LINNEAN SOCIETY OJF LONDON. XXVll 



in keeping. Wlien practising as a physician, lie discarded the 

 customary black coat, knee-breeches, and silk stockings, for the 

 very good reason that sombre colours could not but suggest 

 gloomy ideas to the sick ; and was one of the first who adopted 

 the custom, now universal in the profession, of dressing in ordi- 

 nary costume. In doing this Dr. Boott adopted the blue coat, 

 gilt buttons, and buff vest of the period, which he continued to 

 wcn.r to the last, and with which dress his casual acquaintances, 

 no less than his personal friends, will ever associate him. In 

 person he was so tall and thin as almost to suggest ill-health, 

 and the refinement of his manners, his expression, address, and 

 bearing were in perfect keeping with his polished mind and 

 many accomplishments. Of enemies he had none — very much, 

 no doubt, because he shunned contact with uncongenial spirits ; 

 and he never lost a friend, which is the more remarkable, as he^ 

 often appeared to be over-enthusiastic in his estimate of the 

 qualities of those he loved : this, however, mainly arose from 

 that true modesty which with him amounted to an unconscious 

 abnegation of self as a standard of comparison, and not to any 

 affectation of admiration which he did not feel ; for he was never 

 known to alter such opinions. 



Dr. Boott's scientific merits were widely known and recog- 

 nized. He was on several occasions a Vice-President of the 

 Linnean Society ; in 1837 he was elected a corresponding mem- 

 ber of the Lyceum of Natural History of ISTew York ; in 1835 he 

 became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences ; in the same year an honorary Fellow of 

 the Medical Society of Massachusetts ; in 1840 a corresponding 

 member of the Boston Society of Natural History ; and in 1844 

 a correspondent of the National Institute of Science of Wash- 

 ington. 



Dr. Boott's health had never been robust, and in 1839 he had 

 a dangerous attack of pneumonia. From this time he had re- 

 peated slight attacks, but no alarming symptoms occurred till 

 June 1863, when the remaining lung gave way, and from that 

 time he never fairly rallied. He died at his residence, 24 Grower 

 Street, on Christmas day ; retaining to the last his faculties and 

 all the characteristics of his most admirable life. 



BeriaTt JBotfield, Esq., M.A., F.E.S., S.A., G.S., Sfc, and M.P. for 

 the borough of Ludlow, was born in the year 1807, the eldest son of 

 Mr. Ralph Botfield, of Norton Hall, Northamptonshire, and grand- 

 son of Dr. Withering. His education was commenced at Harrow, 



