Abstract
DURING the fourteen years that have elapsed since the death of Prof. Newton many of the older members of his circle who had eagerly anticipated the perusal of this volume have passed away, but every British ornithologist will welcome an account of one who for half a century was the leading exponent of the science in this country—one, too, whose remarkable influence in all matters relating to the study of bird-life can be fully realised and appreciated only by those who had the good fortune to participate in his friendship. As Prof. Newton kept voluminous journals and seldom destroyed a letter, the work, as Sir Archibald Geikie points out in his preface, has been given largely the character of an autobiography. With this wealth of material at his disposal, it is greatly to be regretted that the author has found it necessary, owing to the increased costs of publication, to reduce the volume by nearly half its bulk, and we feel certain that a bolder policy in this respect would have entailed no loss. Mr. Wollaston, however, has made a careful selection of his material, and has succeeded in producing a vivid picture of the varied activities and interests of a life of such fullness as is vouchsafed to but few, drawn from the professor's own letters and journals, and from the correspondence and recollections of those who were intimately associated with him.
Life of Alfred Newton, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Cambridge University, 1866–1907.
By A. F. R. Wollaston. With a preface by Sir Archibald Geikie. Pp. xv + 332. (London: John Murray, 1921.) 18s. net.
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C., W. Life of Alfred Newton, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Cambridge University, 1866–1907 . Nature 108, 333 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108333a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108333a0