HICKS, HENRY (1837-1899), British physician and geologist, was born on
the 26th of May 1837 at St David's, in Pembrokeshire, where his father,
Thomas Hicks, was a surgeon. He studied medicine at Guy's Hospital,
London, qualifying as M.R.C.S. in 1862. Returning to his native place he
commenced a practice which he continued until 1871, when he removed to
Hendon. He then devoted special attention to mental diseases, took the
degree of M.D. at St Andrews in 1878, and continued his medical work
until the close of his life. In Wales he had been attracted to geology
by J. W. Salter (then palaeontologist to the Geological Survey), and his
leisure time was given to the study of the older rocks and fossils of
South Wales. In conjunction with Salter, he established in 1865 the
Menevian group (Middle Cambrian) characterized by the trilobite
_Paradoxides_. Subsequently Hicks contributed a series of important
papers on the Cambrian and Lower Silurian rocks, and figured and
described many new species of fossils. Later he worked at the
Pre-Cambrian rocks of St David's, describing the Dimetian (granitoid
rock) and the Pebidian (volcanic series), and his views, though
contested, have been generally accepted. At Hendon Dr Hicks gave much
attention to the local geology and also to the Pleistocene deposits of
the Denbighshire caves. For a few years before his death he had laboured
at the Devonian rocks. With his keen eye for fossils he detected organic
remains in the Morte slates, previously regarded as unfossiliferous, and
these he regarded as including representatives of Lower Devonian and
Silurian. His papers were mostly published in the _Geol. Mag._ and
_Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._ He was elected F.R.S. in 1885, and president
of the Geological Society of London 1896-1898. He died at Hendon on the
18th of November 1899.
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