LINXEAN SOCIETY OF LOXDOX. 39 



which tliere were drawn unto the great French Xaturalist students 

 and workers of well-nigh all nationalities, some notion of whom 

 Jiiay be gathered from the list of subscribers to Lacaze's pre- 

 sentation portrait of 1889. 



Lacaze was a Professor successively at the Faculte des Sciences 

 of Lille, at the Ecole Xormale, and the Museum and Faculte des 

 Sciences of Paris. ]\[uch of his later work was devoted to the 

 study of the Molluscau nervous system; and here again, repetition 

 of his observations has shown that, if he had employed the micro- 

 scope, certain broader points of difference from his juniors, who 

 were his contemporaries in the field of investigation, might have 

 been avoided. 



He received honours at all hands. As a man, he was genial and 

 witty. His presence and appearance M-ere of that vigorous and 

 aristocratic type to be found only among a cei'taiu class of French- 

 men ; and his striking personality, which can never be forgotten by 

 those to whom he was known, in itself contributed to his lasting 

 fame as an indomitable worker and enthusiast. 



He was elected a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society on 

 May 1, 1862. 



In the death of Joay Clatell Ma^'sel-Pletdell, the Linnean 

 Society has lost one of those cotmtry gentlemen, who, without 

 being acknowledged authorities in any one branch of natural history, 

 possess a good working knowledge of many branches, especially in 

 the iield. 



Our late Fellow was born in 1817, the eldest son of Colonel 

 Mansel of Smealmore ; he was educated at private schools, and 

 St. John's College, Cambridge. 



He was twice married, first, in 1849 to Isabel, daughter of F. C. 

 A . Colvile of Barton House, AVarwickshire, and second, to Mary, 

 sister of the 1st Baron Leigh ; for thirty years he was in the 

 Queen's Own Yeomanry, and as a large landowner of 8000 acres, 

 he was emphatically a country squire. He threw himself enthusi- 

 astically into antiquarian and field natural history pursuits, was 

 President of the Dorset jSatural History and Antiquarian Field 

 Club for a long series of years, from its foundation in 1875 to his 

 death ; and produced many memoirs and independent works of 

 local value. Amongst them may be instanced his ' Flora of Dorset ' 

 in 1874, of which a second edition came out in 1895 ; the ' Birds 

 of Dorsetshire,' 1888 ; the ' Fossil Eeptiles of Dorset,' 1888 ; he 

 also was author of the ' Geology of Dorsetshire,' and an accotmt 

 of the Mollusca of the same county in 1898. 



He was elected into oiu' Society June 16, 1870 ; he was also 

 a Fellow of the Greologicai Society from 1857, besides which he 

 was a Deptity Lieutenant, and a Justice of the Peace for his county. 

 To those who knew the elderly, but hale and vigorous naturalist, 

 it seems almost whimsical to record that he A^as the heir pre- 

 sumptive of his first cousin twice-removed. Sir Courteriay Cecil 

 Mansel, 11th Baronet. 



