LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXV 



Deeply as science must regret his loss, the tear of friendship 

 will be a warmer tribute to his early grave. 



He was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society in March 

 1843, and a Fellow in June 1844. 



Thomas Horsfield, M.D., F.R.S., &c. &c. was born on the 12th 

 of May, 1773, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. His parents be- 

 longed to the Moravian sect, in whose faith Dr. Horsfield himself 

 lived and died. His tastes very early in life led him to the study 

 of botany, and a similar inclination, perhaps, to the pursuit of all 

 branches of biological science caused him to select medicine as a 

 profession. He took his degree as Doctor in his 23rd or 24th year. 



In 1799 Dr. Horsfield quitted America, and proceeding to Java 

 resided there and in Sumatra, under the Dutch and British rule, 

 for nearly twenty years. It was here that he secured the warm 

 friendship of Sir Stamford Raffles, who, it is believed, acquired 

 from Dr. Horsfield that love of natural history by which he was 

 distinguished, and which rendered him so zealous in its promotion. 



During Sir S. Baffles' administration in Sumatra, Dr. Horsfield 

 was employed in the exploration of the island of Banca, the result 

 of which was the publication of a most important and valuable 

 report upon the mineralogy, geology, botany, and zoology of that 

 covmtry. Dr. Horsfield left the Eastern Archipelago in 1818, and, 

 soon after his arrival in England, was in 1820 appointed Keeper 

 of the Museum of the East India Company — a post which he held 

 up to his death, or for a space of more than forty years. 



Dr. Horsfield, though perhaps more eminent as a zoologist, was 

 almost equally versed in botanical and miueralogical knowledge. 

 He made a large collection of objects of natural history in Java 

 and Sumatra. Selections from his botanical collections were 

 published, with the aid of his friends Dr. Bobert Brown and Mr. 

 J. J. Bennett, in 1838-52, under the title of ' Plantse Javanicse 

 Bariores,' in the introduction to which a particular account of 

 his career will be found. The most important, however, and the 

 earliest of Dr. Horsfield' s independent works after his coming to 

 England, was his ' Zoological Besearches in Java and the Neigh- 

 bouring Islands,' published in 1821 and the following years. 

 He also contributed very numerous papers, chiefly on zoological 

 subjects, to the Linnean Transactions, and to the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological and other scientific Societies, as weU as to the 

 Transactions of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences. The 

 valuable illustrated Catalogues of tlie Mammalia, Birds, and Lepi- 

 doptera in the East India House, were compiled by his assistant, 



