EDINBURGH. 



35 



Nevertheless I made one interesting little discovery, and read, 

 about the beginning of the year 1826, a short paper on the 

 subject before the Plinian Society. This was that the so- • 

 called ova of Flustra had the power of independent move- i 

 ment by means of cilia, and were in fact larvae. In another j 

 short paper I showed that the little globular bodies which had / 

 been supposed to be the young state of Fucus loreus were the 

 egg-cases of the worm like Pontobdella muricata. 



The Plinian Society was encouraged and, I believe, 

 founded by Professor Jameson : it consisted of students and 

 met in an underground room in the University for the sake 

 of reading papers on natural science and discussing them. I 

 used regularly to attend, and the meetings had a good effect 

 on me in stimulating my zeal and giving me new congenial 

 acquaintances. One evening a poor young man got up, and 

 after stammering for a prodigious length of time, blushing 

 crimson, he at last slowly got out the words, " Mr. President, 

 I have forgotten what I was going to say." The poor fellow 

 looked quite overwhelmed, and all the members were so sur- 

 prised that no one could think of a word to say to cover his 

 confusion. The papers which were read to our little society 

 were not printed, so that I had not the satisfaction of seeing 

 my paper in print ; but I believe Dr. Giant noticed my small 

 discovery in his excellent memoir on Flustra. 



I was also a member of the Royal Medical Society, and 

 attended pretty regularly; but as the subjects were exclusively 

 medical, I did not much care about them. Much rubbish 

 was talked there, but there were some good speakers, of whom 

 the best was the present Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth. Dr. Grant 

 took me occasionally to the meetings of the Wernerian So- 

 ciety, where various papers on natural history were read, dis- 

 cussed, and afterwards published in the 'Transactions.' I 

 heard Audubon deliver there some interesting discourses on 

 the habits of N. American birds, sneering somewhat unjustly 

 at Waterton. By the way, a negro lived in Edinburgh, who 

 had travelled with Waterton, and gained his livelihood by 

 stuffing birds, which he did excellently : he gave me lessons 



