300 
THOMAS BOLTON, F.R.M.S. 
curator to the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical 
Society, Mr. Bolton was appointed his successor, a step from 
which it cannot be doubted that the Society richly profited, 
as, in his daily attendance at the Society’s rooms in the 
Mason College, he ever placed his knowledge freely at the 
disposal of all enquirers, and by which, therefore, his loss 
will be all the more keenly felt. 
In bringing together the collection of exhibits in various 
departments of local natural history which formed such a 
remarkable feature of the Bingley Hall Exhibition, initiated 
for the purposes of the visit of the British Association to 
Birmingham in 1886, a permanent skilled superintendent 
was found to be necessary, and, without hesitation, the post 
was offered to Mr. Bolton, the Natural History and Micros- 
copical Society gladly relinquishing its claims upon his time 
during the ten weeks that the exhibition was open. In this 
way Mr. Bolton’s person became familiar to tens of thousands 
of visitors, while his own persistent attempts to interest the 
people in minute life by means of living microscopic exhibits 
added in no small degree to the interest and success of that 
unique exhibition. Advantage was taken, too, of the visit of 
the Association to bring to a successful issue an attempt, 
initiated by Mr. W. B. Hughes, F.L.S., the first president of 
the Birmingham Natural History Society, and Mr. T. 
Grosvenor Lee (son of Mr. Bolton’s former partner, Mr. 
Yate Lee) to obtain from Government some recognition of 
Mr. Bolton’s labours in the cause of science, and a memorial, 
signed by Sir W. J. Dawson, President of the Association, 
and by every biologist of repute who attended the meeting, 
secured from Lord Salisbury a pension of £50 a year upon 
the Civil List, dating as from June 30th of that year.* This 
* It may be of interest to give a list of the signatures to this 
memorial, as a permanent record of the widespread estimation in 
which Mr. Bolton’s labours were held :— 
Sir J. W. Dawson, President British Association. 
Thomas Martineau, Mayor of Birmingham. 
Professor Michael Foster, Cambridge, Secretary Royal Society. 
Professor H. N. Moseley, F.R.S., Oxford. 
W. Carruthers, F.R.S., P.L.S., President Section D (Biology). 
P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., Vice-President Section D. 
Professor Milnes Marshall, F.R.S., Owens College, Manchester. 
Professor G. B. Howes, Royal School of Mines. 
Professor D’Arcy W. Thompson, University College, Dundee. 
Professor W. Stirling, F.R.S., Owens College, Manchester. 
Professor Marcus Hartog, D.Sc., Queen’s College, Cork. 
Professor Alfred H. Young, F.R.S., Owens College, Manchester. 
Dr. Patrick Geddes, Lecturer on Zoology, Edinburgh. 
W. Percy Sladen, Zoological Secretary, Linnean Society. 
