Obituary — Professor H. A. Nicholson. 139 



Natural History in the Extramural School of Medicine at Edinburgh, 

 and for a short time also he practised medicine. In 1871 he was 

 appointed to the chair of Natural History in the University of 

 Toronto, which he held for three years. During this period he 

 carried out successfully, not only his professorial duties, but also, 

 at the request of the Provincial Government of Ontario, an 

 investigation into the Fauna dredged up fi'om Lake Ontario, and 

 an examination of the fossils of the Silurian and Devonian rocks 

 of the province, of which he made an extensive collection. They 

 were described and figured in two lengthy Eeports, which were 

 published by the Government of Ontario. Professor Nicholson 

 was also entrusted by Dr. Newberry, the State Geologist of Ohio, 

 with the description of the Fossil Corals and Polyzoa of that State, 

 and his Report on them, accompanied by five quarto plates of figures, 

 drawn by Nicholson's own hand, appeared in the second volume of 

 the " Palaeontology of Ohio." 



During his residence in Toronto, also, his " Manual of Paleeon- 

 tology " was first published, and the first part of the Monograph of 

 the British Graptolites was issued in the same year (1872). 



It will be readily understood that to a man like Professor 

 Nicholson, with superabundant energy for original scientific work, 

 the somewhat isolated position of Toronto would be less favourable 

 for his special pursuit than a centre of learning within the British 

 Isles, and it is not therefore surprising that he should have availed 

 himself of an opportunity of returning homewards, which occurred 

 in 1874, when he was appointed Professor of Comparative Anatomy 

 and Zoology in the Royal College of Science, Dublin ; but before he 

 reached that city he was offered the more acceptable position of 

 Professor of Biology in the Durham College of Physical Science and 

 Medicine. For two sessions he lectured at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and 

 then he accepted the offer, unsolicited on his part, of the Chair of 

 Natural History in the University of St. Andrew's. 



At St. Andrew's, where Professor Nicholson remained seven j'ears 

 (1875-1882), he may be said to have created the study of Natural 

 History, and he likewise took a very active part in the extension of 

 University teaching to Dundee, and for several years delivered 

 systematic courses of lectures to the Ladies' Educational Association 

 of St. Andrew's, Dundee, and Cupar. At the same time he found 

 opportunity to carry out an immense amount of original work, more 

 particularly in the investigation of Fossil Corals, on which subject, 

 in addition to numerous minor papers, he published two elaborate 

 monographs — one " On the Structure and Affinities of the ' Tabulate 

 Corals ' of the Paleozoic Period," in 1879 ; the other " On the 

 Structure and Affinities of the Genus Mouticulipora and its Sub- 

 genera," in 1881. Another important monograph of this period, 

 produced in collaboration with Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., is that on 

 the Silurian Fossils of the Girvan District in Ayrshire. To this 

 original work may be added a popular volume on " The Ancient 

 Life-History of the Earth," fresh editions of the Manual and Text- 

 Bouks of Zoology, and, in 1879, a second ediliou of the Manual of 



