Memoir of the late J. S. Miller, A.L.S. 5 



render it more acceptable to the public than it might otherwise 

 have been. In this publication Mr. Miller had to surmount 

 many difficulties; and although it became the means of spread- 

 ing universally his reputation as a profound and accurate na- 

 turalist, it was to him a source not only of present expense, but 

 of ultimate pecuniary loss. This may be attributed in part to 

 his great liberality of disposition. I am informed that he 

 gave away not less than a hundred copies of his work, princi- 

 pally to individuals whom he supposed unable to purchase it. 

 His pen was always ready and his services energetic in any 

 scientific undertaking in which they were requested, as the 

 many letters of thanks and works presented to him in conse- 

 quence of such assistance will sufficiently testify. Notwithstand- 

 ing the difficulties he experienced at nis first publication, he 

 was not discouraged. He contemplated and had arranged in 

 his mind the materials for a second work on Fossilized Corals, 

 and likewise an Appendix to that on the Crino'idea. There 

 was scarcely a department of natural history to which he had 

 not directed his mind with zealous and intense application ; 

 and there is no doubt that he would have achieved more, 

 as an original discoverer, than he has actually performed, if 

 his time and exertions had not been engrossed, during the last 

 years of his life, by his occupations in the Museum of the 

 Philosophical Institution of Bristol, of which he was the 

 Curator from the period of its establishment. 



Mr. Miller's constitution of body, though not robust, was 

 healthy, and during a period of twenty-seven years he had 

 never a day of severe indisposition. His cheerfulness and tem- 

 perance were remarkable. The unceasing activity of his mind 

 was apparently too great for the physical energy of his body ; 

 and the confinement to which he was of necessity subjected, 

 in consequence of his appointment in the Institution, probably 

 contributed to undermine his health, which began to give way 

 about three years before his death. He was married in the 

 year 1806, and has left a widow and three sons. 



As a naturalist, Mr. Miller was well fitted by the habits of 

 his mind to cooperate in the researches of an age, of which 

 it is the peculiar merit to obviate the reproaches once, per- 

 haps, justly cast, against mere systems of classification, and 

 to found such arrangements upon the just and philosophical 

 grounds afforded by the exact determinations of science, and 

 the general principles of physiology and comparative ana- 

 tomy. The labours of Baron Cuvier may be cited as the 

 great model in this line ; but among those who in this country 

 have followed the same course, the subject of the present me- 

 moir assuredly deserves very favourable mention. To an acute- 

 ness 



