XXV111 



Literary Gazette.' In a letter to Williamson, referring to this r 

 Dr. Buckland said, " T am nappy to have been instrumental in 

 bringing before the public a name to which T look forward as likely 

 to figure in the annals of British science." " The letter of Dr. Buck- 

 land," says Williamson, " was one of those influences the effect of 

 which was unmitigatedly healthy."* 



In 1835 Williamson was appointed curator of the museum of the 

 Natural History Society at Manchester, an office which he held for 

 three years while pursuing his medical studies. Several papers, 

 chiefly on geological subjects, were the fruit of this period. In 1840 

 Williamson left Manchester and came up to London, where he entered 

 as a student at University College. He here attended the lectures 

 of the botanist Lindley, who now for the first time made the personal 

 acquaintance of his young coadjutor. 



While in London he was offered the post of naturalist to an expe- 

 dition up the Niger, an offer which, fortunately for him and for 

 science, he declined, for the undertaking ended disastrously. 



After about a year's work in London, Williamson passed his 

 qualifying examinations at the Apothecaries' Hall and College of 

 Surgeons, and then returned to Manchester, where he at once com- 

 menced the practice of medicine. At first he found it necessary to 

 keep his scientific pursuits somewhat in the background, but this did 

 not last long. His interest in Ehrenberg's discovery of the Foramini- 

 fera in chalk led him to undertake microscopic research, a field of 

 inquiry on which he had not previously entered. His first histo- 

 logical investigation, in 1842, related to the development of bone, a 

 subject to which he returned a few years later. In the meantime he 

 engaged seriously in the study of Foraminifera, following up 

 Ehrenberg's work above referred to. Among the naturalists who 

 supplied him with material for this investigation was Charles Darwin, 

 then just returned from his famous voyage in the " Beagle." The 

 results of Williamson's studies were embodied in a paper published in 

 the ' Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Man- 

 chester ' for 1845, on " Some Microscopical Objects found in the Mud 

 of the Levant and other Deposits, with Remarks on the mode of 

 Formation of Calcareous and Infusorial Siliceous Rocks." This was 

 the most important of his works up to that date, and helped to lay 

 the foundation of our knowledge of the part played by Foraminifera 

 in the formation of geological deposits. 



Williamson continued the study of these minute organisms, con- 

 firming the conclusions of Dujardin as to their affinities, and demon- 

 strating the great variability of the living species. Many years later,, 

 in 1857, he completed his monograph for the Ray Society on the 



* ' Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist,' page 47. 



