SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 23 



From a minute of the College, dated 31st March 

 1834, it appears that MacGillivray had then begun to 

 give lectures on natural history, and he obtained special 

 permission from the College to absent himself on 

 Saturdays, " to admit of his giving these lectures and 

 to have scientific excursions with his pupils." 



There is an interesting and amusing paragraph in a 

 minute of the College of 2nd August 1834, in which it 

 is stated that the Curators in their report to the 

 College "agree to a sentiment expressed by the Con- 

 servator that it has been noticed to him that low and 

 vulgar persons can derive no benefit from visiting the 

 Museum, but that it was obvious to him that such a 

 collection is calculated to remove many of their pre- 

 judices and that without information all men would be 

 low enough. Besides, he added, such persons are the 

 least disposed to handle anything." 



In a minute of 3rd August 1835 it is stated that 

 the Curators reported that the catalogue was now 

 completed, and that all the preparations then stood in 

 the order of it, and it is added : " This work, so creditable 

 to the College and so calculated to increase the useful- 

 ness of it, has occupied so much of the Conservator's 

 time and attention, and has been so materially advanced 

 by his assiduity and by his judicious arrangements as to 

 merit some species of acknowledgment on the part of 

 the College, and with this view the Curators re- 

 commend to the College to vote him a gratuity of 

 twenty guineas, which was unanimously agreed to." 

 In the minutes throughout the remaining six years 



