142 Obituary—Dr. Falconer. 
when at a much lower temperature, and charged with sediment— 
may have produced similar results in past times, as now, and may 
to a great extent explain the occurrence of marine organisms in a 
very abundant and unusually perfect state ?—H. W. 
Note.—Sir W. Denison has remarked (Geol. Soc. Journ., vol. xviii. 
p- 453) that the great rains of the S.W. Monsoon periodically de- 
stroy millions of fish and other marine creatures off the coast of 
India. Severe frosts during low tides are highly destructive to the 
Littoral zone of sea-life, as noticed by Hugh Miller and others; and 
Volcanic emanations also destroy animals and plants far and wide 
in both deep and shallow seas.—Epir. Grou. Mag. 
SoutH Kernsineton Musrum.—A large part of the collections 
illustrative of building materials and construction, recently exhibited 
in the temporary iron building at South Kensington, has been re- 
moved to the South Arcades of the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
Gardens, where it will be again exhibited to the public, and the 
usual facilities for study and comparison afforded, as soon as the 
necessary arrangements can be made. 
OxsrituaRy Notice. 
Hues Farconer,* A.M., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., Vich-PRE- 
SIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND FOREIGN SECRETARY OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL Socrety.—We have this month to record the death and 
to give a dim outline of the outer life of one of the first palzeontolo- 
gists of the day. Would that it were in our power to penetrate a 
little more deeply beneath the surface he showed to society! But, 
though regretting that we cannot give a more definite picture of his 
mind, we rejoice at being enabled to sketch, even thus faintly, some 
of the principal results it produced. 
Hugh Falconer was born, on February 29, 1808, at Forres, near 
the banks of the Findhorn, in the North of Scotland. In the Gram- 
mar School of that town he commenced his education, and afterwards 
studied for four years at the University of Aberdeen, receiving in 
due course the degree of A.M. He then studied medicine and natu- 
ral history for a similar term at the University of Edinburgh; his 
early taste for the latter subject being greatly stimulated by attend- 
ance on the lectures of Professors Jameson and Graham. He then 
received, in 1829, the degree of M.D., and obtained the diploma of 
the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Being immediately 
appointed an Assistant-Surgeon on the Bengal Establishment, but 
not having reached the required age of twenty-two, he employed 
the interval in botanical and geological studies; and this led the 
way to his first contribution to paleontology. 
In the Museum of the Geological Society of London, Dr. Fal- 
coner was enabled to study some remains of fossil Mammalia from 
* Many of the incidents contained in this sketch are taken from a very complete 
notice which appeared simultaneously in the ‘Reader’ and ‘ Atheneum,’ for Febru- 
ary 11, 1866. 
