234 



^t late |o|tt Ojmnmm, €q., p,g. |.S4- 



^INCE the publication of the last Magazine, the Society has 

 W) sustained an irreparable loss in the decease of Dr. Thurnam, 

 who was not only one of its most talented and scientific members, 

 but also one of the most constant attendants at the Council, and one 

 to whose judgment on Celtic remains the Society has always been 

 accustomed to look for information. 



It is not however too much to say that Dr. Thurnam has acquired 

 an European reputation, by the investigations he has made into the 

 earliest remains exhumed from the barrows of this and other 

 countries; as well as by his joint editorship of the highly- esteemed 

 work, " Crania Britannica ; " and also by many contributions to the 

 Arcliaolofjia, and other kindred periodicals, whose pages he has from 

 time to time enriched. As a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 

 and as a diligent archaeologist of no mean attainments, he will be 

 missed far beyond the limits of our County Society, though by none 

 will his loss be more deeply felt than by his fellow-workers in that 

 body. 



Dr. Thurnam was born at Lingcroft near York, on December 28th, 

 1810, and after passing through the required course of medical study, 

 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 

 in 1834.^ In the same year he was appointed the resident Medical 

 Ofiicer of the Westminster Hospital, which office he held till 1838, 

 when he was chosen as the Superintendent of the Retreat, near 

 York. In 1843 he became a L.R.C.P. : in 1846 M.D. of King's 

 College, Aberdeen; and in 1849 he was selected by the magistrates 

 of the county of Wilts to take the management, first of establishing, 

 and afterwards of superintending, their County Asylum, which was 

 opened for the reception of patients in 1851 : and this appointment 



1 For this portion of the medical career of Dr. Thurnam we are indebted to 

 the pages of the Medical Times and Journal. 



