58 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



But as he always illustrated by specimens, even these 

 details were not felt burdensome. He was perhaps the 

 last of the race of all-round naturalists, though he had 

 the accuracy of a specialist in many departments. 

 Ornithology was his favourite, his strongest subject, of 

 which the best proof is to be found in his monumental 

 work in five volumes on the History of British Birds. 

 He was also Lecturer on Botany, as well as Professor of 

 Natural History, and his edition of Withering's Botany 

 was practically a new work by MacGillivray. Though 

 the botany class was not in the old curriculum, yet 

 many arts students attended it, attracted by the per- 

 sonality of the lecturer. He was an excellent miner- 

 alogist, while his text-book on geology was abreast of 

 the age. He was the first professor in the University 

 to give a strictly scientific course of lectures on geology, 

 a science which was then beginning to attract the atten- 

 tion of theologians. The Vestiges of Creation had 

 appeared in the early forties, and clergymen attended 

 MacGillivray's class in numbers to hear what science 

 had to say in regard to the age and creation of the 

 world. Professors came also ; among others Professor 

 Blackie, always eager for knowledge, enrolled himself as 

 a student. In my own year, the late Principal Pirie, 

 then Professor Pirie of the Theological Faculty in 

 Marischal College, was a regular attender, and he gave 

 a prize for a special examination in geology. But 

 MacGillivray's activity did not end here. His Manual 

 of the Mollusca of the North -Eastern Counties sent 

 many classical and mathematical students twice or 



