BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Natural History Society 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 



ARTICLE I. 



DR. JAMES ROBB. 



First Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in King's College, 

 Fredericton — A Sketch of His Life and Labours, 



By L. VV. Bailey, LL. D. 



Read April 5, 1898. 



In the course of the development of knowledge as regards the 

 structure, history and natural resources of a country, it is usually the 

 case that distinct steps of progress may be recognized, and that with 

 each of such steps the life and laboui's of some one individual are prom- 

 inently associated. The names of such men as Aristotle, Linnseus, 

 Cuvier, Agassiz and Gray, make such steps of progress for the world 

 at large, but even within the comparatively narrow limits of a single 

 state or community a like process of development by successive, well 

 marked stages is usually recognizable, and New Brunswick is no ex- 

 ception. 



The first period in all such cases is usually that in which some one 

 individual, as a result either of a more intense sympathy with nature 

 or circumstances especially favorable for her study, devotes his whole 

 energy to such work, and thus, by gathering and comparing the isolated 

 and disconnected observations of many observers, begins to give to the 

 latter a definite direction and definite methods. To us who have to 

 labour in fields already pre-occupied by so many workers, and where 

 the discovery of even one new fact or species is a rare occurrence, in 



