William Kitchin Parker : a Biographical Sketch. By his Son,
T. Jeffery Parker. (Macmillan.)—Mr. Parker was for some years Hunterian Professor of Anatomy. Men of science are well acquainted with his name ; to the public generally, he was unknown. He published little, and that little was not of a popular kind. Yet any reader of intelligence and feeling ought to appreciate this sketch. Mr. W. K. Parker was the eon of a farmer near Peterborough, and received some early teaching at parish schools. In his fifteenth year, he conceived a sudden resolve to give up farm-work. Nine months were spent at Peterborough Grammar School, months into which he crowded some years of work. Leaving Peterborough, he was apprenticed to a druggist, where he worked from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but stole three hours from the morning to study botany in the fields. Then be came to London, and obtained his qualification as a medical practitioner. Medicine was his main occupation for the greater part of his life; but his heart all the time was with science, to which he made not a few contributions of great value. His religious feelings were of the strongest, and his belief in revelation unshaken. It is interesting to see that he did not believe in the attempt to reconcile science and religion. The two should be kept, be thought, in " water-tight compart- ments." This sketch is of a highly interesting personality, and drawn with uniform good taste. The personal affection of the writer never leads him into extravagances. Of biographies so simple, so modest, so reasonable in compass, we cannot have too many.
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