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Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



To his professorial work he throughout gave the utmost devotion. He was 

 an excellent lecturer, and took special interest in the practical work carried 

 on by his students. 



Bridge was closely connected with the Birmingham Natural History Society 

 and Philosophical Society, of both of which he filled the office of Vice-President, 

 becoming the first President of the amalgamated Societies in 1894. He 

 proceeded to the degree of Sc.D. (Cambridge) in 1896, and became a Fellow of 

 the Eoyal Society in 1903. The degree of M.Sc. was conferred on him by the 

 new University of Birmingham in 1901. 



Bridge's scientific work all lay within a narrow compass. He was 

 essentially a Morphologist, and his original papers refer to Pishes, especially 

 to those which are usually regarded as occupying a low place in the Piscine 

 series. He was tlms particularly attracted to the " Ganoids " ( a name which 

 is now used in a somewhat more restricted sense than that in which he was 

 accustomed to use it), to the Dipnoi and to the Siluroids, Osteoglossum and 

 Notopterus among the Teleostei. " Let it be distinctly understood that the 

 only sound foundation for scientific ichthyology is a profound comparative 

 anatomy, and especially osteology of all the genera." These words, by 

 Dr. T. Gill,* well express what may be supposed to have been Bridge's guiding 

 motive throughout his work, which was always a judicious mixture of 

 description and comparison of the structure of well-selected forms of Fishes. 



During his residence at Cambridge he took up, jointly with his friend 

 Mr. A. C. Haddon, the study of the remarkable relations that exist between the 

 air-bladder and the auditory organ in the Silurid.T, as in certain other families 

 of Teleostei which are grouped together as Ostariophysi. This resulted in a 

 paper published in the ' Proceedings of the Eoyal Society ' in 1889 and in a 

 voluminous memoir which appeared in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' in 

 1893. It was unfortunate, for various reasons, tliat the publication of this 

 Memoir had been so long delayed. 



The anatomical relations which form the subject of this joint paper are of no 

 little interest. They were first described in 1820 by Weber, who showed that 

 in the Siluridic and Cyprinida3 a short chain of bones intervenes, on either side, 

 between the anterior part of the air-bladder and the auditory organ, and 

 regarded the air-bladder as thus accessory to the function of hearing. Hiidge 

 and Haddon, depending to a considerable extent on a part which had been 

 purchased of Dr. Blecker's well-known collection of East Tii(Han Kislies, added 

 greatly to our knowledge of the " Weberian ossicles " in the Silurida). No less 

 than 100 species, referred to 51 genera, were examined. The view that the 

 fishes possessing these ossicles are related to one another was fully confirmed, 

 since the agreement throughout the ()Htarioj)liysi in regard to the ossicles is 

 too detailed to permit of explanation on any other theory. The Weberian 

 mechanism includ(!S mfxlifications of tlio auditory organ, of the air-bladder, 

 and of the anterior part of the vertebral column. The axial skeleton in this 



* 'Science' (N.S.), vol. 21, 190.5, y. Gfil. 



