172 



OBITUARY. 



the Surgeons to the Birmingham Infirmary. The great loss which has 

 been sustained by the death of this most estimable and highly-talented 

 gentleman, will be most severely felt by all classes of society. The 

 varied acquirements which his mind, ever active in the pursuit of knowledge, 

 had made in the different branches of literature and science, made his society 

 particularly valuable to all those who had the pleasure of enjoying it. The 

 successful manner in which he employed his professional skill to relieve the 

 sufferings of the poor, the generous sympathy he displayed in their distress- 

 es, and the untiring exertions he made to relieve their wants, have obtained 

 for him the affectionate attachment of this large and important portion of the 

 community. The extensive attainments of Mr. Parsons in the various 

 branches of science, rendered him a most valuable acquisition to the Philoso- 

 phical Institution of Birmingham, which he joined in the year 1827, and was 

 appointed Secretary in the year 1829. Mr. Parsons was a frequent contribu- 

 tor to several of the medical periodical publications ; and some very interest- 

 ing papers of his, containing a statistical account of the diseases of this town 

 are published in the lleports of the Midland Medical Asseciation. He held 

 the office of Local Treasurer of the British Association for the Promotion of 

 Science. 



January 22, 1837, at his residence. How land-street, London, Dr. Thorn- 

 ton, the celebrated botanist. 



January 24, aged 67, Joseph Sabine, Esq., F.R.S., L.S., H.S., Z.S., &c., 

 many years Honorary Secretary to the London Horticultural Society, and 

 a well-known amateur of Botany. Mr. S. was brought up to the bar ; but 

 shortly after he had begun to practice, he received an appointment under 

 government, at a salary of £600 a year. This office he held till 1835, when 

 he was put upon the retired allowance of £350. per annum. In 1810, Mr. S. 

 joined the Horticultural Society, of which he was made Honorary Secratary 

 on May 1, of the same year, upon the resignation of U. A. Salisbury, Esq. 

 After Mr. S. ceased to be Hon. Secretary, he became an active member of 

 the Zoological Society, and was the means of greatly increasing its collection 

 of ornamental plants, in the Regent's Park. 



On the 4th of February, John Latham, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., A.S., closed 

 his long and honourable career, at Winchester, in his 97th year. A biogra- 

 phical sketch of this celebrated naturalist will appear in our next number. 



Science has recently sustained a severe loss in the death of Edward Turner 

 M.D., who departed this life February 12, at his residence at Hampstead, 

 aged 40. He died of inflammation of the lungs, whic^h commenced in an 

 attack of influenza. He had suffered many years under chronic affection 

 of the intestines, by which his strength was greatly reduced. Dr. T. was 

 born in Jamaica, but was early removed for his education to England, and 

 obtained his degree at PMinburgh. Having determined to make Chemistry 

 his chief study, he then went to Gottingen, where for two years he devoted 

 his whole attention, under Prof. Stromeyer, to that science and Mineralogy. 

 He returned to Edinburgh in 1824, and began to lecture on his favourite 

 science. On the foundation of the i^ondon University, he was appointed 

 Prof, of Chemistry at that Institution, to the success of which, as a medical 

 school especially, he has contributed an ample share. His class was large and 

 flourishing ; his lectures were remarkable for the simplicity and clearness 

 with which the most apparently comi)licated principles and facts were ex- 



