The Reverend William Smith (1808-1857), DiatomistPart I: The Foundation for his Research

摘要

The Reverend William Smith was a Unitarian minister who served at the Westgate Chapel, Lewes, from 1850-1854. It was during this period that he rose to prominence as a research diatomist and he is best known as the author of A Synopsis of the British Diatomaceae. The first vol-ume was written and published while at Lewes, and the second while he occupied the Chair of Natural History at Queen's College, Cork, from late 1854 until his untimely death in 1857. The Quekett noted the Centenary of his death with a review of his life and work (Wise, 1958) and, more recently, the Lewes Meeting dedicated a memorial tablet to him at their Westgate Chapel (Hendey, 1978, 1979; Anon, 1979). Smith's papers, the earliest in 1850, are a matter of record, as is the review. Now, some fifty years on, more of his background has been uncovered, allowing us to consider how a serving minister of very modest means could emerge, apparently quite suddenly, at the forefront of research into the Diatomaceae. At that period a microscope of sufficient qual-ity involved an outlay equivalent to at least six months salary for a minister of a modest church. To put financial considerations in perspective, Ralfs, arguably better known than Smith, when asked his opinion of the Synopsis, responded that he could not comment on the detail because he could not afford a microscope of sufficient qual-ity (Ralfs, 1856).