SIR WILLIAM BOWMAN. 403 



Dr. Vasey was twice married, and was exceptionally happy in his 

 domestic life. He leaves a family of six children. His personal 

 manner was singularly gentle, and even his purely professional ac- 

 quaintances early recognized his warmth of heart and kindly disposi- 

 tion. In the autumn before his death he represented the Smithsonian 

 Institution at the International Congress of Botanists in Genoa, where 

 he was made one of the Vice-Presidents. 



1893. B. L. Robinson. 



FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS. 



SIR WILLIAM BOWMAN. 



Sir William Bowman, Baronet, of London, England, Fellow 

 of the Royal Society, — one of the most distinguished of the 

 Foreign Honorary Members of the Academy, — was born at 

 Nantwich, England, in 1816. His father devoted much of his 

 leisure to studies in natural history; and the son inherited this 

 taste, and the habit of minute and careful observation which 

 marked each step of his career, impressing the stamp of exacti- 

 tude upon all his researches and conclusions. While a pupil at 

 the Birmingham Hospital, at seventeen years of age, he wrote 

 several monographs of much merit, one of which, " On Affections 

 of the Larynx," published with colored illustrations, was received 

 w r ith great favor, and is still regarded as a very valuable produc- 

 tion. His whole life fulfilled its early promise in intelligent 

 and discriminating research; and he well knew how to discern 

 and interpret what was of value as a positive addition to science, 

 and a means for its further advancement . 



At twenty-three years of age we find him Demonstrator of 

 Anatomy at King's College Hospital in London, where ho 

 devoted himself to minute researches as to the finer structures 

 of the human system, and to histological teaching, especially 

 that kind of histology which is imperatively necessary to the 

 understanding of function. 



The following year he visited the hospitals of Paris, and of 

 Austria, Germany, and Holland. On his return lie was appointed 

 the Assistant, and became afterwards the successor, of the dis- 

 tinguished investigator, Dr. Todd, with the title of Professor of 



