10 Proceedings of tlic Royal Physical Society. 



Sibbald personally, equally with his voluminous works, is 

 to me full of interest, whether studied from the point of view 

 of his relations to the past, or regarded in the light of his 

 varied surroundings. Yet we have no worthy memoir of a 

 man, who not only bulked largely in the view of his time, but 

 whose works have been as a quarry, and have yielded rich 

 treasures to all who, since his day, have done efficient service 

 in the departments of Scottish zoology, botany, and archaeo- 

 logy. It were easy to string together the learned titles of his 

 works, but this would be scant justice to one to whom Scot- 

 tish science owes so much. We desiderate a biography in 

 which, in fact, the man shall be more than his works, and the 

 works shall be regarded, not from our point of view, but in 

 the light of his time. We want, in short, to know the man 

 himself, not as isolated from other men, but as influenced by 

 the past to which he succeeded, and as influencing the day in 

 which his lot was to live and labour, while he kept in inocu- 

 lative contact with society, yielding to domestic ties, glad- 

 dened in prosperity, or disciplined by the touch of sorrow. 

 In a word, we wish to see him doing the work of earth, and, as 

 we know, doing it well, because himself knowing and cherish- 

 ing something higher and better. Around this personality we 

 might rally the varied fruits of a life's labour, and bring into 

 organic unity what to many at present seem only the scat- 

 tered results of random effort. The theme is a tempting one, 

 but neither the present occasion, nor the time at our disposal, 

 admits of it being more than touched here. In a sentence or 

 two the preparation for his lifelong studies may be indicated. 

 Eeferring to his first session at the Edinburgh University, he 

 says — " It was my fortune to meet Sir Kenelm Digby his 

 Discourse of bodies and the Immortality of the Soule, and 

 with Thomas Anglus his Dialogues cle Mtindo, which I read 

 with great delight, and became a student of the atomestick or 

 crepuscular philosophy." His mother, the heiress of Boyd of 

 Kipps, wished him to study for the Kirk ; but, he says, the 

 churchmen " wrote reproachfuU discourses against others, and 

 occasioned factions in the State and private families, which gave 

 me ane disgust of them." He took to the study of medicine — 

 " wherein," he says, " I thought I might be of no faction." It is 



