36 Obituary Notices of Felloivs deceased. 



Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, was incapacitated by 

 illness, Nicholson acted as his deputy, and conducted the work through 

 the two succeeding sessions. In 1882 he was appointed to the Pro- 

 fessorship of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen, and 

 occupied the chair to the day of his death on January 19th of the present 

 year (1899). Nicholson was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1897. He was also a Fellow of the Geological, Linnsean, and many other 

 learned societies. In 1888 he was awarded the Lyell Medal of the 

 Geological Society.* 



Though Professor Nicholson's published writings give ample proofs 

 of his acumen and industry, no account of his life would be complete 

 which did not refer to the influence of his personality and to his powers 

 of exposition. He possessed all the qualifications of a successful teacher. 

 The success of his Swiney Lectures has already been mentioned, and he 

 was equally successful in the lecture rooms and laboratories of the various 

 Universities with which he was from time to time connected. Those 

 who attended his lectures were impressed by his dignified manner, ease 

 of delivery, and clearness of style, as well as by the excellence of the 

 subject matter of his discourses. It is written of him that "He never 

 had to keep order : discipline was the atmosphere of his lecture room. " 

 His lectures were illustrated by beautiful diagrams, which were his own 

 work. The difficulties which he overcame will be appreciated when it 

 is remembered that in these days of specialisation, when many large 

 Universities require two or three teachers of one subject, each of whom 

 devotes himself to the elucidation of one special branch of that subject, 

 Nicholson undertook to teach Geology in addition to Zoology. Cir- 

 cumstances so moulded his life that it was his duty to teach Zoology, 

 but it was the history of past times and of the now extinct beings 

 which then dwelt on the earth which exercised the greatest fascination 

 over him. It was his duty to teach Zoology, but he also taught 

 Geology with so much success at Aberdeen, that, in a very few years- 

 after commencing- his g-eological course, his class contained about 

 eighty students. In connection with his geological course he was wont 

 to take his students to some centre, such as Appleby, where he could 

 give practical instruction out of doors. These excursions were evi- 

 dently appreciated very highly, as well they might be, for Nicholson 

 was perhaps at his best when wandering among his native fells, hammer 

 in hand, but of this more anon. 



The simplicity and clearness which marked his lectures are also 

 characteristic of his educational works. He wrote several of these, 

 treating of Geology as well as Zoology. Those which are best known 

 are his ' Manual of Zoology,' which has reached the seventh edition, 

 ' The Ancient Life-History of the Earth,' in which fossils are treated 



* Many of the facts which are recorded above are taken from a notice which 

 appeared in ' The Daily Free Press ' (Aberdeen) for January 20, 1899. 



