io4 The Iiish Naturalist. I April, 



OBITUARY. 



George James Aeeman, M.D., F.R.S. 

 Though personally unknown to the present generation of Irish 

 naturalists, so distinguished a native of the country as the late Prof. 

 Allman must claim recognition in the pages of this Magazine. Born at 

 Cork in 1812, Allman graduated at Dublin and Oxford, and was 

 appointed to the botanical chair of the former University in 1847. In 

 1857 he moved to Edinburgh, where he held the Regius Professorship of 

 Natural History in the University, and the Keepership of the Natural 

 History Museum. In 1870 he resigned these positions, and retired first 

 to London and afterwards to Parkstone, Dorset, where he passed away on 

 November 24, 1898. "He will be ranked," to quote the words of 

 Prof. Howes (to whose article in Nature, of December 29. we are indebted 

 for the above particulars), " among the earlier pioneers in the study of 

 the marine zoology of Britain .... His greater reputation rests 

 upon his monumental investigations into the classification and morph- 

 ology of the Coelenterata and Polyzoa, upon which he has left a mark 

 for all times." His monographs of the Freshwater Polyzoa (1856), and 

 the Gymnoblastic Hydroids (1872), and his Reports on the ' Challenger ' 

 collection of Hydroids are among the classics of zoological literature. 

 Material from Irish waters contributed largely to his work on these 

 subjects, and his discovery of Geomalacus in Go. Kerry in 1843 was the 

 first step towards the recognition of the " Lusitanian" element in the 

 land fauna of Ireland. 



j. j. doweing. 



Local ornithology has sustained the loss of an earnest student in the 

 death of Mr. Joseph J. Dowling, which took place at his residence, Fox- 

 rock, on 2nd February. A native of Co. Limerick, he held for many 

 years a responsible position on the staff of the Irish Local Government 

 Board, and often regretted that his official duties left him so few oppor- 

 tunities for making observations and notes. An enthusiastic sportsman 

 from boyhood, and a keen observer, he had collected a vast fund of 

 knowledge of the habits of our wild birds and mammals, and it is to 

 be regretted he found time to publish so little. 



However, his activities may be judged by his numerous contributions 

 to the Field, and Land and Water, during the past twenty years. In J887 

 he joined the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, and from 1890 served on 

 the Committee, till failing health compelled his resignation in 1896. 

 He read a valuable paper on the Wild Ducks and Allied Birds of the 

 Dublin district before the Club in the Winter Session of 1S92, and often 

 contributed notes and exhibits of photographic apparatus, in which he 

 was keenly interested. 



In 1889 he was elected a member of the British Ornithologists' Union, 



and the following year a foreign member of the kindred French society. 



An equally keec votary of rod and gun, he was one of the founders of 



the Dublin Anglers' Club, and his cheery good nature and helpful 



kindness will long be missed by a wide circle of friends. 



H. G. C. 



