T. W. Bridge

'''Thomas William Bridge''' (5 November 1848 – 29/30 June 1909) was a British zoologist who studied fish, and was particularly known for his research on the swim bladder in Siluridae. After working in Cambridge (1869–79), he held professorships at the Royal College of Science for Ireland (1879–80) and Mason College/University of Birmingham (1880–1909). He was an elected fellow of the Royal Society (1903).

==Biography== Bridge was born on 5 November 1848 in Birmingham, to Lucy (''née'' Crosbee) and Thomas Bridge, who made footwear.<ref name=ODNB /> He attended Moseley School and then trained in science at the Birmingham and Midland Institute.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> He moved to Cambridge at the end of 1869, where he initially worked at the university's Zoology Museum directly for John Willis Clark, the museum's superintendent.{{efn|He was initially paid privately by Clark, but this ceased on Clark's marriage.<ref name=Blackman />}} In 1871, despite his lack of Cambridge degree, Bridge was appointed a university demonstrator in comparative anatomy (a teaching position), while continuing his work for Clark;<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> the courses that Clark and Bridge organised were the first practical teaching of zoology at the university.<ref name=BMJ_1920 /> Bridge read natural sciences (1871–75), with a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. He remained in Cambridge as a demonstrator after gaining his degree, apart from a brief stint at the Zoological Station in Naples in 1876.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit />

He was professor of zoology at the Royal College of Science for Ireland (1879–80) in Dublin.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> In 1880, he returned to Birmingham to become one of the first four professors of the newly founded Mason College (the others being William A. Tilden, Micaiah John Muller Hill and John Henry Poynting).<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /><ref name=Nature_Poynting /> Bridge held the chair in biology (1880–82) and was later the Mason Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy (1882–1909), retaining the title when the college was subsumed into the University of Birmingham in 1900.<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> He was active in the new institution's administration, for example, chairing the academic board.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit />

He was awarded an Sc.D. by Cambridge (1896) and an M.Sc. by Birmingham (1901),<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /> and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1903.<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> He served as president of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society (1894).<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit />

Bridge never married,<ref name=RSoc_obit /> and died on 29 or 30 June 1909 at Selly Park, Birmingham.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit />

==Research and writing== His research was on the comparative anatomy, morphology and osteology of vertebrates, predominantly fish.<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /> He was particularly known for his research on the swim bladder of Siluridae and its relationship with the auditory organ.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Nature_obit /><ref name=Nature_SZD /> With A. C. Haddon, he investigated a hundred species of Siluroid fish, and concluded that the air bladder was used to perceive changes in hydrostatic pressure rather than being involved in hearing, as had been proposed by Ernst Heinrich Weber (who had first described the interconnected structures in 1820).<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Nature_obit />

Bridge also published on the osteology of ganoid fish and on vertebrate abdominal pores.<ref name=Nature_obit /> He contributed a comprehensive article on the fishes to volume 7 of ''The Cambridge Natural History'' (1904),<ref name=RSoc_obit /><ref name=Times_obit /><ref name=Nature_obit /> which Sidney Harmer describes in his Royal Society obituary as a "most valuable summary of a very difficult subject".<ref name=RSoc_obit /> Bridge also published on other vertebrates including the bandicoot.<ref name=Nature_SZD />

==Selected publications== *T. W. Bridge (1896). The Mesial Fins of Ganoids and Teleosts. ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' 25 (165): 530–602 {{doi|10.1111/j.1096-3642.1896.tb00400.x}} *T. W. Bridge, A. C. Haddon (1893). III. Contributions to the anatomy of fishes.—II. The air-bladder and weberian ossicles in the siluroid fishes. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences'' 184: 65–333 {{doi|10.1098/rstb.1893.0003}} *T. W. Bridge, A. C. Haddon (1889). Contributions to the Anatomy of Fishes. I. The Airbladder and Weberian Ossicles in the Siluridae. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'' 46: 309–28 {{jstor|115062}} *T. W. Bridge (1878). On the osteology of ''Polydon folium''. ''Philosophical Transactions'' 169: 683–733 {{doi|10.1098/rstl.1878.0021}}

==References and notes== {{notelist}} <references>

<ref name=Blackman>Helen J. Blackman (2007). The Natural Sciences and the Development of Animal Morphology in Late-Victorian Cambridge. ''Journal of the History of Biology'' 40 (1): 71–108 {{jstor|29737465}}</ref>

<ref name=BMJ_1920>Eighty-Eighth Annual Meeting Of The British Medical Association, Cambridge. 1920. ''British Medical Journal'' 1 (3097): 651–53 (1920) {{jstor|20340799}}</ref>

<ref name=Nature_obit>Prof. T. W. Bridge, F.R.S. ''Nature'' 81: 42–43 (1909) {{doi|10.1038/081042b0}}</ref>

<ref name=Nature_Poynting>Oliver J. Lodge (1914). Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S. ''Nature'' 93: 138–40 {{doi|10.1038/093138a0}}</ref>

<ref name=Nature_SZD>Zoological Studies. ''Nature'' 83: 394–95 (1910) {{doi|10.1038/083394b0}}</ref>

<ref name=ODNB>F. W. Gamble, revised Yolanda Foote (2004). Bridge, Thomas William. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/32061}}</ref>

<ref name=RSoc_obit>S. F. H. (1910). Thomas William Bridge, 1848–1909. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences'' 82 (560): vii–x {{jstor|80313}}</ref>

<ref name=Times_obit>Professor T. W. Bridge. ''The Times'' (39000), p. 17 (1 July 1909)</ref>

</references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge, T. W.}} Category:1848 births Category:1909 deaths Category:Scientists from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham Category:English zoologists Category:British fellows of the Royal Society