24a' Ohiti(ari/—Dr. C. Rickctls, F.G.S. 



CHARLES RICKETTS, M.D., F.G.S. 



Boiix 1818. Died February 29, 1904. 



Born about 1818 at Tichfield, Hants, Charles Ricketts was- 

 educated at Bath, having previously attended a preparatory school at 

 Stubbington, where he appears to have shown an interest in geology, 

 as he treasured in liis collection the first fossil he obtained from 

 tbe Hampshire cliffs. 



After graduating in Medicine he went to the North of England 

 in 1845 or 1846, and although he was some time in Lancaster and 

 tbe neighbourhood, the principal part of his life since then was 

 spent in Birkenhead, where he practised as a physician. 



He was elected a member of the Geological Society of London in 

 1867 ; he frequently attended the meetings, and in 1885 contributed 

 a paper '* On Erratics in the Boulder-clay of Cheshire, etc., and the 

 Conditions of Climate they denote" (Q.J.G.S., vol. xli, pp. 591-8). 



The bulk of his papers were read to the Liverpool Geological 

 Society, of which he became a member in 1863. He was elected 

 to the Council in 1865, and served as President in 1870-2 and again 

 in 1889-90. He read his first paper to the Liverpool Geological 

 Society in 1865 " On a Wooden Liiplement found in Bidston Moss," 

 and in it he incidentally refers to the action of deposition and 

 depression, a subject on which he held original views, which were 

 fully elaborated in his Presidential addresses of 1871 and 1872. In 

 these addresses he strove to prove that the relation of denudation 

 and deposition to elevation and depression were those of cause and 

 effect. The convolution of strata caused by the differential weight 

 of ovei'lyiug deposits was illustrated by numerous models, some of 

 which were exhibited at one of the conversaziones of the Eoyal Society. 

 These were constructed by him and are still in existence. He 

 further developed his ideas in a communication to the Geological 

 Magazine " On some Physical Changes in the Earth's Crust " in 

 1889 (pp. 49, 115, and 165), in which he discusses the views of 

 some leading geologists on the same subject. It was in his^ 

 Presidential address of 1872 that he attributed earthquakes to 

 movements of faults, and anticipated the theory now generally held. 

 He also wrote on the Carboniferous Limestone and on glacial 

 phenomena, to which he gave much attention. Twenty-five of his 

 papers are printed in the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society. He was an active member of the Naturalists' Field 

 Club and other Societies. On leaving the neighbourhood he pre- 

 sented his valuable and extensive collection to University College 

 (now the University of Liverpool). 



He was a careful observer, an original thinker, and an indefatigable 

 worker in the field, till absolutely prevented by the weight of 

 increasing years. His kindlj'^ and unselfish disposition endeared 

 him to all who knew him, and had he been less unobtrusive his 

 work would probablj' have attracted more genei'al notice. 



On leaving Birkenhead about four years ago for his native county 

 he was elected an honorary member of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society. He died at Curdbridge, Hants, on 29th February last, at 

 the advanced age of 86. T. M. R. 



