vii 



THOMAS WILLIAM BKIDGE, 1848—1909. 



Thomas William Bridge, the eldest son of the late Thomas Bridge, was born 

 in Birmingham on November 5, 1848.* He received his early education at 

 the Moseley School, and later attended science classes at the Midland 

 Institute in Birmingham. In November, 1869, he became private assistant to 

 Mr. J. W. Clark, then Superintendent of the University Museum of Zoology 

 at Cambridge, and now Eegistrar of the University. He did not matriculate 

 until 1871 and he entered Trinity College as a Foundation Scholar in 1873. 

 A Demonstratorship of Comparative Anatomy having been established in the 

 University in the latter year, Bridge was nominated to the post by the late 

 Prof. Newton, his duties consisting in conducting a practical class in Compara- 

 tive Anatomy, in addition to his work in the Museum. We are informed in 

 the Annual Report of the Museums and Lectm^e Eooms Syndicate for 1873 

 that his class was well attended and that his pupils derived much profit from 

 his instruction. 



After graduating by means of the Natural Sciences Tripos (1875), Bridge 

 spent six months at the Zoological Station at Naples. The outcome of this 

 visit was the paper on the " Fori abdominales of Vertebrata." Eeturning to 

 Cambridge, he again took up his duties as Demonstrator, and was engaged as 

 before in teaching and curatorial work. The Cambridge Museum still 

 possesses many admirable dissections, particularly osteological preparations of 

 Fishes, which were prepared by him at this time and earlier. 



In February, 1879, he was appointed, in succession to Dr. Leith Adams, 

 F.R.S., to the Professorship of Zoology in the Eoyal College of Science for 

 Ireland, vacating it a year later on his election to the Chair of Biology at 

 Mason College, Birmingham, then just about to be opened. In 1882 he 

 became the first Professor of Zoology in Mason College on the division of 

 Biology into Zoology and Botany ; and with the development of that institution 

 into a University in 1900 he became Mason Professor of Zoology, a position 

 he held until his death. 



From 1880 onwards, as in his early life. Bridge's interests were entirely in 

 Birmingham. His official duties naturally occupied a large proportion of his 

 time, and his connection with a young and expanding institution rendered 

 these claims so exacting as to give him but little leisure for research. It was 

 no doubt mainly owing to this cause that the period between 1878 and 1888 

 was unproductive of scientific results. But he took a full share during that 

 time in the organising work incidental to the growth of Mason College, acting 

 as Secretary to the Academic Board in 1884 — 1886, and in later years 

 occupying successively the Vice-chair and the Chair of that body. 



* For many of the facts and dates recorded in this notice the writer is indebted to 

 Miss Bridge and to an ai;ticle contributed to the ' Birmingham Post ' by Prof. J. H. 

 Poynting, F.R.S. 



VOL. LXXXII. — B. c 



