374 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



.which he was unable to satisfy, from painfully laborious habits of 

 composition, or from his mental tendencies impelling him rather 

 to accumulate knowledge than to extend its boundaries, he has left 

 to the world no measure of his intellectual stature. His only 

 printed essay, besides his Inaugural Thesis, is a brief note on the 

 correct reading of a partly effaced Roman inscription. It was in 

 social intercourse, and in animated discussions, that his extensive 

 knowledge and remarkable mental powers were exclusively mani- 

 fested ; and, as far as it may be safe to judge from such unwritten 

 demonstrations of great talents, he would appear to have been one, 

 who in the impressive words of Playfair " might have enjoyed more 

 of the fame, had he been less satisfied with the possession, of 

 knowledge." 



Dr. Holme was born February 17, 1770, at Kendal in Lancashire. 

 No notices have been preserved of his early studies ; but in January 

 1787 he was admitted a student in the Academy that had been 

 recently established in Manchester. From thence he was removed 

 in the summer of 1790 to the University of Gdttingen, where he 

 laid the foundations of his vast and accurate scholarship, and where 

 he enjoyed the inestimable privilege of sitting at the feet of Heyne. 

 He passed the winters of 1791-2 and 1792-3 in attending the 

 Medical Classes and the Chemical Lectures of Dr. Blake in Edin- 

 burgh. In December 1793 he received the degree of M.D. fi'om the 

 University of Leyden. His Thesis ' De Structura et Usu Vasorum 

 Absorbentium ' is a faithful and masterly exposition of what was then 

 known of the anatomical structure and functions of that system of 

 vessels. In April 1794 he was elected one of the Physicians to the 

 Manchester Infirmarj^ an appointment which he held till the year 

 1828. He also became in 1794 a member of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society of Manchester, and filled in succession all its offices 

 of honour, having been raised to the Presidency in 1844 on the 

 death of Dal ton. During this long period he communicated nume- 

 rous papers, all of which he withheld from publication. One of them, 

 " On the History of Sculpture from the earliest period to the time of 

 Phidias," was found among his MSS., and is now about to be pub- 

 lished in the forthcoming volume of the Manchester Memoirs. 



Beyond the pale of his profession his pursuits were chiefly lite- 

 rary. His exact and critical knowledge of the ancient languages, 

 and his familiarity with the writings of the leading scholars and 

 philologists from the revival of letters to the time of Bentley, had 

 secured for him the warm friendship and respect of Parr. He was 

 profoundly read in history, and especially conversant with local 



