212 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



and detailed, no observation of habits and no characteristic 

 anecdote was omitted to fill up the portrait of each 

 successive bird. The only complaint which was made by 

 the reviewers was the entire lack of illustrations, the 

 absence of which was presently explained and removed, 

 as we shall see in due course. On the title-page of The 

 Birds of Jamaica the words " assisted by Richard Hill, 

 Esq., of Spanish Town," succeeded the name of the author, 

 although greatly against that modest gentleman's wish, 

 and the publication was delayed by the fact that every 

 sheet was sent out to Spanish Town to be read in proof by 

 Mr. Hill. The Birds of Jamaica once launched, Philip 

 Gosse immediately began, in a quiet way, that labour in 

 the popularization of science which was ultimately to form 

 so large a proportion of his life's work. Once more the 

 S.P.C.K. suggested to him that a series of small volumes, 

 strictly accurate from a scientific point of view, but giving 

 zoological facts in a form easily to be comprehended by 

 the public, would be of great service to the general reader. 

 Nothing of the kind existed, and he gladly undertook to 

 open such a series. He began the Mammalia in June, 

 1847, and it was published a year later, having occupied 

 but a small part of those months. It was copiously illus- 

 trated with woodcuts designed by the author and by 

 J. W. Whymper. 



In the spring of 1847, while stooping to dig up gladiolus 

 bulbs from the grass-plot of his friend, Mr. William Berger, 

 my father was suddenly conscious of pain, apparently 

 caused by a strain to the liver, and from this time forth, 

 for fifteen years at least, he was more or less continuously 

 subject to what was supposed to be dyspepsia, often very 

 acute in character, and causing great depression of spirits. 

 The fact that he was constantly reading and writing, 

 and that he took no exercise of any kind, except a little 



