Walter Holbrook Gaskell. 



xxxv 



in to sound argument, but not to be suppressed. ' By tbeir fruits you shall 

 know them.' — H. F. Gr." 



In reviewing Gaskell's work one cannot fail to be struck with the care- 

 fulness and accuracy of his observations. But the bent of his mind lay in 

 the direction of generalisation. A fact once definitely ascertained was never 

 viewed by him as an isolated phenomenon, it was used as a basis for 

 formulating some general rule. If he sometimes generalised too hastily, it 

 was but the defect of his virtue. The value of his work was widely recog- 

 nised. He was awarded a Boyal Medal of the Boyal Society in 1889, and at 

 various times was the recipient of honours both at home and abroad. 



One or two further events of his life and some personal characteristics 

 remain to be mentioned. In 1878 he proceeded to the Degree of M.D. by 

 Thesis, but he did not at any time practise medicine. Two or three years 

 after this he began a life-long part in the advanced teaching of Physiology 

 in the University. His subjects were those on which he had himself 

 worked, viz., the heart, the nervous mechanism of respiration, the sympa- 

 thetic system, and, at a later date, the origin of vertebrates. In 1883 he 

 was appointed University Lecturer. His style was incisive, and he spoke on 

 controversial points with a half-suppressed enthusiasm which was eminently 

 infectious. 



In 1888 he left Grantchester and took up his residence in Cambridge. In 

 the following year he was elected a Fellow of Trinity Hall, and was 

 appointed Prelector in Natural Science in the College. Living in a town 

 was not to his liking, and in 1893 he built a house — The Uplands — on 

 a hill-top in Great Shelford, opposite that on which perched Michael Foster's 

 house. Here he remained for the rest of his life. 



Gaskell attended but little the Congresses of Scientific Associations, 

 though he did not altogether shun them. He was President of Section I 

 of the British Association in 1896 at Liverpool, and attended the meetings 

 of the Association in Canada in 1897, and in South Africa in 1905, and took 

 the opportunity of seeing a good deal of these countries. He was present 

 also at one or two of the earlier triennial meetings of the International 

 Congress of Physiologists. He did not take much interest in the ordinary 

 business of the University, but he served on the University Council (1907- 

 1910), and if any broad question came before the Senate he was fairly 

 certain to be found on the Placet side. "When there was real need of his 

 services he did not grudge them. He served on the Boyal Commission on 

 Vivisection which was appointed in 1906, and the final report of which was 

 not issued till 1912 ; and he was a member of the Mosely Commission on 

 Education in America. 



As an undergraduate he rowed in the May races, played cricket and 

 racquets, and frequented the bathing sheds. Later on he enjoyed an 

 occasional set of lawn tennis, but, in general, active exercise did not 

 greatly attract him. In recreation, as, indeed, in work, he took through- 

 out life a somewhat leisurely course. He liked both work and play, 



