16 



PIONEERS IN LOCAL BIOLOGY. 

 By Rev. H. H. Higgins, M.A. 



The earlier workers in the field of our local Natural History, 

 before the word Biology in its more restricted sense had 

 come into use, or the special study for which the term now 

 often stands was more than rarely and imperfectly appre- 

 ciated, belonged to a class of observers capable of doing 

 excellent service to the science of their own day. Take for 

 example the aid rendered to Geology by conchological 

 collectors. Not a few memories are warmly cherished in 

 Liverpool, of fellow-townsmen devoted to the pursuit of 

 natural science, whose contributions to the literature of the 

 subject extended only to the occasional appearance of their 

 names as donors of specimens to authorities such as 

 Johnston, Jeffreys, Yarrell, Carpenter, Alder, Landsborough, 

 and others. 



But at the outset of a series of papers, the materials for 

 which must to an important extent depend on the use of the 

 marine dredge, Liverpool naturalists will be glad to be 

 reminded that one of the first explorers of the sea-bottom 

 for scientific purposes was a Liverpool merchant, Robert 

 McAndrew, who, with his friend, Edward Forbes, have left 

 undying names amongst the members and in the volumes of 

 the British Association. Mr. McAndrew was a liberal con- 

 tributor to the museums of Liverpool, and a generous 

 promoter of every effort made to investigate the Natural 

 History of the vicinity. His very fine collection of British 

 and foreign Shells is now in the Museum of the University 

 at Cambridge. It is remarkable for a large number of series 

 illustrating the growth of shells from the nucleus, of micro- 



