Abstract
WHEN D‘Arcy Wentworth Thompson died at the age of eighty-eight, in his home in St. Andrews on June 21, his passing left a gap in many circles that had few points of contact with each other, for he had a wider range of intellectual interests and attainments than almost any other scientific man of our time. By profession he was a zoologist, and there have been few more learned ; but he had a quite unusual familiarity with the whole circle of the sciences, joined to an inherited aptitude for, and love of, the classical tongues, and he was constantly surprising his friends by his unexpected knowledge of recondite corners of literature, history and art. He wrote and spoke in a style of effortless felicity, a trifle Victorian perhaps, but, as some of us think, none the Worse for that. He loved teaching and he taught to the very last, for even in his final illness he gathered his honours students in his sick-room for talks that none of them will forget.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
CALMAN, W. Sir D‘Arcy Thompson, C.B., F.R.S. Nature 162, 93–94 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162093a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162093a0