Society, beyond those associated with the super- 

 vision of its finances, were probably known to but few outside the 

 Council among the general body of Fellows. These were very largely 

 devoted to the somewhat thankless task of classifying, cataloguing, 

 and keeping in repair, the very miscellaneous collection of preparations 

 in the Society's cabinets ; and over 7000 of these have in recent years 

 received his skilful and patient attention. Mr. Suffolk's boundless 

 store of information on his special subject of preserving and mounting 

 microscopical objects was always at the willing service of anyone who 

 liked to ask for it, and to beginners especially he was ever ready to 

 lend aid and advice. Not very long after the foundation of another 

 •Society for the encouragement, more particularly, of young amateur 

 microscopists (the Quekett Microscopical Club), Mr. Suffolk under- 

 took a series of demonstrations for the benefit of its members, which 

 were greatly appreciated, and were afterwards published in book form 

 umder the title of ' Microscopical Manipulation,' a little work which 

 went to a second edition in 1875. Mr. Suffolk also took a consider- 

 able share in organising the South London Microscopical and Natural 

 History Club, the district with which he was all his life associated ; 

 and some lectures given before it were embodied in a small book 

 ■entitled ' On Spectrum Analysis as applied to Microscopical Observa- 

 tion,' published in 1873. He was also the author of a memoir " On 

 'the Proboscis of the Blow-fly," printed in the Mon. Micros. Journal, 

 i. 1869, p. 331. 



Mr. Suffolk was unmarried; and, as many of the Fellows are 

 aware, his niece has most kindly presented a great part of the work 

 of his private life, viz. his collection of microscopic objects, to the 

 Society, a very fitting monument to his memorv. He was on the 

 staff of the Bank of England from 1852 to 1896. 



