xlviii MEMOIR OF SIR J. G. DALYELL. 



history. The work to which this is appended is in itself a splendid monu- 

 ment of his industry. It contains above two hundred beautifully coloured 

 engravings, and if the figures on each plate were to be reckoned, they 

 would amount to several thousands, every one taken from healthy, living 

 specimens, and delineated, under his own observation, by the first minia- 

 ture painters. His observations were all original not the work of a day 

 or a year, but of perhaps forty or fifty years, before venturing to lay them 

 before the public, least errors might have crept in. We should like to know 

 which of his contemporaries has gathered such a mass of information ? The 

 present work may be considered an everlasting memorial of his great 

 labours and unequalled observations, and most justly he may, in the words 

 of one of his correspondents, be styled the Prince of Observers. He was, 

 in short, a man of the age. 



Intense must have been his earnestness in the work. The large out- 

 lay of money it involved, was little compared to the physical as well as 

 mental labour expended in its prosecution. Some of his specimens, no 

 doubt, survived in confinement for many years, affording ample leisure 

 for observation, but most of them were transitory ; and when we consider 

 the anxiety and watching, night and day, to catch the precise moment 

 when the expected phenomenon might occur, or the anticipation of some 

 new development be realized, we may well wonder at the devotion to 

 science which could tempt a man of independence and of delicate health, 

 so to forego the ease and comfort which his circumstances were well able 

 to afford. It was only at particular times, frequently at night, that the ta- 

 lent of the artist could be effectively employed, and even then the difficulty 

 of correct delineation was often most irksome. All these obstacles en- 

 countered and overcome, however, we can easily fancy the delight with 

 which the countenance of the inquirer would be lighted up when success 

 rewarded his toil. How astonished he must frequently have been when, 

 on returning, after some hours absence, he found the object of his solici- 

 tude perhaps divided into two, or metamorphosed into a new animal al- 

 together. This must have been particularly the case when he first dis- 

 covered the conversion of the Hydra tuba into medusa discs. In short, 

 the present three volumes, as well as the previous two on the " Rare 



