Ohituarx) : — Daniel Ellis. 189 



and scientific labours of that amiable man and distinguished anatomist and 

 physiologist ; and the elegant biographical memoir of Dr. Gordon, published 

 by Mr. Ellis in 1823, sufficiently attests the correctness of this judgment and 

 the warmth of his attachment to his deceased friend. This memoir he in- 

 scribed to Dr. Thomson, with whom his intimacy with Dr. Gordon had early 

 made him acquainted, and with whom he ever afterwards continued in habits 

 of the most cordial friendship, founded on mutual respect and regard. Another 

 gentleman with whom Mr. Ellis, at an early period of his residence in Edin- 

 burgh, had much intercourse, and whose friendship he highly valued, was the 

 late Dr. John Murray, to whose amiable personal character and eminent 

 talents as a teacher and cultivator of chemical science, he took the oppor- 

 tunity of paying a very elegant and most merited tribute in his memoir of Dr, 

 Gordon. Mr. Alexander Cowan of Valleyfield, and Mr. James Jardine, civil 

 engineer, were also among the earliest of Mr. Ellis's Edinburgh acquaintances, 

 and in their society he ever afterwards took a peculiar pleasure, as recalling 

 many agreeable recollections. 



Having resolved on abandoning the medical profession, Mr. Ellis turned 

 his attention to the study of agriculture, and was thus led to the more particular 

 consideration of the economy of the vegetable kingdom, a subject which dur- 

 ing the remainder of his life afforded him at once a leading scientific pursuit 

 and an elegant recreation. The interest he took in the formation of the Hor- 

 ticultural Garden was manifest by the selection of his place of residence in its 

 immediate vicinity ; and his continued zeal for its improvement is well known 

 to the members of the Horticultural Society, and duly appreciated by them. 



Though of an unobtrusive, or, in truth, of a retiring, disposition, Mr. Ellis 

 possessed in an eminent degree the qualities calculated to render his society 

 attractive. His countenance was the index of his kind and joyous heart. His 

 manners were distinguished by gentleness and urbanity, and his conversation 

 was at all times agreeable and instructive, such indeed as might be looked for 

 in a man of extensive and varied scientific acquirements. But the predomi- 

 nant feature in the character of Mr. Ellis was the warm and ever active bene- 

 volence of his disposition. No proposal failed to excite a lively interest in 

 his breast that affected the happiness of the human race, that promised to 

 increase its intelligence, or to promote its comfort ; whether it came in the 

 humble form of a contrivance for economising the fuel or for improving the 

 fare of the artisan, or in the more dazzling shape of a project for approxi- 

 mating distant regions through the agency of steam-navigation, or for putting 

 a stop to the African slave trade, through the civilising influence of commerce. 

 No one, in truth, was ever more thoroughly under the influence of the prin- 

 ciple, that, being a man, he should account nothing ahen from him in which 

 mankind is interested. Nor was Mr. Ellis a mere speculative philanthropist. 

 Whatever plan or institution seemed to him calculated to advance philan- 

 thropic objects, he was ever ready, liberally, but unostentatiously, to assist in 

 organising and maintaining. 



The same dispositions which rendered Mr. Ellis so zealous for the general 

 happiness of mankind, could not fail to lead him to take a warm interest in 

 the welfare of those among whom he lived. Accordingly, to no one more 

 than to him did his friends feel pleasure in communicating any event of an 

 agreeable nature that had occurred to themselves or their companions, assured 

 that their own feelings would meet with a cordial response. 



A zealous friend of civil and religious liberty, Mr. Ellis most heartily re- 

 joiced in every triumph which was gained on behalf of these causes at home 

 or abroad. If, at any time, the habitual equanimity of his disposition gave 

 way to an involuntary burst of indignation, it was in speaking of measures 

 detrimental to popular rights, or to freedom of conscience. But, while feeling 

 very intensely, and expressing himself, on every suitable occasion, very de- 

 cidedly, on political matters, Mr. Ellis's kindness of nature rendered him 

 incapable of harbouring any animosity towards those who differed from him 

 in opinion on these subjects ; and, accordingly, though his friendships 



