374 



NATURE 



[February i6, 1899 



1 



THOMAS NINCKS, F.R.S. 



IT is little more than a month since an obituary notice 

 of George James AUman appeared in these pages, 

 and death has now claimed another distinguished worker 

 in the same field. The Rev. Thomas Hincks, who died 

 at Clifton on January 25, was but si.x years younger 

 than Allman, having lieen born at Exeter on July 15, 

 1818. Allman's best-known works are his monographs on 

 GymnoblaStic Hydroidsand Fresh-water Polyzoa. Hincks' 

 monographs on the same subjects, "A History of the 

 British Hydroid Zoophytes" (1868) and "A History of 

 the British Marine Polyzoa" (1880) are, by an unusual 

 coincidence, more widely known and appreciated than 

 any of his other works. The former was published 

 while the sheets of the " Gymnoblastic Hydroids" were 

 passing through the press, and .'Vllman's opinion of it, 

 recorded in his preface, may fitly be quoted here : — 

 "Eminently critical, with the descriptions accurate and 

 lucid, and with the figures abundant and expressive, it is 

 the most complete systematic work on the Hydroida 

 hitherto published. The large amount of original ob- 

 servations gives it a special value, and its fulness of 

 description and illustration renders it indispensable to 

 every student of the Hydroida." 



The praise bestowed on the "Hydroid Zoophytes" 

 must be accorded in the fullest measure to the " Marine 

 Polyzoa." This work constitutes a new departure, con- 

 taining as it does an account so accurate and critical of 

 the British Polyzoa as to have influenced all later work on 

 this group of animals, and to have made it the best 

 general monograph on the marine Polyzoa which exists 

 in any language. 



Hincks' monographs are the ripe results of independent 

 and accurate observation, ranging over the whole area of 

 the subject treated. He was accustomed to take a broad 

 and comprehensive view of his subject-matter ; and the 

 classification of the marine Polyzoa in particular owes 

 not a little to his insight. The selection of characters by 

 which to discriminate genera and families was a subject 

 to which he gave special attention ; and he was a success- 

 ful advocate of the view that the surest test of affinities 

 in the Polyzoa is the character of the individual or 

 zoa^cium rather than that of the entire colony. The 

 encrusting Cheilostomes formerly known as Lepralia, 

 and the erect bilaminate species formerly referred to 

 the genus Eschara, were thus distributed among widely 

 separated genera, whose characters probably rest on a 

 firmer foundation than those recognised by the older 

 naturalists. Questions connected with the natural 

 history of zoophytes always excited Hincks' particular 

 interest ; and many curious phenomena shown by the 

 living forms have become familiar as the result of his 

 observations. 



Most of Hincks' papers appeared in the Annals and 

 Alagazine of Natural History, between the years 1851 

 and 1893. Hydrozoa at first came in for the larger share 

 of his attention, but latterly the Polyzoa claimed almost 

 the whole of it. The series of papers entitled "Con- 

 tributions towards a General History of the Marine 

 Polyzoa" were republished in a collected form in 1894 ; 

 and one of .Mr. Hincks' last pieces of work was the 

 preparation of an index to this series, containing many 

 important additions, which appeared in 1895. This 

 volume is a most valuable record of systematic work, 

 carried out in an admirable manner. The publication of 

 papers on systematic zoology may be of very doubtful 

 benefit in unskilful hands ; but of Mr. Hincks' work it 

 can only be said that he enlightened all that he touched. 

 Difficult questions were treated as by the hand of a 

 master, and his wide knowledge and logical faculty led 

 him to conclusions which in most cases command assent. 

 Thomas Hincks was the son of the late Rev. William 

 Hincks, formerly professor of natural history at Toronto, 

 grandson of the late Dr. Thomas Dix Hincks, pro- 



NO. 1529, VOL. 59] 



fessor of Hebrew at Belfast, and nephew of the late Sir 

 Francis Hincks, a distinguished Canadian statesman, 

 at one time governor of Barbadoes, and of the late Dr. 

 E. Hincks, the well-known Egyptologist. He was 

 educated at Manchester New College, ^'ork, taking the 

 degree of B.A. at London in 1840, and became minister 

 of the Mill Hill Chapel at Leeds in 1S55, resigning in 

 1869 in consequence of the failure of his voice. He 

 afterwards lived at Taunton, and subsequently for many 

 years at Clifton, where he died. 



Mr. Hincks' name appears in the list of those who 

 attended the seventh meeting of the British Association 

 at Liverpool in 1837. He took an active part, at the 

 earliest stage, in the preparations for the recent meeting 

 of the Association at Bristol ; but failing health unfor- 

 tunately prevented him from taking any share in its pro- 

 ceedings last September. He was of active habits,devoted 

 to open-air labour in his garden until comparatively near 

 the close of his life, and it was probably owing to this 

 that he was able to continue his scientific work until a 

 year or two ago. He was a man of singular refinement 

 and dignity, a correct and convincing speaker, and was 

 distinguished for the zeal with which he threw himself 

 into all charitable and philanthropic work at Leeds, in 

 spite of the heavy and exhausting scientific work which 

 he undertook at a time occupied by absorbing pastoral 

 claims. He was a conspicuous example of the type of 

 naturalist, common in this country, who earn for them- 

 selves distinction during the leisure spared from the 

 performance of other duties. He became a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society in 1872, shortly after leaving Leeds. He 

 married in early life Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. John 

 Allen, of Warrington, who, with two daughters, survives 

 her husband. 



Mr. Hincks was the friend of Allman, Busk, and Prin- 

 cipal Dawson, as well as of Canon Xorman, Prof. 

 Mcintosh and Prof F. A. Smitt, of .Stockholm, whose 

 important works on the Polyzoa, published in Swedish, 

 he did so much to make known to English naturalists. 



The writer of these lines is indebted to Mr. W. A. 

 Shenstone for most of the personal details, but he is 

 able to add his own grateful testimony to the kindness 

 and courtesy shown by Mr. Hincks in his correspondence 

 with those who applied to him for information. 



The study of zoophytology is the poorer by the loss of 

 one whose work will endure. S. F. H. 



NOTES. 



Sir Wii.i.iam MacCormac, President of the Royal College 

 of Surgeons of England, delivered the Hunterian Oration on 

 Tuesday afternoon in the theatre of the college in the presence 

 of the Prince of Wales and a large and distinguished company. 

 He rapidly reviewed the events of Hunter's life, enumerated his 

 chief contributions to biological and surgical science, described 

 his methods in research and in instruction, and paid a warm 

 trilnile to the astonishing range of his investigations, the mag- 

 nitude of his actual achievement, and the far-reaching influence 

 he had exercised on the subsequent development of surgery. In 

 the course of his addreiis, the Times reporls him to have re- 

 marked : "In the first instance Hunter's work was biological, 

 his range including both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 

 and the mineral kingdom as well, and to illustrate his investi- 

 gations he became a collector. But he was chiefly and finally 

 a surgeon, and to the development of surgery he brought all 

 the knowledge and all the training which he had acquired in 

 other blanches of science. He carries us beyond mere handi- 

 craft and detail into the region of general principles and law. 

 The surgery of the .Middle Ages was a Hade, .\nibroise Pare 

 and Jean Louis Petit converted it into an art, John Hunter 

 elevated it to the rank of a science. Hunter's life and work in- 



