OF THE LATE MB. WILLIAM STURGEON. 83 



In the case of Mr. Sturgeon, Government was induced, 

 through the untiring exertions of my friend, E. W. Binney, 

 F.R.S., &c. (to whom science owes so much for his kind 

 assistance to its humble cultivators), to award a sum of 

 £200., and afterwards a pension of £50., which, on Mr. 

 Sturgeon's death, a year afterwards, was continued to his 

 widow. These sums, along with the private efforts of his 

 friends, alone saved him from being reduced to a state of 

 destitution, which had it occurred would have reflected deep 

 discredit upon the community. 



Mr. Sturgeon was of a tall and well built frame of body ; 

 his forehead was high, and his features were strongly marked. 

 His address was animated ; and his conversation, as it gene- 

 rally is when the mind is stored with knowledge, pleasing and 

 instructive. His style of writing was at once vigorous, lucid, 

 and graceful. In friendship he was warm and steady ; in 

 domestic life affectionate and exemplary. He had a noble 

 mind and a generous heart. In politics he was a conserva- 

 tive ; in religion a member of the Church of England. He 

 was a close and sagacious rea3oner, and an unsparing exposer 

 of error. He detested quackery and false pretension, sought 

 diligently for truth, and loved it for its own sake. A diligent 

 accumulator and observer of facts ; eager in the pursuit of 

 information, of whatever kind, and in communicating his 

 stores to others ; under more fortunate circumstances he 

 would, probably, have left a name unsurpassed in the scientific 

 history of his time ; as it is, he will always be remembered as 

 a distinguished cultivator of natural knowledge. 





