396 New Patents. 



The merit of originating the Yorkshire Horticultural Society belongs 

 to Mr. Atkinson. In the year 1820 he, with a very few supporters, 

 held the first meetings in a small room at Kirkstall, and for some 

 years, as its treasurer, the Society was mainly indebted to him for its 

 existence. He lived to see the Society enrol amongst its members many 

 of the first nobility and gentry of the county, and to witness the 

 great improvement in Horticulture it has occasioned. 



Nor were his exertions confined to the diffusion of scientific know- 

 ledge ; his was a more enlarged philanthropy, — foremost in the support 

 of every liberal institution, and at all times feelingly alive to the calls 

 of suffering and poverty. In his own practice/ many were the sacri- 

 fices he made to the wants of his more indigent patients. It is to him 

 the town of Leeds is indebted for that valuable institution the Lying-in 

 Hospital : with him the proposal originated, and from him it received 

 the most zealous support. 



Besides many communications to the scientific journals, Mr. At- 

 kinson wrote a Compendium of British Ornithology, of which, during 

 the melancholy illness that terminated in his death, he was preparing 

 a second edition with lithographic plates. He communicated the va- 

 luable account of plants growing within ten miles of Leeds to Whit- 

 aker's Ducatus Leodiensis ; and during his last illness, in addition to 

 his work on Ornithology, had prepared an account of the Natural Hi- 

 story of the neighbourhood of Askern. 



But great as was the public spirit by which he was distinguished, it 

 was in private life that the value of his character shone with pre-emi- 

 nent brilliancy. To those who were admitted to the delightful society 

 of his social circle, the pleasure with which he communicated his ex- 

 tensive knowledge, the winning manner in which he encouraged the 

 beginner in the paths of science, the valuable assistance he so liberally 

 afforded, — will long endear his memory. But Mr. Atkinson possessed 

 a still higher character, — he was a Christian j and although walking in 

 the highest paths of science, he remained undazzled by the splendid 

 scenes around him, and through Nature with humility he looked to 

 Nature's God. 



He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, Curator of the Leeds Phi- 

 losophical and Literary Society, Treasurer to the Yorkshire Horticul- 

 tural Society, Honorary Member of the Bristol, Yorkshire, and Hull 

 Philosophical Societies, and Surgeon to the Leeds Lying-in Hospital. 

 He died October 3, 1828, in his 40th year. E. S. G. 



LIST OF NEW PATENTS. 



To J. C. Daniell, of Limpley, in the parish of Bradford, Wiltshire, 

 clothier, for his improvements in the machinery used for dressing 

 woollen cloth. — Dated the 18th of September 1828. — 6 months al- 

 lowed to enrol specification. 



To J. Melville, of Upper Harley-street, for improvements in pro- 

 pelling vessels. — 18th of September. — 6 months. 



To E. F. Orson, of Prince's-square, Finsbury, for an improved car- 

 tridge for sporting purposes. — 18th of September. — 6 months. 



To 



