Abstract
IN Sir Philip Egerton geologists have lost one of that band of workers who placed their science upon the footing which it now occupies in this country. Unfortunately that band has been of late years greatly diminished py death. Born in 1807, Sir Philip Egerton with his old:riend and fellow-worker, Lord Cole (now the Earl of Enniskillen), while still at Oxford commenced the collection of fossils, and very soon their attention was especially directed to fossil fish, of which but very little was at that time known. As specimens of this group of organisms often occur in duplicate, the individuals breaking across so that two opposite slabs each contain one-half, the two riends agreed to share their spoils, and thus both collections were enriched. When in 1840 Agassiz visited this country, intent upon his great ichthyological memoirs, he found in the museums of Sir Philip Egerton and Lord Cole an abundance of materials ready to his hand. The ipecimens were carefully figured, and descriptions of them ncluded in the several great works which Agassiz succesively issued. The original drawings by Dinkel are now mong the archives of the Geological Society. But Sir Philip Egerton was by no means merely a collector of ossils, he was a very diligent and successful student of ichthyology. Many valuable papers on fossil fishes were written by him at different times, and a series of papers published in the decades of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom are among the most valuable of the works issued by that body. An excellent man of business, Sir Philip took an active part in the administration of the British Museum, the London University, the Geological Society, and other institutions for the promotion of science. All who knew him will-miss the kindly face and cheerful manners which distinguished him. Only two days before his death he was in his place in Parliament, but a chill caught during the lately prevalent east winds proved rapidly fatal. At the last meeting of the Geological Society the vice-president, Mr. J. Whitaker Hulke, F.R.S., made announcement of his death, and the suidenand unexpected tidings concerning one who was so widely known and so universally respected cast a sad gloom over the proceedings of the evening.
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Sir Philip De Malpas Grey Egerton, M.P., F.R.S . Nature 23, 579–580 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023579e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023579e0