Prof. E. S. Goodrich, F.R.S

Abstract

ON June 21, Prof. E. S. Goodrich celebrates his seventieth birthday, in honour of which he is being presented with a volume of “Essays on Evolution” by his colleagues and pupils. Starting his career at University College, London, he followed Sir Ray Lankester to Oxford in 1891, where he has occupied the Linacre chair of zoology and comparative anatomy since 1921. His contributions to zoology, and especially to morphology, are too well known to require detailed enumeration here. Mention should, however, be made of his classical researches on the nephridia and genital ducts, the Stonesfield mammals, the auditory ossicles, the segmentation of the vertebrate head, his general work on the structure and development of vertebrates, and his interpretative studies of the problems of homology, heredity, development and evolution. It is to be noted further that by his work and his teaching he has preserved and encouraged interest in the problem of form, which, now that experimental methods are available for biological studies, is more essential than ever as a starting-point and an objective for research in the newest branches of biology. We offer Prof. Goodrich our most sincere congratulations.