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inclination to devote some attention to natural-history pursuits, 

 and the advancement of science. 



He was one of the earliest members, if not founders, of the 

 Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, in whose proceedings 

 he felt throughout life a warm interest, and in whose manage- 

 ment he took an active share, having been twice Vice-President, 

 and from 1838 to his death Honorary Curator in Zoology. He 

 also contributed largely and liberally to the Museum, his contri- 

 butions consisting chiefly of specimens in every department of 

 natural history (recent and fossil), and of preparations illustrating 

 many important points in comparative anatomy. In 1823 he 

 read a paper before the Society " On the Source and Evolution of 

 Heat in Animals ;" in 1825, one on the " Physiology of Plants ;" 

 and in 1828-9 he delivered a course of lectures " On the Com- 

 parative Ajiatomy of the Cerebral and Nervous Systems." But 

 the contributions in Natural History which more than any 

 others have obtained for his name a permanent place in the roll 

 of Naturalists, are two papers — " On the Natural History of the 

 Genus Actinia^ and " On Alcyonella stagnorv/ni, a freshwater 

 zoopbyte inhabiting ponds near Leeds." To what he states with 

 respect to the anatomy oi Actinia \\ti\Q of importance has since 

 been added ; and both papers afford an admirable instance of the 

 care, fidelity, and acuteness with which he pursued his natural- 

 history studies. His last contribution on zoological subjects, 

 published in 1839, was " On the Cephalopoda ; " but so lately as 

 1852-3 he communicated two valuable geological memoirs — one 

 " On the Fossil Fishes of the Yorkshire Coal-field," and the other 

 *' On the Aire Valley and its organic remains." 



Jan Van der Soeven was born at Kotterdam on the 9th of Fe- 

 bruary 1801. Having studied Medicine and the Natural Sciences 

 in the TJniverity of Leyden, he practised medicine for some years 

 in Eotterdam. But in 1826 he was appointed Professor Extra- 

 ordinary, and nine years later Professor in Ordinary of Zoology 

 in the University where he had received his scientific education, 

 and consequently relinquished the practice of his profession. In 

 1858 he was appointed Director of the Eoyal Museum of Natural 

 History. 



I Professor Van der Hoeven was justly regarded as of great 

 eminence in Zoological Science ; and his principal work, entitled 

 ' Handbook der Dierkunde,' or Manual of Zoology, which was 

 published at Leyden in the yeai-s between 1827 and 1833, and 



