William Henry Dallinger. 



V 



Wisdom," " Ants," " Wasps," " The Pond and its Minute Inhabitants." In 1887 

 he was chosen to deliver the seventeenth Fernley Lecture, the Lectureship 

 being a Wesleyan foundation. The lectures are delivered at the annual 

 Conference. Dallinger took as his subject " The Creator, and what we may 

 know of the Method of Creation." As a lecturer Dallinger was very 

 successful : he had a vivid descriptive style and a remarkable ability in 

 illustrating both verbally and by drawings his subject matter. He spared no 

 pains to make his matter attractive and even painted his own lantern slides ; 

 in this his remarkable artistic gifts were apparent. 



Some of his more important scientific articles are mentioned below. The 

 great service he did to students by editing and partly re-writing Carpenter's 

 book on " The Microscope " is worthy of record. 



Dallinger was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1880, and received 

 the degrees of LL.D. from Victoria University, Toronto, in 1884 ; D.Sc. from 

 Dublin in 1892; andD.C.L. from Durham in 1896. A striking photograph of 

 him is published in the 'Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society,' 1909. 



The original contributions made to Science by Dr. Dallinger were almost 

 •entirely confined to the investigation of certain flagellates. In conjunction 

 with his friend, the late Dr. J. Drysdale, of Liverpool, he succeeded in 

 working out the life-history of many of the minuter forms and of making 

 ■considerable advances in our knowledge of the processes of decomposition of 

 organic matter, and of the degree to which unicellular animals can survive 

 great changes in the temperature of their environment. The dominant 

 feature of the work of Dallinger and his colleague Dr. Di-ysdale was untiring 

 patience and unwearied application combined with a profound knowledge and 

 mastery over all the technique of the microscope. By using a binocular, one 

 individual flagellate could pass from the vision of one observer to that of the 

 other and thus on one occasion a motionless zygote was continuously watched 

 for thirty-six hours until it burst into a cloud of swarm spores ; on another 

 occasion Dallinger watched the same protozoon for a continuous period of nine 

 hours. By such persistent observation the life-histories of several of the 

 flagellates hitherto most incompletely known were worked out. The papers 

 in which the joint authors recorded the observations are characterised by a 

 singular modesty and simplicity of language. The simple organisms 

 investigated were not overwhelmed with long classical designations. 

 Dallingcria drysdalei (S.Kent) was to them "the hooked mona,A," Polytoma 

 uvella (Ehrb.) " the acorn monad," Tetramitus rostratus (Pertz) " the calycine 

 monad," and so on. 



Dallinger and Drysdale contributed important facts bearing on the theory 

 of " abiogenesis." With great manipulative skill and under the most rigorous 

 conditions they were able to show that though the temperature of boiling 

 water is fatal to flagellates in an active state, the spores of these animals can 

 resist a much higher temperature without suffering harm. For these minute 

 spores can sustain a heat up to 268° F. in water, and even up to 300° F. or 

 higher if in a dry state. The demonstration of these remarkable powers of 



