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ItLAIXVILLK, HEXIII MARIE DUC110TAY DB. 



BLAIR, HUGH, D.D. 



711 



u no* of the min!itn of tint city, and filled at the came time 

 the oflo* of principal of Marisrbal College. After baring taken tho 

 degree of A, M. in the University of Aberdeen, at the age of Mreuteen. 

 and been appointed by the crown professor of Oreek in the MarUohal 

 Coltare in 17SS, he succeeded hi. father a* principal in 1748. In 1752 

 the degree of LL.D. WM ooafcrrnl upon him. He had the merit of 

 introducing an improved system of education into Mariscbal College, 

 aad before his death had the gratification of witooing its success. 

 An aoaoant of thU plan was printed by direction of the collage 

 aathorlti* 



Blaekwell is allowed to hare been a man of considerable acquire 

 mente, bat be often rendered hinuelf ridiculous by hii pedantry nd 

 afleetetfati of universal knowledge. He was well Tened, according to 

 the learning of that day, in the Oreek and Latin writers, and was 

 acquainted with the principal language* of modern Kurope. Hi* 

 habiU were studioua and retiring, but he rather courted the acquaint- 

 ance of men of superior reputation. Being afflicted with a consump- 

 tive ditea**, he left Aberdeen in February 1757, with a view of trying 

 the fleet of a change of air, but he died at Edinburgh in the following 

 month. 



The following U a lint of hU works : ' An Inquiry into the Life and 

 Writings of Homer,' 1735 ; 'A Key to the Inquiry, containing a transla- 

 tion of the numerous Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French notes 

 in the original work,' 1736 ; ' Letters on Mythology,' 1748 ; ' Memoirs 

 of the Court of Augustus,' 3 vols, : the first was published in 1753, 

 tho second in 1755, and the third, which is incomplete, was published 

 in 1744. after his death. 



BLAIX VILLK, HENRI MARIE DUCROTAT DE, a distinguished 

 oologfot, was born at Arques near Dieppe, September 12, 1778, of a 

 noble and ancient family. He went first to tho military school at 

 U<-anmonVn-Auge, being destined for the army ; but left it suddenly 

 in 1792, and as is raid shipped on board n channel cruiser, and took 

 part in sundry engagements with English vessels. Afterwards he 

 entered the Ecole de Genie at Paris, and wat drawn for the conscription 

 of 1798, but obtained exemption through a partial stiflVss of the 

 right arm caused by an accident. He remained at Paris without any 

 definite plan of life, occupying himself in a desultory manner by 

 attending lectures on the natural sciences, and by drawing and painting, 

 in which he became very expert. He had reached the aje of twenty- 

 even when, having heard one of Cuvier's eloquent lectures at the 

 College de France, he resolved on devoting himself to the science of 

 comparative anatomy, and at once entered as student in the School of 

 Medicine. Here ho took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1803, 

 after three years of study ; and choe as the subject of his inaugural 

 dissertation, the influence of the eighth pair of nerves in respiration, 

 as demonstrated by his own experimmta. 



The science of anatomy now became Da Blainville's sole pursuit. 

 Hii remarkable skill aa a draughtsman led to hu merits being recog- 

 nised by Covier, who employed him u practical anatomist and artist 

 at a salary of 2000 frsnci a year; and the great zoologist was so 

 impressed by hit assistant's ability, that he intrutd to him the 

 drhvery of a part of his coune of lectures on zoology at the college. 

 It was De Blainvillo's ambition to become professor, and in 1812 he 

 competed with other candidates for the chair of zoology and physiology 

 at the Faculty of Sciences. Having won the honourable port, he 

 defended his well-known thesis 'On the Natural Affinities of the 

 Ornitborbyncbus 1'aradoxiu.' 



A Battering political position, obtained through his influential family 

 connection* on the restoration of the Bourbons, was offered to De 

 BUiuville; bat be resisted the allurements of public life for his favourite 

 tdenee. He came to England in 1816, and during a short stay, made 

 dfligent ate of his opportunities for adding to his zoological knowledge, 

 and earned away drawings of the rare MoUtuca in the British Museum, 

 and of anatomical specimens in the museum of the Royal College of 

 Burgeons. Some of bit papers published in the ' Bulletin de la Soci<5US 

 Fbuomatiqae,' bear testimony to the good use hi made of bis sojourn 

 in this country. 



In 1826 De Blainville was elected a member of the Academy of 

 Bekneoa at Pari-. On the retirement of Lamarck in 1830, he was 

 appointed to the chair of the natural history of Molltuai and Raiiiata 

 at the JarJin dee Plantes; and on C.ivi.-r's death in 1832, he was 

 appointed to succeed that great anatomist aa professor of comparative 

 anatomy in the tamo estabii.hment. Thu* in twenty eight yean after 

 hie resolve on a life of scientific study, he found himself as the result 

 of hit persevering labour-, in the chair of hit master, and acknow- 

 ledged head of one of the most important branches of science. In 

 the MUM year be WM elected a foreign member of the Royal Society, 

 aad subsequently of the Geological Society of London. He was also 

 a member of other scientific societies on the continent 



De BlainvilU availed binuelfuf hi, new position to commence what 

 has MOOS been recognised M bit great work: Osteographie, on 

 Inscription iconoznphique compareo du Squeletto ct du Systome 

 diUirt dee cinq claaaet d'Animaux vertebras rocentx et fosaUes, 1 Ac. 

 Twenty-three parts of this magnificent work bad been published, and 

 the aotbor bad corrected the twenty-fourth |rt (Cam**,), when on 

 the arrival at Kooen of a railway train in which he bad Uk-n a place, 

 vl ^\, I* 1 to ' * tau of Pl'ltie insensibility. This was the 

 May IWO. On the previous day he bad delivered hit usual 



lecture; "exhibiting," says M. ProVost, "a freshness of ideas, and 

 facility of expression, which bore no marks either of fatigue or appre- 

 hension. Some threatening symptoms bad been experienced during 

 the year past, bat, with a force of character peculiar to him, he had 

 sought to conceal them from all, even from himself." All attempts at 

 resuscitation proved unavailing, and be died a few minutes after hit 

 removal from the carnage. 



De Blainville's writings are to be found in the ' Dictionnaire 

 d'Histoire Naturalle, 1 the 'Bulletin,' above-mentioned, the 'Annalet' 

 .vid ' Mcmoires da Musdum,' the ' Annale* des Sciences Naturellea,' the 

 'RcVue Zoologique,' and other scientific periodicals. Of separata 

 works may be mentioned his ' Dissertation aur la place que la famille 

 dea Ornithorinqucs et des Echidnas doit occuper dans la si'rie natu- 

 relle,' 4to, Paris, 1812; ' Sur les IchthyoliteV Ac., 8vo, Paris. 1818; 

 ' Malscoxoairee et Poissons de U Faune franftise,' 8vo, Paris, 1820-30 ; 

 'Principes d'Anatomie compare*,' 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1822-23; ' Md- 

 moire sur les Belemnites,' 4 to, Paris, 1827; 'Cours de Physiologic 

 ge'ne'ralo et compares,' 3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1S33; ' Manuel d'Actinologio 

 et de Zoophytologie,' 8vo, Paris, 1834. 



The fact that De Blainville's writings number nearly 200 in the 

 whole, will best give a notion of his activity and devotion to science ; 

 they comprise researches in all branches of zoology. HU 'Ostdo- 

 graphie ' and ' Manuel de Malacologie,' are elaborate treatises which 

 alone would employ the labour of a life. The former includes extinct 

 aa well as living animals, and is of rare importance to paleontologists. 



De Blainville had a public funeral in I'ere-la-Chaise. Provost, 

 Chevreul, and Milne-Edwards each pronounced a discourse over hit 

 grave. A passage from the former presents a concise view of what 

 he accomplished. " It was the great object of his life," aayt M. 

 Provost, " to establish in all his works, especially in his ' Osteology,' 

 the doctrine that the whole series of organic beings was intimately 

 related, the links of one great chain, ascending from tho most simple 

 of organisms to that which occupies the highest place ; in other words 

 from the sponge to man. But while he endeavoured to refer all 

 groups and every variety of animal form to one and the same plan, 

 he never embraced tho plausible hypothesis that each higher grade had 

 been improved in the course of age* out of a lower one by transmu- 

 tation ; on the contrary, he saw in the whole animal creation, one singlo 

 operation, one great harmonious and divine idea, the various changes 

 being neither duo to chance nor to the influence of external cir- 

 cumstances, but being all the result of one and the cauio original 

 conception." 



(Proceeding* of the Royal Society ; A nn. da Scl. ; Agassiz, BM. ; 

 Silliman, Journal; Geol. 6'oc. Journal ; L'/nstitut de France.) 



III. .VIII, HUGH, D.D., a divine of the Church of Scotland, was born 

 in Edinburgh, April 7, 1718. He was educated at the University of 

 Edinburgh, where he was known as a diligent student ; he took his 

 degree of A.M. in 1739. In 1741 he was licensed to preach, and was 

 soon after appointed to the living of Colessie in Fifeshire. In 171:; 

 he was appointed second minister of the Canongate church, l.din- 

 burgh; in 1754 he was presented to the ministry of Lady Venter's 

 church, Edinburgh; in 1757 the University of St. Andrews conferred 

 upon him the degree of D.D. ; and in 1758 he was removed from Lady 

 Tester's to be one of the ministers of the High church, which is 

 what is called a collegiate charge, or one in which the duties are 

 divided between two clergymen. He was indebted to his merits alone 

 for this success. 



An ' Essay on the Beautiful,' which he wrote while a student, wai 

 regarded aa highly creditable to his taste and abilities. His advance- 

 ment having lightened bin professional labours, he was enabled to 

 bestow more time on literary pursuits ; and accordingly having pre- 

 pared come lectures on ' Composition,' he read them to classes in tho 

 university, with the permission of that learned body. In 1762 tho 

 king erected and endowed a professorship of rhetoric and belles lettres 

 in the University of Edinburgh, and appointed Dr. Blair, in consequence 

 of his approved qualifications, regius professor, with a salary of 702. 

 The 'Lectures' were first published in 1783, when he resigned the 

 professorship. On the controverted question of tho genuineness of 

 Otsian's poems, he published, in 1 7 03, a ' Dissertation,' in which he 

 supported their claims to originality. Ho was intimately acquainted 

 with Macpherson, and his opinions seem to have been in some degree 

 influenced by his partiality for the man, whom he thought incapable 

 of im|KMitiou. Hut the opinion he arrived at may be taken as a 

 standard of Blair's critical ability. 



The career of Dr. Blair as a divine was marked both by its success 

 and usefulness. By the time bo had attained his fortieth year he was 

 called upon to discharge one of tho most important ministries in the 

 church, and for the long space of forty-two years he was considered 

 one of its greatest ornaments. Notwithstanding his popularity as a 

 preacher, he bad nearly reached his sixtieth year before he could be 

 induced to publish a volume of his sermons. When however it 

 appearel, it wai received with an extraordinary degree of favour, 

 although Mr. .Stralmn, the publisher to whom Dr. Blair had sent the 

 manuscript, discouraged its publication ; but the opinion of Dr. John- 

 son having been requested, ho wrote to Mr. Strahan, stating that ho 

 had perused the sermon which had been forwarded to him " witli tnoro 

 than approbation." The sale was so rapid and extensive, that the 

 original sum paid for the copyright (100/.) was voluntarily doubled by 



