Anni7)ersary Notice of deceased Members. 467 



John Latham^ M.D., F.R.S., 8fC., — one of the original members of 

 this Society, who for nearly half a century took the liveliest pleasure 

 in its prosperity and advancement. 



This venerable and amiable man devoted himself to his favourite 

 science of ornithology with undiminished interest to the close of his 

 long life, which was extended to his ninety-sixth year. His writings 

 on ornithology were very voluminous and are essential to every stu- 

 dent ; for though his views are perhaps limited in some respects, com- 

 pared to those of more modern authorities, he made important use 

 of the labours of previous naturalists, and added many species to 

 those formerly known. 



His great works are 



" Index Ornithologic'us,'* in 2 vols. 4to, 1790; and *' A General Hi- 

 story of Birds," in 10 vols. 4to, 1821 — 1824. 



He contributed three papers to our Transactions : 



*' On the various species of Sawfish," in 1793. 



•* Observations on the Spinning Limax," 1797. 



•* Essay on the Tracheae of Birds," 1797- 



It was a privilege of no ordinary kind to me, who had not attained 

 by several years even the moiety of the age of this venerable man, 

 to see him a few years ago, at our anniversary dinner, triumphant in 

 body and mind over the assaults of time ; and I remember looking 

 upon him with reverence, — not exclusively that becoming respect ever 

 due from youth to age, whatever may be its intellectual characteris- 

 tics, but that mingled feeling which partly arose from the impressive 

 consciousness that a life so protracted, and exhibiting so much calm 

 assurance of happiness, such serenity and cheerfulness of feeling, in 

 a scene from which so many of his early friends had gone for ever, 

 bespoke a mind at peace v.'ith itself and the world, and aftbrded a 

 lesson of what true enjoyment lies beyond even the Psalmist's limit 

 to the age of man, when time appears to have forgotten the good 

 man's claim to a better state of existence j and it was impossible not 

 to feel that his pursuits of natural history had perhaps contributed 

 largely to the complacency and the elasticity of his almost patriar- 

 chal age. 



WiUiam Elfurd Leach, M.D., F.R.S. — Few men have ever de- 

 voted themselves to zoology with greater zeal than Dr. Leach, or 

 attained at an early period of life a higher reputation at home and 

 abroad as a profound naturalist. He was one of the most laborious 

 and successful as well as one of the most universal cultivators of 

 zoology which this country has ever produced. 



His discoveries in the different classes of the Vertebrata, especially 

 Birds, were extensive ; but it was in Entomology and Malacology 

 that his labours have been most known and his improvements of the 

 greatest importance. 



His knowledge of the Crustacea was superior to that of any other 

 naturalist of his time, and his arrangement the best until the work of 

 Dr. Milne Edwards appeared two years ago. 



After a long suspension of his studies from ill health, during which 

 and up to the period of his death he was attended by the most de- 



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