SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



EDWIN RAY LANKESTER, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. 



TI 7E are very pleased to hear that Professor 

 Edwin Ray Lankester has been nominated 

 to follow Sir William Flower as the new Director 

 of the British Museum of Natural History, South 

 Kensington. Professor Lankester is the eldest son of 

 Dr. Edwin Lankester, F.R.S. , a former well-known 

 coroner for the County of Middlesex. He was born 

 May 15th, 1847, at Old Burlington Street, London, 

 and educated at St. Paul's School and at Christ 

 Church College, Oxford. Professor Lankester early 

 developed a taste for zoological investigations. This 

 taste he inherited from his father and his mother, 

 both of whom were notable for their association 

 with the study of natural science. Dr. Lankester, 

 the coroner, who was born in Suffolk in 1814 and 

 died in 1874, held among other posts the secretary- 

 ship of the Ray Society. During that period the 

 subject of this notice was born, 

 hence the second name. The father 

 wrote numerous papers and several 

 works on natural history and 

 social science. Dr. Lankester was 

 also secretary of Section D of 

 the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, and an 

 original "Red Lion" or member 

 of the celebrated extra-gathering 

 for convivial purposes connected 

 with the Association's meetings. 

 Mrs. Lankester, his wife, was a 

 popular writer, especially on wild 

 flowers and their folk-lore. Around 

 the parents was gathered from 

 time to time most of those worth 

 knowing in scientific circles, and 

 it was among these and their 

 influence that Edwin Ray Lankester was reared. 



On leaving Christ Church, Ray Lankester was 

 appointed Fellow and Lecturer of Exeter College, 

 Oxford, in 1872, and the Professorship of Zoology 

 and Comparative Anatomy in University College, 

 London, followed in 1874. There he has long and 

 successfully presided over the fine laboratories and 

 museum founded by aid of the Jodrell bequest. 

 Among other honours, Professor Lankester is an 

 honorary LL.D. of the University of St. Andrews, 

 and was made a F.R.S. in 1875. He is a M.A., 

 and an Examiner in the Universities of Cambridge, 

 London, and New Zealand. He has written more 

 than a hundred monographs and memoirs, gener- 

 ally on comparative subjects in natural science. 

 Some of the more important are : " A Monograph 

 of the Fossil Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone 

 of Britain"; "Comparative Longevity"; "The 

 Developmental History of Mollusca " ; " Degenera- 



Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. 



tion : a Chapter in Darwinism " ; " Limulus an 

 Arachnid ; " and many articles in the last edition of 

 the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " ; the latter have 

 been published in book form. He has been con- 

 nected with the " Quarterly Journal of Microsco- 

 pical Science," as editor, since 1869, when he 

 joined his father in that work. 



Dr. Ray Lankester has also been a departmental 

 secretary of the British Association, and was 

 President of the Biological Section at the South- 

 port Meeting in 1883. For a short time, about a 

 fortnight only, in 1882, he was Regius Professor at 

 Edinburgh ; but finding that unexpected and un- 

 satisfactory changes were made, which hampered 

 his opportunities to develop the museum and 

 laboratories, he, with his characteristic indepen- 

 dence of spirit, immediately resigned, and was at 

 once re-elected to his post of 

 Jodrell Professor in London. 



In 1888 Professor Ray Lankester 

 founded the Marine Biological 

 Association of Great Britain, 

 which, among other functions, 

 built and conducts the celebrated 

 biological laboratory and aquarium 

 at Plymouth. In 1882 Dr. Ray 

 Lankester was elected to the 

 Council of the Royal Society, 

 and became a medallist in 1885, 

 in recognition of his discoveries 

 in zoology and palaeontology. In 

 1 89 1 he was appointed Linacre 

 Professor of Human and Com- 

 parative Anatomy at Oxford. 



We have already spoken of Dr. 

 Edwin Ray Lankester's inde- 

 pendence of character ; to that may be added an 

 absence of conventionalism and detestation of 

 humbug. This was manifested by his prosecution 

 and obtaining the conviction, at Bow Street Police 

 Station in 1876, of the spiritualistic "medium," 

 Slade, as a " common rogue and vagabond." 

 We have little doubt that this independence 

 of thought, coupled with his long and popular 

 association with the numerous science students 

 who have passed under his instruction, will 

 eminently fit him for the new post to which he 

 has been elected. At least, few men know better 

 the requirements necessary to make the Natural 

 History department of the British Museum of 

 value to those for whom it is really intended — the 

 students of natural science. We congratulate Dr. 

 Lankester on his appointment as Director, and 

 trust he will long have the opportunity of develop- 

 ing the magnificent collections. J.T.C. 



