170 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



was then Demonstrator, and Curator of the Museum, but riot yet 

 Professor. Acland appears to have worked in the Edinburgh Museum 

 under Goodsir's direction for two years with great industry, and no 

 doubt acquired a very thorough knowledge both of human and 

 comparative anatomy. 



In 1845, when a vacancy occurred in Dr. Lee's Readership in 

 Anatomy at Christ Church, Oxford, he became a candidate for the 

 post and was elected. He thereupon prepared to convey his anatomical 

 preparations to Oxford, and with this view returned from Edinburgh 

 by sea, bringing with him not only his collection, but also his 

 invaluable assistant, Mr. Charles Robertson, whose life from that day 

 to the present time has been with perfect fidelity given to the service 

 of the University. 



Acland's arrival in Oxford from Edinburgh Math his skeletons and 

 dissections was an incident deserving commemoration, for it marked 

 the introduction into the studies of the University of a new element 

 the study of living nature, or as we now call it, of biology. Acland's 

 predecessor, Dr. Kidd, had complied with the conditions under which 

 he held the office, by giving instruction in human anatomy with the 

 aid of models and a certain number of permanent preparations ; among 

 which a skeleton, which hung from the ceiling of the dingy room which 

 was appropriated to the Reader, is remembered as most conspicuous. 

 Acland, on his appointment, appears to have at once resolved that he 

 would teach anatomy as he had learned it from Goodsir. Although 

 the Founder of the Christ Church Readership (Dr. Lee) had strictly 

 defined the subject to be taught, directing that the holder of the office 

 should confine himself to " explaining arid regularly demonstrating 

 ... all parts of the human body with their uses," he considered 

 himself to be justified in giving a much wider range to his teaching. 

 He, however, followed Dr. Lee's directions so far as to divide his 

 course of lectures and practical instruction into two parts ; in one he 

 described the form and structure of the parts of man and animals 

 (Anatomy), and in the other their uses (Physiology). As the whole 

 course was completed in thirty lectures, he could not do more (as he 

 stated to the University Commissioners of 1851) than give his hearers 

 " a sketch of the general nature of the objects of anatomical and 

 physiological knowledge " his aim being to secure for natural science 

 a place in liberal education, not to train either anatomists or 

 physiologists. 



The change that was thus made in the subject of the Readership 

 (which be it remembered constituted the only means of instruction 

 then available in the University for students of biology) had several 

 consequences, each of which had an important relation to future 

 progress. One of these was that for nearly 40 years Oxford ceased 



