Obituary Notice of the late George Brook. 275 
periblast. This was announced in the Quarterly Journal of 
Microscopical Science in January 1885, and confirmed in 
several papers contributed to this Society and to the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh. 
Other memoirs written about this time are systematic, such 
as the revision of the genus Zewgopterus and of the sucker- 
fishes Liparis and Lepadogaster, whilst others are of more 
general biological interest, as, for example, the elaborate 
inquiry into the restoration of lost parts in certain 
Crustaceans. 
The Crustacea were always a favourite group with Brook, 
and it was at one time his intention to have devoted a large 
part of his time to their study. The proposal of Dr John 
Murray that he should investigate the Antipatharia collected 
by the “ Challenger,” however, turned his attention to the 
Ceelenterates. The report upon this group, published among 
the zoological results of that memorable voyage, was a work 
of great and lasting importance. Not only did the author 
clear up many complicated questions of systematic interest, 
but his morphological work upon the homology of the 
mesenteries in Antipatharia and Alcyonaria, and the dis- 
covery of the peculiar dimorphism in Schizopathes, were of 
even greater importance. These researches led to the 
beginning of his last and greatest work, the “Catalogue of 
Madreporaria in the British Museum.” Only one volume 
had been published when the gifted author was called from 
among us, but it is a work of inestimable value. The name 
“ Catalogue” by no means indicates its scope, for it deals 
not merely with the British Museum collection, but is an 
exhaustive monograph of all the species known to exist. 
For the purpose of its preparation Mr Brook visited the 
more important museums on the Continent, in order to 
examine the types of Lamarck and others, and it is no secret 
that the work could only have been accomplished by a man 
of independent means, who was prepared to make it a labour 
of love. 
Such is a very brief epitome of George Brook’s scientific 
work, but there are other aspects of his career to which we 
must turn. A lecturer on embryology in the University of 
