1847.] Linnean Society. 333 



John Bostock, M.D., was the son of a physician in Liverpool, in 

 which town he was born in the year 1774. He lost his father in 

 early infancy, and received his rudimentary education at the New 

 College at Hackney, where the Lectures of Dr. Priestley contributed to 

 imbue his mind with an ardent love of science, which determined him 

 to embrace his father's profession. With this view he completed 

 his studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he took his degree 

 in 1798; and he soon afterwards entered into practice as a physician in 

 Liverpool and continued to reside therefor nearly twenty years. During 

 this period, notwithstanding that he was actively engaged in his pro- 

 fessional pursuits, he distinguished himself by numerous contributions 

 to various Medical and Scientific Journals and to Brewster's 'Ency- 

 clopaedia,' as well as by the prominent part which he took in the esta- 

 blishment and support of the scientific and charitable institutions 

 of the town. Among these the Fever Hospital and the Botanic Gar- 

 den were greatly indebted to his exertions ; and he delivered, as Pro- 

 fessor of Physiology, the first course of Lectures given in the Philo- 

 sophical and Literary Institution. 



In 1817, Dr. Bostock quitted the practice of his profession, and 

 fixed himself in London, where he soon became an active member of 

 most of the leading Scientific and Medical Societies. His election 

 into the Royal Society took place in 1818, and in 1832 he was one 

 of its Vice-Presidents. In 1819 he became a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society ; and he was for some time one of the Secretaries, and 

 afterwards President of the Geological Society. He became an active 

 member of the Zoological Society soon after its institution, and the 

 Medical and Chirurgical Society elected him their Treasurer ; and 

 he gave Lectures on Chemistry for several years at the Medical School 

 of Guy's Hospital. 



His 'contributions to Medical and Scientific Journals, to Cyclo- 

 paedias and to the Transactions of Societies, are stated to amount to 

 sixty-nine ; of which twenty were published in Nicholson's ' Journal,' 

 or in the 'Annals of Philosophy,' eighteen in the 'Medico- Chirur- 

 gical Transactions,' and twelve in the ' Cyclopaedia of Practical Me- 

 dicine ' and the ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology.' Some 

 of the more important of these papers were afterwards republished 

 by him in a separate form. Such are his ' Account of the History 

 and Present State of Galvanism,' and his ' History of Medicine.' But 

 his most important work is his ' Elementary System of Physiology,' 

 in three vols. 8vo, Lond. 1824 — 1827, of which a second and a third 

 edition have since appeared, the last comprised in one very thick 8vo 

 volume. This is justly regarded as the best text-book of Physiology, 



