34 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Natural History to the Paculty of Paris, to whieli he was ap- 

 pointed in 1864, followed soon after by uominatioti as Professor 

 of Hygiene to the Central School of Arts and Manufactures. He 

 received the decoration so greatly coveted by his countrymen on 

 17th August, 1867, the Legion d'Honneur, and was promoted to 

 Officer, 13th July, 1888. His latter days were saddened by family 

 troubles which need not be here detailed. 



His death, which happened on 19th July, 1895, came as a 

 thunderclap upon the scientific world, and was even given out 

 as a case of suicide. His friend M. Adrien Pranchet, however, 

 denies the truth of this in the most emphatic manner; he was 

 with him earlier in the day, and Baillon was in admirable spirits, 

 talking about his plans for the last volume of ' Histoire des 

 Plantes ' and for his sou's establishment in life. About five in 

 the afternoon he retired to take a bath, and, from M. Pranchet's 

 account, it seems that a lamp which had been employed to heat 

 the bath produced fumes which caused suff'ocation. 



Prof. Baillon's loss was deeply deplored in this country, where 

 he was cordially esteemed both for his courtesy as well as his 

 wide and deep knowledge of plants. He leaves no one in Prance 

 who can boast of the like attainments. It was on 6th May, 1875, 

 that he was elected a Poreign Member of our Society. 



De. Pobeet Browk, who died at Streatham on 20th October, 

 1895, was born at Camj)ster in Caithness in 1842; and to dis- 

 tinguish himself from the former President of this Society, 

 added " Campst."to his name when describing plants, of which a 

 few were first published by him. He studied at the University 

 of Pdinburgh, where he took the degree of M.A., and then pro- 

 ceeded in succession to Ltiden, Copenhagen, and Rostock, from 

 the last receiving the degree of Phil. Dr. He went out to British 

 Columbia, and was put in command of an exj)edition designed to 

 open up Vancouver Island in 1864 ; after travelling much in 

 British North America, he took part in a trip to the west coasc 

 of Greenland in 1867, taking charge of the natural history 

 collections. Of these he published an account in the ' Transac- 

 tions of the Edinburgh Botanical Society' in 1868, which was 

 afterwards reprinted in the 'Manual of the Grovernment Arctic 

 Expedition ' in 1877. Having noticed the erosive action of ice on 

 the Grreenland coast, he contributed several papers thereon to 

 the Poyal Geographical Society soon after his return. He then 

 spent some years in Edinburgh and Glasgow on literary and 

 scientific work and lecturing, and in 1876 came to London, for 

 the remainder of his career engaged in journalistic and serial 

 work : some of this was published by Cassell & Co., including 

 ' The Peoples of the World,' six volumes, ' The Countries of the 

 "World' in the same number, 'Science for All' in five, 'Our 

 Earth and its Story ' in three, and ' The Story of Africa' m three 

 volumes. These were mostly compilations or translations, but 



