774 A MEMOIR OF WILLIAM KITCHEN PARKER, F. R, S. 



work without, aud made it lit for ourselves iu the field,' we shall be able 

 to build a ' system of anatomy ' which shall truly represent nature aud 

 uot be a mere retleetiou of the mind of one of her talented observers." 



Again, at page 225, in illustration of some results of his work, he 

 says : "The first instance I have given of the shoulder girdle (in the 

 skate) may be compared to a clay model in its first stage or to the 

 heavy oaken furniture of our forefathers, that ' stood pond'rous and 

 fixed by its own massy weight.' As we ascend the vertebrate scale the 

 mass becomes more elegant, more subdivided, aud more metamorphosed 

 until, in the bird class and among the mammals, these parts form the 

 framework of limbs than which nothing can be imagined more agile or 

 more apt. So, also, as it regards the sternum ; at first a mere outcrop- 

 ping of the feebly developed costal arches in the amphibia, it becomes 

 the keystone of perfect arches in the true reptile ; then the fulcrum of 

 the exquisitely constructed organs of flight in the bird; aud, lastly, 

 forms the mobile front wall of the heaving chest of the highest verte- 

 brate. 



Prof. W. K. Parker was a fellow of the Royal, Linuean, Zoological, 

 aud Royal Microscopical Societies; honorary member of King's College, 

 London, the Philosophical Society of Cambridge, and the Medical Chi- 

 rurgical Society. He was also a member of the Imperial Society of 

 Naturalists of Moscow, and corresponding member of the Imperial 

 Geological Institute of Vienna, and the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia. In 1885 he received from the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians the Bayly medal, " Oh i)hysiologiam feliciter excultam.'''' 



In conversations shortly before his death he often spoke of looking 

 forward throughout his life-time (alas ! how quickly shortened !) to con- 

 tinued application of all the energy he could devote to his useful work — 

 at once a consolation to him aud a duty. 



He has well expressed his own view of biological pursuits at page 

 363 of the " Morphology of the skull : " '' The study of animal morphol- 

 ogy leads to Continually grander and more reverent views of creation 

 and of a Creator. Each fresh advance shows us further fields for con- 

 quest, and at the same time deepens the conviction that while results 

 and secondary operations may be discovered by human intelligence, 

 ' no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to 

 the end.' We live as in a twilight of knowledge, charged with revela- 

 tions of order aud beauty ; we steadfiistly look for a perfect light, which 

 shall reveal perfect order and beauty." 



An unwordly seeker after truth, and loved by all who knew him for 

 his uprightness, modesty, unselfishness, and generosity to fellow-work- 

 ers, always helpiugyouug inquirers with specimens and information, ho 

 was suddenly lost to sight as a friend and father, but remains in the 

 minds of fellow- workers, of those whom he so freely taught, and of his 

 stricken relatives, as a great aud good man, whose beneficent influence 

 will ever be felt iu a wide-spreading and advancing science and among 

 thoughtful and appreciative men in all time. 



