Xlvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



public. Dr. Grray claimed to have beeu the original proposer of 

 the system of a low uniform rate of postage to be prepaid by 

 stamps — a system carried out by Rowland Hill, and now adopted 

 all over the world. He took much interest in the question of the 

 adoption of a decimal scale of coinage, weights, and measures in 

 this country ; and between 185i and 1857 published numerous 

 articles and pamphlets on this subject. 



In considering the immense mass of work published by Dr. 

 Grray, the zoologist may sometimes be incliued to wish that its 

 amount were less, and that the author had given himself more 

 time for the full elaboration of the various subjects that he took 

 up. In too many instances he hastened to put the results of his 

 researches into shape before he had really completed them ; hence 

 further investigations led him to modify the views which he had 

 expressed only a short time previously, and thus two or three 

 papers on the same subject, perhaps the classification of some 

 tribe or family of animals, would follow each other in rapid suc- 

 cession. It would undoubtedly have been better, both for zoology 

 and for his own future fame, if the outcome of the same amount 

 of study had been represented by half, or even a quarter, of the 

 amount of literature which now stands in Dr. Grray's name. But 

 there is one labour of his from which no such deduction is to be 

 made. From his appointment as an Assistant in the British Mu- 

 seum until the close of his life, but more especially since his 

 having been made Keeper of the Natural-History Department 

 he devoted himself with unflagging energy to the development of 

 the collection under his charge ; and mainly by his exertions it 

 has grown from the rudimentary state in which it existed in the 

 days of Dr. Leach, to the magnificent proportions which it has 

 now attained. His knowledge of species and genera in those 

 groups to which his attention was particularly directed was 

 perhaps unrivalled. His great services in this respect met with 

 more direct recognition abroad than in this country : in 1852 

 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from 

 the University of Munich ; and in 1860 the large Grold Medal 

 of merit was conferred upon him by the King of Wiirtem- 

 berg, on his declining the ofl'er of an order of knighthood which 

 had been made to him. His merits were also acknowledged 

 by many foreign Societies and Academies, which enrolled him in 

 the lists of their honorary and corresponding members. The 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia paid him this honour 



