Obituary Notice of the late Mr John Gunn. 25a 
was visited by a severe epidemic of influenza, and one of 
the victims of this epidemic was our dear friend and 
secretary, John Gunn. Though he had indeed recovered 
from the ordinary symptoms of the disease, a weakness 
of the heart seemed to have come on as a sequela, and 
this was doubtless the cause of his death. On the 
morning of the 27th of April last he was found sitting 
placidly in his chair, but no longer alive. 
We, who survive, will bear him in affectionate memory 
till our turn also arrives. 
XX. Obituary Notice of Dr Robert Brown. By J. G. 
GOODCHILD, F.Z.S., F.G.S. 
(Read 15th January 1896.) 
The recent death of one of the former Presidents of the 
toyal Physical Society calls for at least a short notice in 
the pages of the Society’s Journal, even though the subject 
of the notice had been absent from our midst for nearly 
twenty years. 
Robert Brown was born at Campster, in Caithness, in the 
year 1842. He left that place early for Coldstream, where 
_ he received the earlier part of his education, and then came 
to Edinburgh, where in due time he graduated as Master 
of Arts. Then for some time he devoted himself to the 
study of medicine, and thereby received the scientific 
training which formed the basis of so much of his after 
work. It seems that, after studying some time in Edin- 
burgh, he went successively to Leyden, Copenhagen, and 
Rostock, at which latter place he received the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy. 
In 1861 he entered as surgeon on board a whaler, and 
in that capacity visited Spitzbergen, Greenland, and Baffin’s 
Bay, collecting in the meanwhile much information of value 
in regard to the geology and biology of the Arctic regions. 
Three years later he was appointed Botanist to the British 
Columbia Expedition, and then commander of the Vancouver 
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