448 Appendix. 



straightforward man and to observe well, seeing clearly the way 

 before one, was the most pleasant object in life. 



That he himself was fitted for clear and accurate, as well as 

 long-continued and patient observation, soon became manifest, 

 and we have a list of papers written by him and extending over 

 forty-two years, and 134 in number. 



Except during a few of those earlier years, when John Leigh, 

 F.R.C.S., now medical officer of health, and then his intimate 

 friend, was his fellow lodger, he lived at Cheetham Hill (Man- 

 chester), attracted by its sandy soil, but spent his days at his 

 business, or in reading at the Athenaeum, or in attending to the 

 affairs of this Society, in which he took a deeper interest than 

 any member, if we are to judge by the trouble he took in direct- 

 ing its minutest details, so that for many years little was done 

 without his will. His attention to business was so great that for 

 thirty years he had not been absent from it for a fortnight at a 

 time. 



He attended well the meetings of the British Association for 

 many years, and at the Geological and Palasontological Societies 

 was well-known as a contributor, whilst his studies of the flora 

 and wood of the coal measures have helped greatly to make an 

 important era in our knowledge. The writer must leave a 

 geologist to sum up his labour and define his position as a 

 scientific man. Of the 134 papers of which we have a list, some 

 are certainly only slight notices, but others show laborious search, 

 and have been left unfinished. 



He joined Mr. Young in beginning works for the manufacture 

 of paraffin oil, adding his savings to the small amount that was 

 available at the time, after Mr. Young (now Dr. Young, of Kelly) 

 had found it necessary to have aid in order to enlarge his estab- 

 lishment and begin his Scottish works, the supply of oil in 

 Derbyshire having failed. The firm was in our town called by 

 the name of E. W. Binney & Co. The partnership continued 

 during the existence of the patent, and Mr. Binney retired with a 

 handsome sum, which he greatly increased by his investments. 

 He spent a large portion of his later years at Douglas, in the 

 Isle of Man, where his house, Ravenscliff, gave him a fine view of 

 the Bay and of the sea, and was still to a great degree sheltered. 



