xviii Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



eventful period in science; it is undoubted that as regards biology, 

 physiology, and pathology, the latter half of the nineteenth century has been 

 creative. The propitious moment in these provinces of science arrived about 

 the year 1850, and with the birth of the new movement came the men fitted 

 by their endowments to accelerate its progress. The part which Burdon- 

 Sanderson took in directing the course of this movement as regards pathology 

 and physiology, stamps him as one of those masters who mould the thought 

 of a generation. 



Various distinctions, unsought by him but valued as indicating public 

 appreciation of work done for science, were bestowed upon him. He was 

 selected on five different occasions to serve on the Council of the Society, was 

 awarded a Koyal Medal, was appointed Croonian Lecturer on three separate 

 occasions, was the recipient of many honorary degrees, was made a member 

 of the chief Foreign Scientific Academies, and in 1899 was created a baronet. 

 His appreciation of these distinctions caused no change in those traits which 

 endeared him to the large circle of his friends, for he always retained that 

 charming simplicity of character and of life which, when associated with 

 great intellectual gifts, increases the affectionate and reverent regard of others. 



He was a man of wide sympathies, intellectual and artistic, with an 

 appreciative taste in art and music which was only realised by his more 

 intimate friends. 



The breadth of his views and the commanding position which he held in 

 the scientific world augmented the regard in which he was held by the 

 University of Oxford and by the particular society, Magdalen College, with 

 which he was associated for twenty-three years, first as Professorial and later 

 as Honorary Fellow. The peculiar charm of his individuality and character 

 secured the devoted attachment of a wider circle. There are many to whom 

 he was that " true friend to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, 

 suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it," 

 many to whom the memory of his intimate friendship will remain as one of 

 the abiding joys of life. 



During his tenure of the Kegius Professorship of Medicine at Oxford, the 

 condition of his health was several times such as to cause his friends much 

 uneasiness, and particularly when, at the close of the year 1903, he felt 

 compelled to resign the Chair. It was a source of unbounded satisfaction to 

 him to realise that, by the appointment of Dr. Osier as his successor, the 

 continued development of medical study in Oxford was assured, and that the 

 task set before him when he left London in 1882 was practically accom- 

 plished. For him, as for many others who have spent their lives in the 

 service of science, the words of Bacon form an appropriate epitaph — " But, 

 believe it, the sweetest Canticle is Nunc dimittis, when a man hath obtained 

 worthy ends and expectations." F. G. 



(The photograph which is reproduced in the frontispiece to this account 

 was taken by Miss Acland, at Oxford, in the year 1894, who kindly lent the 

 negative for the use of the collotypers.) 



