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TONE'l*. 1007^ 



OBITUARY. 



T^ROEESSOR ALFRED NEWTON. 



We re-reb to amiounce tliat Professor Alfred 

 N-wton died-ar Cambridge last Friday mormng. 

 Alfred NSv.'ton, wlio^ was bom at Geneva 

 in 1829 was the fifth son of William Newton, 

 Silvel.: S.^olk who for. spe years -P- 

 sented tho borough of IP^^ich m Pai ament 

 and of Elizabeth, daughter of R; f' Milnes ot 

 Frvston, Yorkshire, formerly member of 1 arlia 

 ment D tork. He was educated privately until 

 he entered Magdalene College Cambr^ge whxdx 

 for the next 57 years was to prove his home. 

 XLr graduating in 1853, Alfred Newton began a 

 feiS of travels' which, until interrupted by an 

 accident, were extended into many lands, lie 

 Sed Iceland. Lapland, North America and the 

 West Indies, where his family at one time held 

 large estates, and in 1884 he accompanied bir 

 Edward Birkbeck to Spitzbergen. He was a keen 

 yachtsman, and for years his summer t^oluL^y was 

 spent vachting with the late Mr. Henry Evans, of 

 Sy , chiefly on the West Coast of Scotland. 



Professor Newton had always taken the keenest 

 interest in natural history, especially m zoology, 

 and when in 1866 the University was able to 

 establish a Professorship of Zoology aiid Com- 

 parative Anatomy, lie was elected. during 

 the 41 years ho occupied the chair he 

 immensely advanced the study of zoology m the 

 Ui^^ersit'^ It is perhaps worth -otic^ng that the 

 stipend of the professorship was but £300 a j^^J^r 

 In his lectures and in his conversation 1/ofessoi 

 Newton took tlie widest view of ^is subject but 

 in his writings ho mostly restricted himself to his 

 favourite group, the birds Amongst his boo.s 

 are the " Ornithology of Iceland J^^n^i'^^!"* 



Greenland," "A Dictionary of Birds and the 

 •'Oothoea -WolIeT-aia," a monumental work 

 which was begun in 1864. His "Zoology, firs 

 publislied in 1872, is a small book but a model 

 introduction to a great subject. H^ took 

 a keen interest in the vanishing fauna of oceanic 

 islands, and it is mainly owing to his energy and 

 advice tlvat the Sandwich Islands Committee has 

 so successfuUv worked that archipelago. In con- 

 lunction with ^liis brother. Sir Edward Newtor^ 

 Lmetime Governor of Mauritius, he succeeded 

 in getting together the best existing collection of 

 bones of the dodo and of the solitaire, the 

 description of which formec^^ 

 his more importa^ 



