6 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



PROFESSOR THOMAS BELL, well known as a zoologist, was a 

 surgeon's son, born at Poole in 1792, and brought up to his father's 

 profession, who early showed a love of natural history, especially 

 zoology. Qualifying as M.R.C.S. in 1815 (he obtained its fellowship 

 in 1844), he practised in London, paying, however, such attention 

 to zoology that he became Professor of it at King's College, wrote a 

 History of British Quadrupeds in 1837, followed by one on British 

 Reptiles and another on British Stalk-eyed Crustacea. He was 

 Secretary of the Royal Society from 1848 to 1853, and President of 

 the Linnean Society from 1853 to 1861, and was active in securing 

 accommodation for it at Burlington House. At the age of seventy 

 he retired to Gilbert White's house at Selborne, where he gathered 

 about him memorials of that true lover of Nature, dying on March 

 I3th, 1880. 



SIR WILLIAM BOWMAN, the eminent oculist, was a banker's son, 

 born at Nantwich in 1816, who began medical study at Birmingham, 

 and went on to King's College, London, where he showed great 

 interest in physiological questions. After spending some months 

 in visiting foreign hospitals, he passed as M.R.C.S. in 1839, and 

 worked at King's College Hospital till 1856, when he became full 

 surgeon. But he had already specialized as an oculist, and after 

 1852 was the recognized head of that branch in London, his great 

 reputation being due to his unrivalled knowledge of the structure 

 of the eye, his skill as an operator, and his sympathy with his 

 patients. No one was so successful as he in cases of glaucoma, 

 cataract, and detached retina. But his additions to the knowledge 

 of general anatomy were also so valuable that he was called the 

 father of it in Britain. He became F.R.S. in 1841, and received 

 next year a Royal Medal, F.R.C.S. in 1844, and was created baronet 

 in 1884. Notwithstanding his professional labours, he found time 

 for public and philanthropic work, retiring ultimately to Joldwynds, 

 Dorking, where he died on March 29th, 1892. 



MR. WILLIAM JOHN BRODERIP, a lover of zoology, was born at 

 Bristol in 1789. After graduating at Oxford, he was called to the 

 Bar in 1817, and five years later appointed a police magistrate^ 

 first at the Thames Court, then at Westminster, resigning office 

 in 1856. He devoted all his spare time to his favourite science, 

 forming a large collection of shells, now in the British Museum, and 

 writing the articles on zoology in the Penny Magazine, contributing 

 others on that subject to various periodicals, besides publishing 

 Leaves from the Note-book of a Naturalist and an essay on the Dodo, 

 which contains all the information then known about it. He- 

 died in London, Feb. 27th, 1859. 



DR. ROBERT BROWN, a botanist, highly esteemed, was the son 

 of an episcopal minister, born at Montrose in 1773. A medical 

 student at the University of Edinburgh, he lost no opportunity of 



