EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON 



AN APPRECIATION 



WHILE the whole civilised world mourns for the gallant 

 men who perished during the British Antarctic 

 Expedition, the author and publishers of A History 

 of British Mammals especially feel the loss of one who was 

 not the least heroic participator in that glorious misadventure, 

 Dr Edward Adrian Wilson, our artist. ' 



Encircled as his name is by the halo of a rare achieverrieht, 

 he represents to those who did not know him personally, some- 

 thing removed above the humdrum existence of ordinary men. 

 To us he was a comrade, workmate, warm-hearted friend of very 

 visible and entirely human flesh and blood. 



On the return. of Captain Scott's first Antarctic Expedition 

 in the Discovery in 1904, Wilson, hitherto practically unknown 

 either as artist or zoologist, attracted much attention ' by his 

 marvellous rendering of Antarctic scenery and animal • life. 

 His pictures of the seals and penguins brought those,' at that 

 time almost apocryphal creatures, before the public with 'a 

 vigour, fidelity of attitude, and brilliancy of colouring never, we 

 believe, previously attained. 



In admiration of these paintings we opened up negotiations 

 with the object of securing his services for our illustrations, 

 negotiations which were not hindered by the fact that author and 

 artist had at Cambridge attended the same lectures, frequented 

 the same laboratories, and finished equal in the Tripos of 1894. 

 To complete the parallel, both were candidates for appointment 



