Abstract
FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND was born on Dec. 17, 1826. He was the eldest son of the Very Rev. Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster. As a boy he was a constant companion of his father in the latter's geological excursions; he was a scholar of Winchester College and a student of Christ Church, graduating M.A. of Oxford in 1848. About this date he entered St. George's Hospital as a student of medicine, taking the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in 1851, becoming house surgeon to St. George's Hospital, and lastly receiving the appointment of assistant-surgeon to the 2nd Life Guards, a position he held until 1863. He seems to have been always well liked in his regiment, gaining the character of a pleasant, good-natured, sociable fellow. Although fond of all that pertained to natural science, he was in no sense of the word a profound naturalist; he could seize with alacrity the popular side of a scientific question, but he seldom went deeper. Perhaps the most scientific work he ever accomplished was the editing, in 1858, of his father's work on “Geology and Mineralogy,” published as one of the Bridge-water treatises. He was the author of some pleasant volumes entitled “Curiosities of Natural History,” was a constant writer in Land and Water, and an occasional contributor on subjects of economic zoology to the daily press. On the subjects of fish and fish-culture he was an authority, and it will be remembered that he had an interesting museum in connection with the subject at South Kensington. For his labours in this direction he received several honourable distinctions from France, and in 1869 he was appointed by the British Government one of the Inspectors of Salmon Fishing for England and Wales. He was also one of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Crab and Lobster Fisheries of this country, and the results of this Commission culminated in the useful Act regulating the oyster, crab, and lobster fisheries of the kingdom, which received the Royal assent in 1877.
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Frank Buckland . Nature 23, 175 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/023175a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023175a0