Obituary Notice of Ramsay H. Traquair. 45 
Ramsay Heatley Traquair was born at Rhynd in Perthshire on 50th July 
1840. His early education was received in Edinburgh, whose University he 
afterwards entered as a student of medicine. He graduated there in 1862, 
receiving a gold medal for his thesis, the subject of which had an intimate 
relationship to the work of his after life. The researches involved in this 
memoir, which was on the “Asymmetry of the Pleuronectide,” probably 
struck the key-note to which his life-long studies were attuned, for we find 
him ever afterwards regarding the skeleton of the fish, especially when 
fossilised, as the subject most worthy of his attention. Although the various 
official positions he from time to time occupied necessitated the enlargement 
of his horizon, yet we find him returning again and again to his favourite 
subject. This remarkable singleness of purpose, coupled with his brilliant 
powers of research and deduction, led to his rapidly becoming one of the 
most distinguished authorities in his own line of investigation, viz. 
Paleichthyology, and it is no exaggeration to say that his careful and 
laborious work completely revolutionised the classification and nomenclature 
of the earlier investigators. His numerous discoveries among the fossil fishes 
of his native country have proved of inestimable value to the zoologist and 
geologist alike, for they have thrown a flood of light, in the first place, on the 
relationships and systematic position of several extinct families, and, secondly, 
on the age of the various strata containing their remains. 
A word should be said, too, on the important work he accomplished while 
occupying the chief official position of his life, namely, that of Keeper of the 
Natural History Department in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, 
afterwards the Royal Scottish Museum. Being the first to occupy this post, 
he laid the foundations of the scientific arrangement of the important 
collections in this Museum, inaugurating a type-collection for University and 
other students which has proved of the utmost value. In classifying the 
general collections on exhibition, one of the main ideas which the Doctor 
always laid stress upon was that fossil remains were to be regarded from 
the zoological or botanical point of view rather than from the geological. 
Perhaps his most important achievement during his term of Keepership was the 
formation of an exceptionally fine collection of fossil fishes, chiefly from the 
older Scottish rocks—a collection which, for its local value and interest, is 
probably second to none. 
Apart from his special knowledge and qualifications Dr Traquair possessed 
a remarkable general knowledge. He was keenly interested in Lepidoptera, 
especially exotic butterflies, and this is reflected to some extent in the fine 
Museum collection formed under his care. He was a fine linguist, and 
exhibited a strong partiality for the German language, literature, and people. 
