1855.] Linnean Society. 405 



About the same time he lectured on the physiological relations of 

 Electricity and Galvanism. Amid a very absorbing practice, he never 

 lost sight of science, nor of opportunities of adding to his stock of 

 scientific knowledge. He became a Fellow of our Society in 1S36 ; 

 and subsequently of the Geological and Royal Societies. In the 

 welfare of the Linnean he took a special interest ; and in 1846 commu- 

 nicated a paper " On the Siliceous Armour oi Equisetum hyemale, L., 

 and on its Stomatic Apparatus," an abstract of which is given in 

 the 'Proceedings,' vol. i. p. 290-292. In 1848-49 symptoms of 

 disease of the heart manifested themselves ; and in 1852 and 1853 

 he took lengthened holidays at Tenby, where he ardently indulged 

 in the pursuits of natural history, in spite of an amount of disease 

 that would in most men have been the plea for total inactivity. 

 Some of the fruits of these investigations appeared in a paper in the 

 Microscopical Society's Transactions, " On the Zoophytes of Tenby, 

 and the best mode of mounting them." In June 1854 the state of 

 his health compelled him to relinquish London practice, and he 

 settled at Tunbridge Wells. Up to September he improved con- 

 siderably ; but symptoms then supervened which showed that life was 

 near its close, and terminated his existence on the 27th of October, 

 1854. Had Dr. Bird's profession been a less engrossing one, there can 

 be no doubt that natural history would have owed him much more. 

 He was a keen, accurate and enthusiastic observer ; but the duties 

 of a London physician left but little time for studies not strictly con- 

 nected with his profession. Still his knowledge of natural history 

 was varied and extensive, if not profound ; and he was ever ready 

 to assist those less informed than himself, by placing his own stores 

 of knowledge, in the most unreserved manner, at their command. 



Sir Edward Thomas Ffrench Bromhead, Bart., M.A., F.R.S. L. 

 S; E., F.S.A. SiC, High Steward of Lincoln, the second baronet 

 of his family, was born in Dublin on the 26th of March 1789, and 

 succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 1822. He was 

 a Member of Gonville and Caius College ; and was called to the bar 

 by the Hon. Society of the Inner Temple in 1813. Prior to an 

 attack of blindness, with wliich he had been for some years afflicted, 

 he attached himself to the study of Ecclesiastical Architecture, and 

 also published various sketches of natural classifications, both zoolo- 

 gical and botanical. The first of his botanical arrangements ap- 

 peared in the ' Edinburgh Journal' for April 1836; it was after- 

 wards frequently revised by him, with a view to adapt it to recent 

 discoveries ; and only a few weeks before his death, under date of 

 February 8th, 1855, he distributed a printed sheet containing his 



