LTNNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 65 



Bauk, Beckenham. Starting his school career at Temple Grove 

 School, he went to Winchester College and afterwards to New 

 College, Oxford, where he was given a scholarship in 1900. 

 After taking his degree in Zoologj^ he devoted himself to research 

 and to teaching, both in his college and in the Department of 

 Compai-ative Anatomy in the University Museum. In 1907 he 

 was elected Fellow and Lecturer of New College, and some years 

 later became Tutor. When the war broke out he volunteered 

 his services, joined the O.T.C., and soon obtained a commission 

 in the Rifle Brigade. He was killed by a shell in a trench just 

 captured from the Germans near Pozieres in France. 



Geoffrey Watkins Smith will be deeply regretted by all who 

 knew him. His was a particularly charming personality. Of a 

 most lovable character, of unfailing good humour and courtesy, 

 he endeared liimself to all tho.^e witli whom he came into contact. 

 His pupils and colleagues at Oxford were devoted to him no less 

 than the men he led at the front. A man of wide interests and 

 of a cheerful disposition, hethorouglily enjoyed the good things of 

 life. Fond of all kinds of si)ort, he excelled especially in lawn 

 tennis and golf. Smith delighted in good literature, whether 

 English or foreign, prose or poetry, and himself was author of 

 some delightful carols dedicated to " The lady who first told me 

 about Christmas." Indeed, the literary style of his scientific 

 writings adds much to their value. When a mere schoolboy he 

 contributed notes on birds to the 'Zoologist' (1898), and since then 

 has published a large number of original papers on various subjects 

 ranging from the Protozoa to the Vertebrata. But he soon devoted 

 his energies more especially to the Crustacea. It was not, however, 

 in mere systematics or even in morphology that Geoffrey Smith 

 was most interested, but rather in the wider problems of evolu- 

 tion and heredity as met with in the study of parasitism and sex. 

 Having taken his degree he went to Naples in 1903, and worked 

 on Gnatliia and on high and low Dimorphism in the Tanaidse 

 (Mitth. Zool. Sta. Neapel, 1904). At the request of Prof. Dohrn 

 he then undertook to write a monograph on the Rhizocephala. 

 This monograph, one of the most interesting of the series, 

 appeared in 190G, and contains many important contributions to 

 our knowledge of the structure and life-history of these remark- 

 able Crustacean parasites, and also of the strange effect on their 

 Crab hosts named parasitic castration by Giard, who first detected 

 it. It was the starting point for a series of "Studies in the 

 experimental analysis of sex," published in the ' Quarterly Journal 

 of Microsc. Science ' up to 1914, which formed Smith's most 

 important contribution to science. He showed that the maturing 

 female crab undergoes profound ciianges in fat metabolism as the 

 eggs are formed, and that the parasitic SaccuUna induces similar 

 ch;inge in the mala crab it infects — changes which are accompanied 

 not only by the development of female secondary characters, but 

 also of female primary sexual characters, if the parasite is got rid 

 of and the crab recovers. The male crab in fact is converted 



LINN. SOC. PBOCEEDINGS. — SESSION 1916-1917. / 



