James Hartley Ashworth

Oligochaeta and Polychaeta from Ashworth's Catalog of the Chaetopoda in the British Museum

James Hartley Ashworth (born May 2, 1874 in Accrington , Lancashire , † February 4, 1936 in Edinburgh ) was a British marine zoologist.

Life

The only son of James Ashworth spent most of his youth in Burnley , where he attended the Carlton Road School, then known for its scientific orientation. His interest in science may have been sparked by the family doctor, Scottish cardiologist James MacKenzie . There is evidence that MacKenzie accompanied the boy as a mentor. So Ashworth went to Manchester, where he began to study chemistry at Owen's College, now part of the University of Manchester . However, he quickly recognized a more interesting subject and switched to zoology shortly after starting his studies . There he met two eminent teachers, Arthur Milnes Marshall and C. Herbert Hurst. When Marshall retired, Sydney J. Hickson took on the mentoring role . Awarded the Dalton Price for Natural History at Owens College , he moved to the University of London where he graduated with honors in zoology and botany in 1895 . In 1899 he received his doctorate in both subjects.

After gaining experience at Sinel's Laboratory in Jersey , Herdman's Laboratory in Port Erin on the Isle of Man and McIntosh's Gatty Laboratory in St Andrews , a position at Anton Dohrn's Naples Zoological Station was the highlight of his work there. In 1900 he left Naples and could choose between a position at a museum or at the University of Edinburgh . In 1901 he took over the teaching position on invertebrate zoology . In the same year he married Clara Hought from Burnley. Burnley not only connected his youth and private life, he was also friends with James Mackenzie and also with two other zoologists who came from Burnley, James Edwin Duerden and John Stephenson .

In 1905 the university became the first British university to offer a course in tropical medicine and hygiene with a recognized degree under his leadership . The curriculum was designed by Ashworth with a focus on entomology and parasitology . This course was later expanded to include degrees in public health and tropical veterinary medicine.

In 1919 Ashworth was entrusted with the newly established Chair of Invertebrate Zoology. Previously, zoology had been taught solely by James Cossar Ewart , who then focused on the vertebrates. When Ewart retired from the Regius Professorship in 1927, Ashworth was appointed as the new Regius Professor of Natural History .

During his tenure, Ashworth was able to win the Rockefeller Foundation to support a new building on the University's Kings campus, starting with a donation from a personal friend, Laurence Pullar of Bridge of Earn . Architects Robert Lorimer and JF Matthews used his expertise to design buildings that opened on May 15, 1929 and are now known as Ashworth Laboratories.

He died at home in Grange Loan, Edinburgh, on February 4, 1936, at the age of only 61, after presiding over a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh the previous evening.

Honors

In 1911 Ashworth was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1917 a Fellow of the Royal Society . 1913–1915 he was awarded the Keith Medal . He received the honor again in 1923-26 and 1930-33. He served the RSE as Vice President and from 1933 until his death in 1936 as General Secretary. A 1931 Ashworth painting by Walter Stoneman is exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

bibliography

• 1904: Arenicola: the lug-worm
• 1909: The giant nerve cells and fibers of Halla parthenopeia
• 1911: The annelids of the family Arenicolidoe of North and South America, including an account of Arenicola glacialis Murdoch
• 1912: Catalog of the Arenicolidae in the British Muserum
• 1915: On larvae of Lingula and Pelagodiscus (Discinisca)
• 1924: Polychaeta (supplementary)
• 1924: Annelids, parasitic worms, Protozoans, etc. Part J: Polychaeta (supplementary)
• 1934: A bibliography of the works of James Cossar Ewart
• 1935: Charles Darwin as a student in Edinburgh, 1825-1827: an address delivered on October 28, 1935

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x} . DWT and CH O'D .: James Hartley Ashworth, D.Sc., FRS In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . tape 56 , 1937, pp. 242 , doi : 10.1017 / S0370164600015017 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Graeme D. Eddie: Papers of Professor James Hartley Ashworth (1874-1936). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 16, 2019 ; accessed on August 16, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.