THE RETIREMENT OF L I E U T E N A N T- 

 COLONEL AECOCK. 



Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Alcock, C.I.E., M.B., EL.D., F.R.S., 

 came to India as a member of the Indian Medical Service in April 

 1886, having already had considerable experience of the country, 

 and having also been Assistant Professor of Zoology in the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen under the late Professor H. A. Nicholson, 

 F.R.S. After two years spent on the North-west Frontier as 

 Medical Ofiticer, he was appointed Surgeon Naturalist to the Indian 

 Marine Survey. In 1891 he ofhciated for some months as Resident 

 Physician and Professor of Pathology at the Calcutta jVIedical 

 College, and in September 1892 was appointed Deputy vSanitary 

 Commissioner, Metropolitan and Eastern Bengal Circle. In May 

 1893 he became Superintendent of the Indian Museum and 

 Professor of Zoology at the Medical College ; from June 1895 to 

 Januar}' 1896 he was on special duty with the Pamir Commission. 

 He retired from the Indian Medical vService and the Superintendent- 

 ship of the Museum on December 29th, 1907. The Trustees of the 

 Museum, at their meeting held on December 6th, passed the 

 following resolution as regards his retirement, and directed that a 

 notice of his connection with the Museum should be published as 

 a mark of their esteem : — 



" As Eieutenant-Colonel Alcock 's approaching retirement from 

 " Government service has been gazetted since the last meeting of 

 '"' the Trustees, they take the earliest oi)])ortunity to express their 

 *' sense of the value of his work in India to the ^^luseum and to 

 " the science of Zoology. It is not within their i)rovince to 

 '' comment upon his scientific researches, which have received the 

 " approbation of the scientific world in Europe and America, but 

 " they are well aware that it is to Colonel Alcock that the excellent 

 ' ' arrangement of the bulk of the research collections in the Museum 

 " and of several of the j)ublic galleries is entirely due. His wide 

 " knowledge, untiring diligence, and scientific acumen are acknow- 

 " ledged by all who have been connected with the Museum. The 

 "Trustees are gratified to hear that Colonel Alcock does not in- 

 " tend to sever his connection with the Museum entirely, but 

 ' ' proposes to continue in England his invaluable work upon the 

 " collection of Crustacea." 



Colonel Alcock's connection with the Indian Museum may be 

 said to have commenced when he became Surgeon Naturalist on 

 the Indian Marine Survey Ship " Investigator." Year by year in 

 the monsoon season when the ship was laid up in Bombay harbour, 

 he came to work in Calcutta on the material dredged during the 

 preceding winter, and thus established an association with the late 



