10 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



owing to the latter species not being generally known 

 to conchologists, and it was largely distributed to 

 collectors as that species. Linnic^aperegra, Planorhis 

 spirorbis, and P. complaiiatiis exist in the same habitat 

 as this Hydrobia. 



Assiminia Grayana and Llelainpiis viyosotis are 

 more or less abundant between Coldharbour Point 

 and Purfleet, and from Grays to three miles below 

 Tilbury Fort, and we have traced them from 

 Greenhithe to below Gravesend. A. Grayana exists 

 in abundance in the canal at Gravesend, as well as in 

 ditches between Northfleet and Greenhithe. 



Both species are wanderers, and they may frequently 

 be picked up many yards from the water's edge. 



About twenty species of common fresh-water 

 moUusca have been collected upon the marshes, the 

 forms which generally prevail upon either side of the 

 river are Bythinia tentaculata, B. Leackii, Planorbis 

 spirorhiSf P. vortex, P. complanatics, LimncEa peregra, 

 L. pahistris, Physa fontinalis. The most local are 

 Planorbis nautileus, P. contortus, Liinnaa stagiialis, 

 L. truncatula, and Physa hypnorum. 



For terrestrial shells we can only testify to species 

 upon our side of the river, and no doubt with more 

 leisure many more species will be discovered. Helix 

 nemoralis and its varieties bimarginata, UbeUula, and 

 rubella are the prevailing marsh forms, together with 

 Arion ater, Snccinea putris, S. elegafts, Helix cantiana, 

 H. ritfescens, H. virgata, H. kispida, H. caperata and 

 H. concinna. Helix hortensis and Cyclostonia elegans 

 are found in the neighbourhood of the chalk. 



So far our list comprises upwards of sixty species 

 and varieties of land and freshwater shells inhabiting 

 the marshes of the Thames Estuary. Another twelve 

 months' work may add largely to this list of District 

 Mollusca, as many forms, like the slugs and Zonites, 

 have not been yet properly worked up. 



THE ROMAUNT OF BEDEGAR. 



An Autobiography. 



By the Rev. H. Friend, F.L.S. 



I WAS born at Rosebower, on Solway Moss, in 

 the summer of 1880. Having inherited a pre- 

 cocious tendency to look about me, and made inquiry 

 respecting things in general, and my own history in 

 particular, it dawned upon me while I was yet very 

 youthful that I might find profit in looking up my 

 family pedigree. I had not the faintest idea when I 

 set to work how arduous a task I had undertaken, 

 nor could I have conceived that our history would 

 show so many changes and vicissitudes, or lead me 

 back to so hoary an age, as I eventually found to be 

 the case ; and as I feel sure there are very few, even 

 among the students of genealogies and family history 

 who are fully acquainted with these details, I have 

 ventured to write my autobiography. In so doing, 

 I have the impression that I am the first who has 



attempted to give anything like a connected or 

 exhaustive account of the subject from the stand- 

 point of the genealogist or historian. I even flatter 

 myself that those persons who have paid special 

 attention to the place which my ancestors have filled 

 in the economy of medicine are unable to present so 

 clear an account of me as I am now about to lay 

 before you. 



Our family name was Deker, or Degar, which by 

 a curious coincidence means in the languages of the 

 East very much what "dagger" means in English. 

 It is, indeed, curious to observe how frequently this 

 name, slightly modified in various ways, is used in a 

 great number of languages to convey the idea of 

 something sharp or piercing. At the risk of being 

 regarded as boastful, I will at once inform my 

 readers that I have traced our family name back to 

 very ancient times, for I find in the oldest historical 

 work now in existence that one of my remote an- 

 cestors, Ben-deker by name, was appointed by 

 Solomon, the King of Israel, to be one of the twelve 

 officers whose duty it was to provide victuals for the 

 king and his household. This mention of Ben-deker 

 in Jewish history is sufficient to show that already in 

 Solomon's day Deker had become an established 

 name. Learned writers are agreed that this name is 

 derived from a word which means to pierce, or stab ; 

 this word we find in the Hebrew language under the 

 form of Dakar. Hence Deker means the slabber, or 

 he who pierces ; and as Ben is the word for son, 

 Ben-deker means the son of the stabber, then the 

 little stabber. I have reason to believe that the 

 name was given to the earliest representative of our 

 family on account of his skill in the use of the spear 

 or sword in times of war ; for I find that when Jehu 

 went forth to war he was accompanied by a member 

 of our family who bore the name of Bidekar, and had 

 been promoted to the post of captain on account of 

 his chivalry. The reader may consult I Kings iv. 9, 

 and 2 Kings ix. 25. 



Now every one is aware that, by the association 

 of ideas, names are continually being transferred 

 from one thing to another which bears some resem- 

 blance, in one way or another, to the original. Thus 

 the word needle is applied to a little pointed instru- 

 ment used by industrious girls and housewives, as 

 well as to an ancient monument of a similar shape 

 which once stood on Egyptian soil, but now adorns 

 the Thames Embankment. The musical pipe of the 

 Hebrew and the tobacco pipe of the smoker bear the 

 same name, though their uses are so widely different, 

 because they are each hollow ; and hence we have 

 many other things called pipes for the same reason. 

 In exactly the same way the people who first used 

 the word Dakar in the sense of stabbing, called not 

 only a clever soldier Deker, a stabber, but applied 

 the same term to such plants or other things as 

 pricked or pierced the skin of the unwary, just as the 

 Scotch thistle is reputed to have stabbed or pierced 



