Dr. W. Bateson, F.R.S

Abstract

BORN in 1861, William Bateson was educated at Rugby School and at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which college his father was Master. He obtained first-class honours in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos, and took his degree in 1882. It was at the time when the genius of Francis Balfour had given a great impulse to the study of comparative embryology, and it was natural that Bateson's first efforts in research should be along such lines. As a subject for investigation he chose Balanoglossus, the position of which in the phylogenetic scheme was then one of uncertainty. To obtain material he visited America in 1883, and again in 1884. His results, which appeared in a striking series of papers in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, definitely fixed the position of Balanoglossus, and are now incorporated into every text-book of zoology. In 1885 he was elected a fellow of his college.