Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Late Mr. E. R. Alston

1881; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 23; Issue: 595 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/023485c0

1476-4687

Bat Biology and Ecology Studies

THE death of Edward Richard Alston, which took place at his rooms in Maddox Street on the 7th inst., leaves a vacancy in the thin ranks of the working naturalists of this country that will not be easily filled up. At the time of his death Mr. Alston was secretary to the Linnean Society, a member of the Council of the Zoological Society, and treasurer to the Zoological Club, and up to within a few days of his decease was engaged in active zoological work. Mr. Alston, who died of phthisis at the early age of thirty-five, although somewhat retiring in disposition, was of a particularly kind and amiable nature, always most friendly with those with whom he was brought into contact, and ready to help them by advice or assistance. Mr. Alston was of Scotch parentage, and a native of Ayrshire. Being from infancy of delicate constitution he was educated chiefly under private tuition, and did not go to school or college. Notwithstanding these disadvantages he was a good scholar and a neat and concise writer, and had an excellent acquaintance with comparative anatomy. Taking early to the pursuit of natural history he became a contributor to the Zoologist and other popular journals, principally upon mammals and birds. Mr. Alston's first important paper was an account (published in the Ibis of his journey to Archangel, made in 1872, in company with his friend Mr. J. Harvie Brown, in which excellent observations are given on the summer migrants and other feathered inhabitants of that previously little explored district. Shortly afterwards Mr. Alston moved his head-quarters to London during the first part of the year, and undertook the compilation of the portion of the Zoological Record relating to mammals, which he carried on in a very painstaking and methodical way for six years (1873–78). A new edition of Bell's British Mammals, which had long been called for, appeared in 1874. Mr. Alston, although he is only credited with having “assisted” in this work, was, we believe, its virtual compiler. From that date also he became a frequent reader of papers at the meetings of the Zoological Society and author of several excellent memoirs in the Proceedings. Amongst these we may call special attention to his revision of the genera of Rodentia, published in 1876, as a most successful exposition of the many difficult points connected with the arrangement of this group of mammals, and to his memoirs on the Mammals of Asia Minor, collected by Mr. C. G. Danford (1877 and 1880). Mr. Alston's last and most important work, which he had fortunately just brought to an end before his untimely death, was the “Mammals” of Salvin and Godman's “Biologia Centrali-Americana”—a great work on the fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America. The first part of this was published in 1879, the eighth number containing the completion of the Mammals in December last. The death of this promising naturalist, when in the full tide of work, must be a subject of universal regret among all lovers of science.