110 REMINISCENCES. 



ward with his hands, and was unable to draw at all well.* 

 This he always regretted much, and he frequently urged the 

 paramount necessity of a young naturalist making himself a 

 I good draughtsman. 



He could dissect well under the simple microscope, but 

 I think it was by dint of his great patience and carefulness. 

 It was characteristic of him that he thought many little bits 

 of skilful dissection something almost superhuman. He 

 used to speak with admiration of the skill with which he 

 saw Newport dissect a humble bee, getting out the nervous 

 system with a few cuts of a fine pair of scissors, held, as my 

 father used to show, with the elbow raised, and in an attitude 

 which certainly would render great steadiness necessary. He 

 used to consider cutting sections a great feat, and in the 

 last year of his life, with wonderful energy, took the pains 

 to learn to cut sections of roots and leaves. His hand was 

 not steady enough to hold the object to be cut, and he em- 

 ployed a common microtome, in which the pith for holding 

 the object was clamped, and the razor slid on a glass surface 

 in making the sections. He used to laugh at himself, and 

 at his own skill in section-cutting, at which he would say he 

 was "speechless with admiration." On the other hand, he 

 must have had accuracy of eye and power of co-ordinating 

 his movements, since he was a good shot with a gun as a 

 young man, and as a boy was skilful in throwing. He once 

 killed a hare sitting in the flower-garden at Shrewsbury by 

 throwing a marble at it, and, as a man, he once killed a 

 cross-beak with a stone. He was so unhappy at having 

 uselessly killed the cross-beak that he did not mention it for 

 years, and then explained that he should never have thrown 

 at it if he had not felt sure that his old skill had gone from 

 him. 



When walking he had a fidgeting movement with his 



* The figure representing the aggregated cell-contents in Insectivorous 

 Plants ' was drawn by him. 



