302 Notices of Eminent Men deceased in Great Britain. 
would have achieved more, as an original discoverer, than he has ac- 
tually performed, if his time and exertions had not been engrossed, 
_ during the last years of -his life, by his occupations in the Museum 
of the Philosophical Institution of Bristol, of which he was the cu- 
rator from the’ period of its establishment. re 
Mr. Miller’s constitution of body, though not robust, was healthy, 
and during a period of twenty seven years he had never a day of 
severe indisposition: His cheerfulness and temperance were re- 
markable. ‘The unceasing activity of his*mind was apparently too 
great for the physical energy of his body ; and the confinement to 
which he was of necessity subjected, in consequence of his appoint- 
ment in the Institution, probably contributed to undermine his health, 
which began to give way about three years before his death. He 
was married in the year 1806, and has left & widow and ‘three sons. 
Asa naturalist, Mr. Miller was well fitted by the habits of his mind 
to cooperate in the researches of an age, of. which it’ is the peculiar 
merit to obyiate the reproaches once, perliaps justly, cast against 
mere systems of classification, and to’found such arrangements upon 
the just and philosophical grounds afforded by the exact determina- 
tions of science, and the general principles of physiology: and com- 
parative anatomy. ‘The labors of Baron Cuvier may be cited as the 
great model in this line; but among those who in this country have 
followed. the same course, the subject of the present memoir assul-_ 
"edly deserves very favorable mention. ‘To an acuteness of mind 
which readily seized on general relations, he joined the most inde- ¥ 
fatigable patience of laborious investigation,—a: quality particularly 
requisite in the branch to which he especially directed his attention ; 
viz. the elucidation: of the history of the organic remains which are 
‘preserved in our strata in a fossilized state. In ‘this state individual 
_ ‘Specimens generally occur in a more or, less imperfect condition, 5° 
that the real type of the organization can séldom be ascertained with- 
out the most. careful comparison of many particular relics. ‘They 
are likewise in many instances so imbedded in, the solid rock; that 
the most essential parts are concealed, and cannot be detected with- 
out the nicest dexterity of manual operation. When these circu 
stances are taken into the account, we may fairly appreciate the la- 
bor and talent necessaty to produce such a work as Mr. Miller’s a¢- 
count of the fossil Crinoidea. » This family of organic bodies, from 
the delicate beauty and interesting character of many of its spect” 
mens, had long excited the attention of naturalists ; but still our whole 
knowledge on the subject, previously to the appearance of Mr. Mit 
eS Re ae ee Ne ee ee 
