Sheppard : HidVs Contrihution to Science. 309 



and other local institutions. Harrison was the honorary Curator 

 of the Hull Museum, and by his energy many notable local 

 natural history specimens were secured for the collections. Both 

 Harrison and Sollitt were enthusiastic diatom hunters, as already 

 pointed out, and if the namini^ of new species in their honour 

 g-oes for anything, they have at any rate been inscribed on the 

 permanent annals of science. 



Reference should be made to the two Aldersons — father and 

 son. Of John Alderson (1758 to 1829) Charles Frost wrote: — 

 ' The name of this much valued individual cannot be mentioned 

 in connection with literature and science without combining with 

 it a grateful recollection of his endeavours, on every occasion, 

 to place this town at least on a level with other large towns in 

 the scale of intellectual as well as commercial importance, by 

 impressing on the minds of the rising generation the necessity 

 of mental exertion and of encouraging liberality of sentiment 

 and conduct.' Though not a native of Hull, the best part of his 

 life was spent there. The first stone of the Mechanics' Institute 

 was laid by his hand. He was the first president of that insti- 

 tute, as also of the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1802 

 he made a great eflfort to establish a commercial college at 

 Hull, which, however, fell through.* Some of his papers have 

 already been briefly referred to in these notes. His first pro- 

 duction was an essay on 'The Nature and Origin of the Contagion 

 of Fevers,' printed in Hull in 1878. Like Spence, he contributed 

 papers to the Holderness Agricultural Society, Alderson's notes 

 printed in 1802 being on the improvement of poor soils. To 

 him a statue was erected, which is now in front of the Hull 

 Infirmary. 



The fourth son, James, succeeded his father in practice, and 

 in addition to various technical papers on diseases of the 

 heart, etc., wrote one of local interest in 1825, namely, an 

 "Account of a Whale of the Spermaceti tribe cast on shore 

 on the Yorkshire Coast q\\ the 28th April, 1825.' This was 

 printed in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society. 



Reverting to the Botanical Gardens for one moment, the 

 success which these for a time enjoyed was greatly due to the 



* At this Alderson was greath- disappointed, and we. find him stating 

 that ' so cold and indifferent were all the higher ranks who were addressed 

 on that subject that I had no small occasion for the good opinion of my 

 literary friends, to moderate the effects of the mortification I was made 

 to feel.' 



1903 Auf^UM 1. 



