of the Royal Academies of Berlin, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, and Antwerp; and was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour, Aug. 1864.
ACLAND, Henry Wentworth, M.D., F.R.S., Hon. D.C.L., of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and Hon. M.D. Dublin, C.R. Empire of Brazil, fourth son of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., was born in 1815, and educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected, in 1841, to a fellowship at All Souls. He took the degree of M.D. at Oxford in 1848, having been appointed Lee's Reader in Anatomy in 1845. In that capacity, with several able assistants, especially Professors Beale, Victor Carus, Melville, and Mr. Charles Robertson, he made the extensive Christ Church Physiological Series, on the plan of John Hunter, now in the Oxford University Museum. That institution owes its existence in great measure to his labours. Dr. Acland became Regius Professor of Medicine in 1858, and Radcliffe Librarian; was appointed a member of Mr. Gathorne Hardy's Cubic Space Commission in 1866, and of the Royal Sanitary Commission from 1869 to 1872. He represented the University of Oxford on the Medical Council from 1858 to 1875; has been President of the British Medical Association and President of the Physiological section of the British Association, and Public Health Lecturer of the Social Science Association. He published a treatise on the "Plains of Troy" in 1839. He has written several works on medical, scientific, and sanitary subjects, including an important "Memoir on the Visitation of Cholera in Oxford in 1854." He accompanied the Prince of Wales to America in 1860 as his medical attendant, and on his return was appointed honorary physician to his Royal Highness. Dr. Acland was Physician to H.R.H. Prince Leopold during his Oxford career. He has been President of the Medical Council.
ACTON (Lord), The Right Hon. John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, son of Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Acton, Bart., of Aldenham, Shropshire, by the only daughter of the Duke of Dalberg (afterwards wife of the second Lord Granville), was born at Naples, in 1834, and when about three years of age succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father. For a few years he was a student in the Catholic College of St. Mary's, Oscott, at the time when Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman was at the head of that institution; but his education was mainly due to the renowned ecclesiastical historian, Dr. Döllinger, of Munich, with whom he lived for a considerable time. Sir John Acton represented Carlow in the House of Commons from 1859 to 1865. In the latter year he stood as a candidate for the borough of Bridgnorth, when he announced, in a speech delivered to the electors, that he represented, not the body, but the spirit, of the Catholic Church. He was successful at the poll by a majority of one, but, on a scrutiny, was unseated. In 1869, on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone, he was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Acton of Aldenham. In the same year he repaired to Rome, on the assembling of the Œcumenical Council, and while there rendered himself conspicuous by his hostility to the definition of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, and by the activity and secrecy with which he rallied, combined, and urged on those who appeared to be favourable to the views entertained by Dr. Döllinger. It is believed that he was in relation with the Allgemeine Zeitung, and that much of the news published by that journal on the subject of the Council was communicated by his lordship.
