LIXNEAN SOCIKTY OF LOA'JJOX. 55 



his former work on the primitive streak, and proved that the view 

 tliat the whole vertebrate embryo is formed by the concrescence 

 of two folds is erroneous : he showed, liowever, that a great part 

 of the length of the vertebrate, and not merely the tail, is due to 

 the activity of a secondary zone of growth at the posterior end, 

 and to this secondary growth he gave the name dei(tero(jcnesis. 

 All subsequent careful research has contirmed Assheton's view, 

 and his analysis of the earlier stages in vertebrate development 

 may be regarded as his great contribution to zoological science 

 But his researches were not bj"- any means confined to tbis subject. 

 He gave an account of the development of that curious fish 

 Gymnarclius nilotlcus, based on material brought back from Egypt 

 by Budgett. He described a new species of Lo.vosoma, ajid at the 

 time of his deatli he was engaged on a valuable monograph on 

 the anatomy of a British species oi Balanoglossus. In addition he 

 had almost completed a text-book of Man)malian Embryology. 



Assheton's untimely death was a real tragedy for British 

 zoology. We have far too few in\estigators with either his oppor- 

 tunities or his abihty to carry out experimental researches like 

 his; and yet researches of this kind throw more light on the real 

 " inwardness " of the processes of development than any amount 

 of purely descriptive work. 



In 1901 Dr. Assheton was appointed lecturer in biology in 

 Guy's Hospital, London, and held this post until 1914, when he 

 resigned it in order to accept the position of lecturer in animal 

 embryology in the University of Cambridge. In the latter year 

 also he received the well-merited honour of the Eellowship of the 

 Boyal Society ; an honour which alas ! he lived little more than a 

 year to enjoy. 



Dr. Assheton married the daughter of Sir Thomas Bazley, Bart., 

 and had a famil}^ of three, one son and two daughters. His son 

 accepted a commission in the 1st Cambridgeshire liegiment at the 

 outbreak of Mar. We are glad to learn that his widow, « ho is 

 also a Cambridge zoologist, is engaged in revising the work which 

 he left unfinished, so that we may entertain the hope that none 

 of it will be lost to the scientific world. Dr. Assheton had a wide 

 circle of friends who will miss sadly his kindly and endearing 

 presence. 



He was elected a Fellow of this Society on 1st June, 1893. 



[E. W. MacBride.] 



Frederick Makson Bailey, Colonial Botanist of Queensland, died 

 at Brisbane on June 25th, 1915. He was born in Hackney on 

 March 8th, 1827, and therefore in his 89th year at the time of his 

 death. In 1838 his father, John Bailey, who belonged to a family 

 of nurserymen and seedsmen in London, took him to Australia. 

 The father \Aas appointed Government Botanist of South Australia 

 and laid out the first botanic garden at Adelaide, but finding 

 himself subsequently obliged to resign the post, he set up as 

 nurseryman. Young Bailey assisted his father in the new business 



