Henry Meyners Bernard

Henry Meyners Bernard (29 November 1853 Singapore - 4 January 1909 London) was a British biologist, carcinologist, palaeontologist, mathematician and cleric, and an authority on solifuges, corals and trilobites. He was the third of six children born to Alfred George Farquhar Bernard and Elizabeth Antoinette Moor.

The death of Henry M. Bernard removes from our midst a friend and fellow-worker who will be greatly missed by a large circle of men of science. Mr. Bernard took mathematical honours at Cambridge as B.A. in 1876, and entered the Church, his last charge being a Chaplaincy at Moscow, which he left in 1888 in order to study Biology under Haeckel at Jena. In 1892 Mr. Bernard published an important monograph on "The Apodidae", his study of these forms leading to papers in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE in 1894 and 1895 on the systematic position of the Trilobites, and on the 'Sandblast' as a method of developing these organisms from the rocks in which they are embedded. In 1894 he began the study of the recent and fossil corals at the British Museum (Natural History), continuing the quarto 'Illustrated Catalogue of the Madreporaria' (published by order of the Trustees) originally commenced by the late Mr. George Brook. In this work Mr. Bernard paid much attention to the fossil forms. He continued to work at the corals in the British Museum until 1907. During these thirteen years he prepared five volumes, namely :— Vol. II of the Catalogue (begun by Mr. Brook) on the Turbinaria and Astraeopora. III, on the Montiporina;. IV, Goniopora. V, Porites (Indo-Pacific). VI, Porites (West Indies) and Goniopora.

After graduating from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Bernard served curacies in Wells and Herefordshire before six years as chaplain of the English Church in Moscow, which he left to study biology and zoology under Professor Ernst Haeckel at Jena (promoter of Darwin's work and proponent of the 'recapitulation theory'). Bernard then catalogued corals and fossils at the British Museum, publishing numerous papers and monographs. In addition he wrote 'The Sense of Sight: Sketch of a New Theory' (1896), 'A Suggested Origin of the Segmented Worms', and 'The Problem of Metamerism' (1900), 'Studies in the Retina' (1906) and co-authored a 'Texbook of Comparative Anatomy' (1896). He became a Fellow of the Linnean and Zoological Societies. He was a socialist, and wrote The Scientific Basis of Socialism: Two Essays in Evolution (New Age Press 1908). He died at 109, West End Lane, London, N.W.

The crustacean family Apodidae was later renamed Triopsidae as it duplicated the family name used for swifts.

Personal life

Close friends

Works