1911.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. cxix 
Alfred William Alcock was born in England in 1859 and 
was educated at Westminster School. After some years 
spent in India he took up the study of medicine in the 
University of Aberdeen, in which he was appointed Assistant 
Professor of Zoology in 1883. In 1885 he joined the Indian 
Medical Service, and from 1886 to 1888 served as medical 
officer with the Punjab Frontier Force. He was appointed 
Surgeon Naturalist to the Marine Survey of India in the 
latter year and held the post for four years, being appointed 
Superintendent of the Indian Museum and Professor of Zoology 
in the Calcutta Medical College in 1893, a joint post which he 
vacated for a short time to serve with the Pamir Boundary 
Commission of 1895. It was not until 1907, however, that he 
finally retired both from his scientific appointments in Calcutta 
and from the Indian Medical Service. Shortly after returning 
to England he was appointed Professor of Arthropodology in 
the London School of Tropical Medicine, a chair which he 
still occupies. 
The value of Col. Alcock’s zoological work has been recog- 
nized by the distinctions he has received in Europe. He is a 
Fellow of the Royal Society, an LL.D. (honoris causa) of the 
University of Aberdeen, a Corresponding Member of the Zoolo- 
literary skill to write. 
Last but not least among his services to the science of 
zoology must be reckoned the work he did for the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal. Not only were his papers for several years 
the most important contributed to our ‘‘Journal’’ so far as 
zoology was concerned, but he served as an officer of the 
