MELVILL : MEMOIR OF THE LATE HUGH CUMING. . 63 
the natives by practising as a medicine man. Nearly all our 
most successful travellers, such as George Gardner, in Brazil, 
and Wallace, in the Malay Archipelago, have attributed much 
of that success to this gift, and Cuming always carried supplies 
of quinine and other drugs with him, and was soon con- 
sidered a friend in need by all. He was not only welcomed, 
but feared as a kind of supernatural power, and the priest often 
came second-hand in their regard, upon some patient being 
restored by his agency. 
More than four years passed in this arduous, but delightful 
way, and he then on his return journey paid short visits to Singa- 
pore, and the Malay Peninsula, finishing up with a short period 
at St. Helena, and quickly returning to England with more 
spoils than had ever before fallen to the lot of one man to 
collect personally. According to Woodward, he found 2,500 
species of marine shells, of which 250 were A@itra, 120 Conus, 
100 Pleurotoma, and 50 Cyprea, and in land shells over 500 
species. He also collected 130,000 specimens of plants, both 
living and dried, some of which, specifically and generically, bear 
his name. Many birds, mammals, and reptiles, also, several 
new to science, were included in his collections, and, although 
he was not, as were Wallace and Bates, an entomologist, he did 
not neglect this vast field, but brought home many specimens of 
both Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera. As we have 
before remarked in this sketch, a search through the early 
volumes of the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ of the 
‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ then known as 
‘Charlesworth’s Magazine,’ and of the Linnean Society, amply 
testifies to the value of his collections. 
Mr. Cuming, being his own master, was enabled to 
exchange his specimens for other desiderata, and annually he 
visited the chief museums and cabinets in Europe, always with 
an eye to a satisfactory bargain. He thus succeeded in amass- 
ing a series unequalled and unique in every way, and estimated 
to contain nearly 19,000 species and varieties. 
