54 Prof. E. B. Poulton— T^e Collections 



of liis collections, and indicate that he suffered much anxiety 

 on this account. His will, which was proved for probate at 

 under £4000, also shows that he was right in the contention 

 that he could not afford to employ assistance in the skilled 

 mechanical work which was required, while his almost too- 

 scrupulous care and attention to detail must have consumed 

 an immense amount of his time. Sir William Hooker had 

 evidently urged him to employ a curator or librarian, for 

 Burchell's letter of June 25th, 1835, contains the following 

 passage : — " After the consumption of so much of my property 

 by my travels and the disinterested pursuit of science all the 

 rest of my life, the obtaining of assistance by payment is 

 quite out of the question." Similar advice had been given 

 and answered in the same sense five years before. 



The degree of D.C.L. Honoris Causa was conferred upon 

 Burchell by the University of Oxford on May 8th, 1834. 

 Daubeny, the Professor of Botany, had given his inaugural 

 address on May 1st, and the first lecture of his first course 

 (on Vegetable Physiology) was delivered on May 8th. It 

 seems probable that Burchell came to Oxford in order to be 

 present, and that the occasion was selected for the conferment 

 of the degree. 



There is no doubt that Burchell expected a government 

 pension and that he bitterly resented what he regarded as un- 

 deserved neglect. Hence, to the other causes which operated 

 to prevent productive work, we must add the brooding 

 melancholy and the bitterness of a disappointed man, the 

 man with a grievance. 



It is probable that he freely communicated his ideas on 

 this subject to his friend Swainson, and that the attack on 

 the government for neglect of Burchell was a result of tlieir 

 intimacy. These severe criticisms may be seen in Swainson's 

 article quoted on page 45. The same article is probablj" 

 responsible for exaggerated statements, which have been con- 

 stantly repeated, as to the condition of his collections and the 

 assertion that they were never unpacked. It was probably 

 an extreme way of indicating the injury which science was 

 receiving because Burchell remained unassisted. But it was 

 certainly exaggerated. In the note-books at Oxford there is 

 the record of the different dates at which he accomplished 

 the setting of the various groups of Brazilian insects. More- 

 over, the beautifully written labels which nearly all specimens 

 possess are very different from the hasty but distinctly 

 legible notes made in the field. Many specimens still retain 

 btith labels, but generally the older ones have been discarded. 

 To this grievance was added the further sense of failure in 



