XVI MEMOIR OP DR. BOWERBANK. 



Zoological Society, and for many years a member of its 

 Council. 



It was in his Museum at Highbury Grove that the first 

 idea of an Aquarium was started. A small glass jar 

 was used to keep Chara translucens for microscopical 

 purposes, to which was afterwards added some fish and 

 animalcules, until at length the idea was worked out by 

 Mr. N. Ward, Mr. Warring-ton, Mr. M. Marshall, and 

 others, and brought to its present state of development. 



As a Fellow of the Royal Society he, in 1857, 

 contributed papers on the Anatomy and Physiology 

 of the Spongiadas. but it is as a member of the Ray 

 Society, which with the late Dr. Johnstone he assisted 

 in founding, and of which he was for many years 

 Treasurer, he will be best known and remembered for 

 his ' Monograph of the British Spongiadce* 



In the year 1841 a circumstance occurred which gave 

 a bias to his future studies in favour of the Sponges. 



A storm at Brighton had thrown upon the beach 

 vast quantities of seaweed and Sponges as far as the eye 

 could reach. Although dead they were still filled with 

 the soft matter of the Sponge. He selected the most 

 promising specimens, placing them in glass jars filled 

 up with strong spirit, and had them immediately con- 

 veyed to London for systematic examination, and from 

 these he derived more information than from many 

 times their number of dry specimens. From this time 

 he devoted himself, with great zeal, to the study of 

 the Spongiadas, and having agents on many parts of 

 the coast collecting fossils, he employed them in 

 procuring Sponges. Friends also in different parts 

 of the world made consignments which were of the 

 utmost value to him in his investigations. His 



