Ch. II J EDINBURGH. 13 



outer crust. He one day, when we were walking together, 

 burst forth in high admiration of Lamarck and his views on 

 evolution. I listened in silent astonishment, and as far as I 

 can judge, without any effect on my mind. I had previously 

 read the Zoonomia of my grandfather, in which similar 

 views are maintained, but without producing any effect on me. 

 Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in 

 life such views maintained and praised may have favoured 

 my upholding them under a different form in my Origin of 

 Species. At this time I admired greatly the Zoonomia; but 

 on reading it a second time after an interval of ten or fifteen 

 years, I was much disappointed ; the proportion of speculation 

 being so large to the facts given. 



Drs. Grant and Coldstream attended much to marine 

 Zoology, and I often accompanied the former to collect animals 

 in the tidal pools, which I dissected as well as I could. I 

 also became friends with some of the Newhaven fishermen, 

 and sometimes accompanied them when they trawled for 

 oysters, and thus got many specimens. But from not having 

 had any regular practice in dissection, and from possessing 

 only a wretched microscope, my attempts were very poor. 

 Nevertheless I made one interesting little discovery, and read, 

 about the beginning of the year 1826, a short paper on the 

 subject before the Plinian Society. This was that the so- 

 called ova of Flnstra had the power of independent movement 

 by means of cilia, and were in fact larvae. In another short 

 paper, I showed that the little globular bodies which had been 

 supposed to be the young Ftate of Fucus loreus were the egg- 

 cases of the worm-like Pontobdella muricata. 



The Plinian Society* was encouraged and, I believe, 

 founded by Professor Jameson: it consisted of students, and 

 met in an underground room in the University for the sake 

 of reading papers on natural science and discussing them. I 

 used regularly to attend, and the meetings had a good effect 

 on me in stimulating my zeal and giving me new congenial 

 acquaintances. One evening a poor young man got up, and 

 after stammering for a prodigious length of time, blushing 

 crimson, he at last slowly got out the words, " Mr. President, 

 I have forgotten what I was going to say." The poor fellow 

 looked quite overwhelmed, and all the members were so sur- 

 prised that no one could think of a word to say to cover his 

 confusion. The papers which were read to our little society 

 were not printed, so that I had not the satisfaction of seeing 



* The society was founded in 1823, and expired about 1848 (Edinburgh 

 VTeelily Dispatch, May 22, 1888). 



