Adam Sedgwick. 



xxv 



University consented to create a Eeaclership in Animal Morphology at the 

 small salary of £100 a year, and to this Adam Sedgwick was appointed. 

 He had already been elected Fellow of his College in 1880 and he was now 

 created Lecturer, and so he was enabled to earn an income sufficient to» 

 support himself. It is greatly to the credit of the Fellows of Trinity College 

 that, by their action at this juncture, they endowed biological science and 

 enabled the work of Balfour to be carried on. 



The Chair of Zoology was occupied at this time by Alfred Newton, who- 

 represented the systematic side of the science, and so for twenty-five years,, 

 until Newton's death in 1907, Sedgwick acted as Professor of Morphology 

 and Embryology without either the emoluments or the University status 

 of a Professor. The work begun in Balfour's little laboratory (originally a 

 couple of rooms in the department of Physiology) grew in importance, and 

 room was created for it by raising the roof of the engineering laboratory 

 by means of jack-screws, and thus intercalating a new series of rooms between 

 the roof and what had previously been the uppermost storey of the building. 

 In the lofts thus improvised, Adam Sedgwick, by his perseverance and) 

 enthusiasm, built up one of the finest schools of zoological research in the- 

 world. The teaching of animal biology, especially on its practical side, was- 

 systematised by him to a degree that had never been attempted before, and 

 was converted into a thoroughly sound intellectual discipline. Around him. 

 were gathered an eager band of researchers, amongst whom were students from 

 the United States and from Japan. Indeed, the School of Zoology at Tokio- 

 may be said to be the child of the school at Cambridge, for Mitsukuri, its 

 founder, began his researches in Cambridge. The pupils of the Cambridge- 

 school went all over the country to occupy important positions in zoology ; 

 amongst them may be mentioned Weldon, late Professor of Zoology in 

 Oxford; Bateson.Dh'ector of the John Innes Horticultural Eesearch Institution;. 

 Graham Kerr, Professor of Zoology in the University of Glasgow ; Hickson,. 

 Professor of Zoology in Manchester. Sedgwick literally lived in the 

 laboratory, bringing the influence of his splendid personality to bear on all 

 his pupils, kindling their enthusiasm, guiding and supervising their researches, 

 and making a most enduring impression on their minds. 



In 1883 Sedgwick made a voyage to the Cape, where he remained some- 

 months in order to study the embryology of that strange animal Peripatus, 

 which by some naturalists was (and is to this day) classed as an Annelid,, 

 whilst others regarded it as the lowliest member of the group Arthropoda. 

 The fruits of this expedition were a remarkable series of memoirs published 

 in the ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,' which demonstrated 

 beyond cavil that Peripatus is indeed an Arthropod, but one of such primitive 

 character that it might also be regarded as the veritable "missing link'" 

 between Annelida and Arthropoda. The relation to one another of blood- 

 spaces and body- cavity were made clear once for all, and a whole mist of 

 misinterpretation cleared away from the ideas which had previously prevailed, 

 on the structure and relationships of the Arthropoda. Whilst the publication. 



