IxXXviii PEOCEEDIKGS 01" THE 



feeling of a personal kind, but solely by a desire of benefiting 

 science, and of adding all be conld to tbe materials for tbe future 

 solution of tbe great and absorbing question of tbe day. 



The rich materials tbus abundantly collected by the exertions 

 of MM. Christy and Lartet were not reserved for their own spe- 

 cial use or glorification, but were as widely distributed and as 

 liberally afibrded to all engaged on the subject to which they be- 

 longed as they were industriously collected. The choicest speci- 

 mens, as was but right, having been selected to form a princi- 

 pal public collection in France, out of the remainder numerous 

 well-selected sets Avere made up, and have been distributed, at 

 Mr. Christy's expense, to nearly every public museum in this 

 country and abroad, where they would be valued and useful, as 

 well as to numerous private individuals known to be interested 

 in the subject. Such an instance of the purest and most disin- 

 terested libei;ality in the cause of science is, I think, almost un- 

 exampled, and well deserves to be kept in honoured remembrance. 

 The copious and unrivalled results of the conjoined labours of 

 Mr. Christy and his friend were intended to be embodied in a 

 work of great extent, under the title of ' Reliquiae Aquitanicse,' of 

 which numerous plates have already been prepared, and which it 

 is to be earnestly hoped — and there is, I am glad to learn,, every 

 reason to believe — M. Lartet will be able still to carry to com- 

 pletion. "When completed, it will be one of the most important 

 contributions to the early history of mankind (at the extraordi- 

 nary epoch when the Eeindeer was the most abundant mammal 

 in the south of France) it is possible to conceive. 



Mr. Christy's liberality to various public collections was not 

 confined to the above instance. He was constantly in the habit 

 of presenting most valuable and costly specimens to the British 

 Museum and to the Hunterian Museum of the Eoyal College of 

 Surgeons, which is indebted to him for several donations of great 

 value, amongst which, as particularly interesting to this Society, 

 I would mention a most perfect and beautifully prepared skeleton 

 of the AVest-Indian Manatee, which had been procured and set 

 up by Mr. Christy at a very considerable expense. 



But this brief and imperfect notice of the life and character of 

 Mr. Christy cannot be concluded without my stating that his 

 claims to our regard, and, in fact, to the regard of all men, are not 

 based simply upon his exertions and his liberality in the cause of 

 science. His liberality was universal : wherever he perceived a 

 worthy object, his hand was open as the day ; but of the extent to 



