HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G OS SI P. 



•15 



in number, so as to employ the microscope in inves- 

 tigation, has been patiently undertaken and triumph- 

 antly concluded by Mr. Thomson alone. Nay, more, 

 it was necessary, to render his labours scientifically 

 ■valuable, that the structural details of the sections 

 should be engraved. In the old woodcut process 

 this meant the outlay both of time and money. Mr. 

 Thomson set to work to overcome the difficulty, and 

 he did it ! Of course his process 

 is his own property, but we cannot 

 but quote from one of his papers 

 in which he gives a short sketch 

 of the various methods attempted 

 to delineate the internal structure 

 of fossil corals, and sets forth his 

 own in the following modest 

 language :— " It would be tedious 

 to enumerate the various other 

 unsuccessful attempts I made in 

 the way of obtaining casts fitted 

 for the accurate reproduction of 

 structural details ; but I may say, 

 generally, that these attempts were 



been specially obtained from Mr. Thomson in order 

 to show the complete effectiveness of his system 

 above referred to. To bring out this alone would 

 have been sufficient to give a man a decent scientific 

 reputation ; but when we remember it is the result of, 

 and due to a preceding difficulty, we are all the more 

 surprised at the perseverance which has so success- 

 fully surmounted both ! 



Fig. 178. — Cyclophyllum fungites. 



Fig. 177. — Thysanophyllnm oricntale. 



very numerous, that they occupied a large portion of 

 my leisure time for several years, and that they 

 involved a very considerable amount of expense. 

 Out of these laborious attempts, however, there 

 finally emerged the process which I now employ, 

 and for which I claim the merit of being applicable to 

 the accurate delineation of the minutest detail of coral- 

 line structure, and of beiiig comparatively inexpensive." 

 The illustrations accompanying ihi> notice have 



Fig. 179. — Clisiophyllum Bowerbankii. 



Mr. James Thomson is not a wealthy man. All 

 his life he has had assiduously to follow his business. 

 He never neglected it — he is following it still. But 

 all the above work has been done at the expense of 

 his own time and his own pocket. All honour to 

 such men ! It is not without pleasure that we see his 

 work recognised. He has been elected an honorary 

 member of the Royal Ducal Society of Jena, corre- 

 sponding member of the Royal Society of Science of 



