47§ OBITUARIES [june 1899 



SIR FREDERICK M'COY, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 



Born at Dublin, 1823; Died at Melbourne, 1899. 



Frederick M'Coy was educated for the medical profession at Dublin and 

 Cambridge, but early devoted himself to natural science. Sir R. Griffith invited 

 him to make the palaeontological investigations for the geological map of Ireland 

 for the boundary survey, the results of which he published in 1844. After- 

 wards he joined the Geological Survey of Ireland. In 1854 he was appointed 

 the first Professor of Natural Science in Melbourne University. His services to 

 Victoria were great, notably in regard to the geological survey of the colony, as 

 a member of various commissions, and as the founder of the Melbourne National 

 Museum. In 1880 he was elected F.R.S., and was one of the first to receive 

 the honorary degree of D.Sc. from Cambridge. In 1886 he was made a C.M.G., 

 and in 1891 he was promoted to be K.C.M.G. Sir F. M'Coy also received the 

 Order of the Crown of Italy from King Victor Emanuel, the Emperor of 

 Austria's gold medal for arts and sciences, the Murchison medal of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London, and many similar distinctions. 



The deaths are also announced of Mariano de la Barcena, director of the 

 Central Meteorological Observatory, Mexico ; on May 1, in his 75th year, Dr. 

 Ludvvig Buchner, of Darmstadt, the famous author of "Kraft unci Stoff" 

 (1855), and many books and papers on evolutionist subjects ; Dr. C. Brongniart, 

 Paris, well known for his entomological work, especially on palaeozoic insects ; 

 on April 1, at Halifax, Henry Thomas Soppitt, fungologist and field-naturalist, 

 in his 41st year; Adolf Walter, a well-known ornithologist, at Kassel, on 

 February 4, in his 82nd year. 



