52 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Eafflesiaa collection, the Council have ordered that the several articles of 

 the Vigorsian collection shall be marked with the name of the donor, the 

 extent of whose liberality towards the Society will thus be made evident 

 to every visitor of the Museum. 



Vigors died in London in 1840. His remains were taken to 

 Ireland and interred in the ancient cathedral at Old Leighlin, 

 where a monument was erected to his memory. The inscription 

 is given in full by Professor D. J. Cunningham,^ and the 

 following sentences are worth quotation: — 



With the co-operation of the late Sir Stamford Eafiles, he was the 

 original founder of the Zoological Society of London, to which he was 

 Honorary Secretary for the first seven years of its institution. As a 

 member of all the literary and scientific societies of Europe, his name 

 will be long remembered to science. 



An appreciative obituary notice appeared in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine for December, 1840 (p. 659), in which the following 

 passage occurs : 



His long and intimate connection witli the Zoological Society is well 

 known ; in fact, it is no more than justice to unite his name with those of 

 Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir Humphry Davy as the founders of that useful, 

 interesting, and flourishing institution. 



Edward Turner Bennett succeeded Vigors, and filled the post 

 till his death in August, 1836. He founded the library, with a 

 donation of something over 200 volumes, and in their record 

 of his services the Council referred to his skill in conducting 

 the negotiations for acquiring rare and valuable animals, and his 

 accurate attention to the carrying out of all works at the Gardens 

 and Museum. With regard to the latter, one of the centres of 

 the Society's scientific usefulness, it was said that "he left no 

 means unemployed to maintain this most important department 

 on the scale contemplated by its Founders, Sir Stamford Raffles 

 and Mr. Vigors." The Council considered that the state of the 

 Society's published papers was the chief cause of its high 

 reputation. This they attributed to the unwearied diligence 

 and comprehensive acquirements of their late Secretary — as 

 shown in the numbers of papers he had contributed, and his 

 judicious supervision of the production of the Proceedings and 

 Transactions. 



♦ " Origin and Early History of the Eoyal Zoological Society of Ireland," p. 29, 



