Vol. 55.] ANNIVERSAKT ADDRESS Or THE PRESIDENT. IxV 



^v^otices of his career, to which I am indebted, and tributes to 

 ]iis high personal qualities and power of teaching, have already- 

 come to us from that University.^ 



Nicholson twice held the Swiney Lectureship in Geology — from 

 1877 to 1880 and from 1890 to 1892, and he served as Sir Wyville 

 Thomson's deputy in the University of Edinburgh during 1878 and 

 the two succeeding years. 



This long and varied professorial career, in Canada, in England, 

 and in Scotland, was accompanied by much original work, especially 

 with regard to Palaeozoic invertebrata : — graptolites, stromatoporoids, 

 corals, and polyzoa. On all these groups he has written special 

 monographs or papers of great importance. To the scene of 

 his earliest stratigraphical work, the Lake District, he returned 

 again and again, sometimes working with the late Prof. Harkness, 

 and, later on, with Mr. Marr, and our Journal has often been enriched 

 by his pen. Mcholson, besides doing all this original work, wrote 

 several text-books on zoology, his well-known ' Manual of Zoology ' 

 having now reached a 6th edition, and his 'Manual of Palae- 

 ontology,' which has long been the standard work of reference in 

 this country, being now in its 3rd edition. 



The value of such a man's life and labours, however, is not 

 to be gauged simply by his published books and papers or by his 

 success as a teacher. We must also take into account the personal 

 help and encouragement which he gave to others, and such services 

 were at all times frankly and generously rendered by Nicholson, 

 whose kindly genial nature, moreover, made his companionship of 

 the pleasantest. All of us were glad when he was elected a Eellow 

 of the Koyal Society in 1897, and several of us wondered that this 

 event had not happened many years earlier. 



I cannot conclude this short notice better than by quoting the 

 words of one who worked with him, knew him well, and is most 

 able to appreciate his work, our former Secretary, Mr. Marr, who is 

 himself preparing a notice for the Eoyal Society. In a letter to me, 

 written soon after Nicholson's death, after speaking of his most 

 important palaeontological works, Mr. Marr says that as historian of 

 the Graptolites ' he will take his place with Barrande, Hall, and 

 Lapworth,' and then adds, ' His stratigraphical work was also 

 excellent. His discoveries in the Lake District are of permanent 

 value and of far more than local importance. He was a very careful 



^ See 'Alma Mater, Aberdeen Univ. Mag.' vol. xvi, pp. 115-119, 121, 122^ 

 & portrait. 



