100 The Molteno Institute for Resear elf in Parasitology 
FREDERICK JAMES QUICK (1836-1902). 
A Biographical Note. 
(With portrait, Plate IV.) 
Mr Quick was born in London on 22nd October, 1836, as the second son of 
James Carthew Quick, a wholesale coffee dealer of that city. He was educated 
at Harrow (1851-55) and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he came into resi¬ 
dence in October, 1855, and took the degree of B.A. on 29th January, 1859. 
He studied for the Bar, but never practised. He learned farming at St Andrews, 
his father buying Woodmancole at Elmsworth, Sussex, for him. For a short 
time he became partner in a wholesale tea business, and in 1869 he entered 
(again as a partner) the firm of Quick, Reed and Smith, which his father had 
founded. He remained the head of this firm until his death on 21st December, 
1902. Shortly before his death, having a horror of being buried alive, he 
requested one of the trustees of his will 1 , Mr Williams, to see that “a surgeon 
probed his heart to see that death had taken place,” asking, moreover, that 
his body might be cremated. His wishes were duly carried out, and his ashes 
were buried at Broadwood Cemetery. Mr Quick never married. 
In business Mr Quick was a shrewd, far-seeing, and capable manager. His 
associates were greatly impressed with the accuracy of his judgment in affairs 
and in the estimation of the character of those with whom he came in contact. 
He was much interested in botany and biology, and to this the founding 
of the Quick Professorship is mainly to be ascribed. Mr Williams has informed 
the writer that Mr Quick was very anxious that the Chair should be always 
abreast of the times, this accounting for pertinent provisions in the bequest. 
The full benefit of the latter will not be realized until the expiration of certain 
life-interests. 
The writer is greatly indebted to Mr J. W. Williams for providing most of 
the information on which this note is based; Dr Henry Bond, Master of Trinity 
Hall, kindly supplied the little that is recorded in the College books. 
THE QUICK LABORATORY. 
After being elected to the Quick Professorship, the writer found “temporary 
accommodation” in the unfinished portion of the Medical School Museum, 
establishing the “Quick Laboratory” therein. The temporary quarters, how¬ 
ever, became quasi-permanent for they were occupied during the years 1907- 
21. The laboratory consisted of one large room (Fig. 1) which w r as divided 
into cubicles by means of matchboard partitions and suitably placed cupboards 
or screens, the accommodation being the best that was available. A wmoden 
floor was erected over that of the museum so as to bring the work benches 
near to window-level, the result being that the floor w r as very resonant, apart 
from its being creaky owing to its light sub-structure. The room grew in¬ 
adequate at an early date for the increasing number of workers, collections, 
books and apparatus. The number of persons working in the room rendered 
1 Mr Quick’s second Trustee is Mr John Eagle ton of London. 
