50 Walter Frank Ra2)hael Weldon. 1860—1906. 
biometrician, Weldon will remain as the first biologist who, able to make his name 
by following the old tracks, chose to strike out a new path — and one which carried 
him far away from his earlier colleagues. It is scarcely to be wondered at if those 
he joined should wish to see some monument to his memory ; for he fell, the 
volume of life exhausted, fighting for the new learning. 
Is what he gave science small ? That depends on how it is measured. He 
was by nature a poet, and these give the best to science, for they give ideas. 
They follow no men, but give that which another generation may study from and 
be inspired by. He was the enthusiast, but the enthusiasm was that of the study, 
trained to its task ; and when the time comes that we shall know, or that those 
who come after us shall know, whether Darwinism is the basal rule of life or merely 
a golden dream which has led us onwards to greater intellectual insight, then the 
knowledge, so biometricians have held and still hold, will be won by those actuarial 
methods which he first applied to the selection of living forms. If there be aught 
else to be said, let another say it. 
Step to a tune, square chests, erect each head, 
'Ware the beholders ! 
This is our master, famous, calm and dead, 
Borne on our shoulders. 
Description of Plates. 
Plate I. W. F. E. Weldon. 
Plate II. Kaphael Weldon, aged 10. 
Plate III. (a) Bapid pencil caricature by W. F. E. W. " Apparition : Le Caf6 Orleans." 
(6) Sample of Illustration to letters. Description of bands of H. hortensis in letter to a 
lady collector. "Has it occurred to you that a lady of artistic ability, and so enlightened that she likes 
snails, would have great joy and do great service by drawing them? There is a good inexorable severity 
about their lines which one would enjoy, I should think, if it were not so unattainable (to mel) on 
paper. And it would be nearly as good fun as real engraving to get all their lights and shadows put in 
with curved lines which also indicate the growth lines on the shell? Think how Bewick liked it." 
Plate IV. A "crabbery" at Plymouth. 
Plate V. Contribution to a manuscript magazine run by a youthful friend. 
