an Wemoriam. 
ALFRED MILNES MARSHALL. 
THosE who knew the late Prof. Marshall well could not bring 
themselves to believe the first newspaper reports which gave out 
that on December 31st, 1893, he had met his death by an accident 
on Scafell. He was so careful and dexterous a mountaineer that 
his friends thought it impossible for him to have made a serious 
mistake on so easy a mountain. Many of us had seen him only 
a few days before full of life and strength, and it seemed incredible 
that he should be lying dead. 
But the incredible story turned out true, and with a deep sense 
of loss we have now to go on as best we can with the work of 
various kinds to which his activity and good sense seemed essential. 
Biology and the Victoria University and the Owens College are the 
poorer for his sudden death. 
The personal history of a student is seldom eventful, and 
Marshall’s story is in the main a story of straightforward, hard work. 
He was born in Birmingham in 1852. After graduating in science 
in the University of London, he proceeded to St. John’s College, 
Cambridge, where he came under the personal influence of the late 
F. M. Balfour, who was his guide to Morphology and Embryology. 
I have been told that as an undergraduate Marshall was noticed for 
his appearance of extreme youth, a peculiarity which lasted for 
several years. A more useful feature was the early development of 
that exact and full memory which proved so valuable to his mature 
studies. It has been said that he never had to look up a word in 
the dictionary a second time. This is an exaggeration, for his 
memory, though full and accurate, was not faultless. He took 
a brilliant degree, winning the first place in the Natural Science 
tripos of 1874. Next year he worked for five months at the Naples 
Zoological Station. He was subsequently elected fellow of his 
college. Having studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 
Marshall was preparing for practice, when his election to the newly- 
created chair of Zoology in the Owens College gave him the right 
Opening. He was admitted to the Royal Society in 1885, and 
served on the Council in 1891-2 : 
Marshall was before everything else a Zoologist, attending to 
morphology and development in preference to other sides of his 
subject. Trained in a school which valued accuracy of detail, and 
naturally prone to that sort of scepticism (the “hdtige Skepsis of 
