302 Notices of Eminent Men deceased in Great Britain. 



would have achieved more, as an original discoverer, than he has ac- 

 tually performed, if his time and exertions had not been engrossed, 

 during the last years of his life, by his occupations in the Museum 

 of the Philosophical Institution of Bristol, of which he was the cu- 

 rator from the perfod of its establishment. 



Mr. Miller's constitution of body, though not robust, was healthy, 

 and during a period of twenty seven years he had never a day of 

 severe indisposition. His cheerfulness and temperance were re- 

 markable. The unceasing activity of his mind was apparently too 

 great for the physical energy of his body ; and the confinement to 

 which he was. of necessity subjected, in consequence of his appoint- 

 ment in the Institution, probably contributed to undermine his health, 

 which began to give way about three years before his death. He 

 was married in the year 1806, and has left a widow and three sons. 



As a naturalist, Mr. Miller was well fitted by the habits of his mind 

 to cooperate in the researches of an age, of which it is the peculiar 

 merit to obviate the reproaches once, perhaps justly, cast against 

 mere systems of classification, and to found such arrangements upon 

 the just and philosophical grounds afforded by the exact determina- 

 tions of science, and the general principles of phj^siology and com- 

 parative anatomy. The labors of Baron Cuvier may be cited as the 

 great model in this line; but among those who in this country have 

 followed the sai'he course, the subject of the present memoir assur- 

 edly deserves very favorable mention. To an acuteness of mind 

 which readily seized on general relations, he joined the most inde- 

 fatigable patience of laborious- investigation, — a quality particularly 

 requisite in the branch to which he especially directed his attention ; 

 viz. the elucidation of the history of the organic remains which are 

 preserved in our strata in a fossilized state. In this state individual 

 specimens generally occur in a more or less imperfect condition, so 

 that the real type of the organization can seldom be ascertained with- 

 out the most careful comparison of many particular relics. They 

 are hkevvise in many instances so imbedded in the solid rock, that 

 the most essential parts are concealed, and cannot be detected with- 

 out the nicest dexterity of manual operation. When these circum- 

 stances are taken into the account, we may fairly appreciate the la- 

 bor and talent necessary to produce such a work as Mr. Miller's ac- 

 count of the fossil Crinoidea. This family of organic bodies, from 

 the delicate beauty and interesting character of many of its speci- 

 mens, had long excited the attention of naturalists ; but still our whole 

 knowledge on the subject, previously to the appearance of Mr. Mil- 



