Dr. Johnston of Berwick-upon-Tweed. 201 



at any great length. His published worksj which must be well 

 known to our readers, are all of the highest excellence, and some 

 of them, although limited to British natural history, have been 

 hailed as standard works upon the subjects of which they treat, 

 even in distant countries. 



Dr. Johnston was, however, essentially a British naturalist. 

 Inspired by an ardent love for the beautiful district in which he 

 was born and in which his boyish days were passed, he early 

 devoted his attention to the investigation of the natural objects 

 which this presented to him in profusion ; and it is probably to 

 this concentration of his energies upon one particular object, 

 that he has been enabled, in the midst of the arduous and en- 

 grossing duties of a large medical practice, to do so much good 

 service to science, and to raise an enduring monument to his 

 own talents and perseverance. 



His researches were by no means confined to a single branch 

 of natural history, but Botany and the study of the marine 

 Invertebrate animals occupied the greater part of his attention. 

 Qne of his first works is a Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, pub- 

 lished in 1829 and 1831, and about the same time he com- 

 menced a series of articles called " Illustrations in British Zoo- 

 logy '^ in ' Loudon's Magazine of Natural History/ In the same 

 periodical he also published a Natural History of the Mollusca 

 in an epistolary form, which was the foundation of the admi- 

 rable ' Introduction to Conchology,' published many years after, 

 in 1850. The ^ History of British Zoophytes,' which has passed 

 through two editions, and the ' History of British Sponges,' are 

 further contributions to the zoology of this country, whilst his 

 last published work, the ' Botany of the Eastern Borders,' is un- 

 doubtedly the most charming botanical work in our language. 

 At the time of his death Dr. Johnston had just completed a 

 Catalogue of the British non-parasitical Worms for the British 

 Museum, which will shortly be published by the Trustees of 

 that establishment. 



In the accuracy of his observations and the clearness with 

 which he describes them, he is probably without a rival amongst 

 British zoologists since the days of Montagu ; whilst, by a happy 

 geniality of mind, he was enabled to invest subjects, apparently 

 the driest in the world, with a peculiar charm, which renders 

 many of his scientific works and papers interesting even to the 

 general reader. The kindliness of disposition which is almost 

 a necessary concomitant of this tone of mind, rendered him uni- 

 versally beloved in the scene of his professional labours ; and, to 

 use the words of a writer in the ^Berwick Advertiser,' ^^He 

 never visited a house for the first time in his medical capacity 

 which he did not leave as a friend.^' This general popularity 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 2. Vol.xvi. 14 



