18641869] FALCONER 253 



Montauban, Oct. 25th, 1864. Letter 180 



Busk and myself have made every effort to be back in 

 London by the 27th inst, but we have been persecuted by 



1848, after spending some years in England, he was appointed Super- 

 intendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden and Professor of Botany in 

 the Medical College. Although Falconer held an important botanical 

 post for many years, he is chiefly known as a Palaeozoologist. He seems, 

 however, to have had a share in introducing Cinchona into India. His 

 discovery, in company with Colonel Sir Proby T. Cautley, of Miocene 

 Mammalia in the Siwalik Hills, was at the time perhaps the greatest 

 "find" which had been made. The fossils of the Siwalik Hills formed 

 the subject of Falconer's most important book, Fauna Antiqua Siva- 

 lensis, which, however, remained unfinished at the time of his death. 

 Falconer also devoted himself to the investigation of the cave-fauna of 

 England, and contributed important papers on fossils found in Sicily, 

 Malta, and elsewhere. Dr. Falconer was a Vice-President of the Royal 

 Society and Foreign Secretary of the Geological Society. " Falconer 

 did enough during his lifetime to render his name as a palaeontologist 

 immortal in science ; but the work which he published was only a fraction 

 of what he accomplished. . . . He was cautious to a fault ; he always 

 feared to commit himself to an opinion until he was sure he was right, 

 and he died in the prime of his life and in the fulness of his power." 

 (Biographical sketch contributed by Charles Murchison to his edition of 

 Hugh Falconer's Palceontological Memoirs and Notes, London, 1 868 ; 

 Proc. R. Sac., Vol. XV., p. xiv., 1867 : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. XXI., 

 p. xlv, 1865.) Hugh Falconer was among those who did not fully accept 

 the views expressed in the Origin of Species, but he could differ from 

 Darwin without any bitterness. Two years before the book was pub- 

 lished, Darwin wrote to Asa Gray : " The last time I saw my dear old 

 friend Falconer he attacked me most vigorously, but quite kindly, and 

 told me, ' You will do more harm than any ten naturalists will do good. 

 I can see that you have already corrupted and half spoiled Hooker.'" 

 (Life and Letters, II., p. 121.) The affectionate regard which Darwin 

 felt for Falconer was shared by their common friend Hooker. The follow- 

 ing extract of a letter from Hooker to Darwin (Feb. 3rd, 1865) 

 shows clearly the strong friendships which Falconer inspired : " Poor 

 old Falconer ! how my mind runs back to those happiest of all our 

 days that I used to spend at Down twenty years ago when I left your 

 home with my heart in my mouth like a schoolboy. We last heard he 

 was ill on Wednesday or Thursday, and sent daily to enquire, but the 

 report was so good on Saturday that we sent no more, and on Monday 

 night he died. . . . What a mountainous mass of admirable and accurate 

 information dies with our dear old friend ! I shall miss him greatly, not 

 only personally, but as a scientific man of unflinching and uncompro- 

 mising integrity and of great weight in Murchisonian and other counsels 

 where ballast is sadly needed," 



