John Samuel Budgett (1872–1904): In Pursuit of Polypterus

Abstract

The patient persistence of his quest for the eggs of Polypterus under crushing difficulties forms one of the most courageous episodes in the history of zoology. —A. E. Shipley, “Biographical Sketch” (1907, p. 53). What drove scientists in the 19th and early 20th centuries to return again and again to the tropics, where the climate was appalling, risk of life-threatening illness a daily prospect, and the political situation fraught with danger? What possible questions could engender such stoic persistence? The goal of two turn-of-the-century biologists—John Samuel Budgett and Nathan Russell Harrington, both of whom died in the attempt—was to document the embryonic development of Polypterus, a fish found in the lakes, river margins, swamps, and floodplains of tropical central and western Africa and the Nile River system. Budgett, the more successful of the two, undertook four long, arduous expeditions between 1898 and 1903. The embryos he collected provided the basis for our understanding of Polypterus development for almost 100 years. This is the story of the pursuit of Polypterus and of the importance assigned to missing links between fishes and tetrapods.

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