Notice of Four new Plants. 369 



Art. VI. Notice of Four netv Plants, discovered in the South Sea 

 Islands by the late Mr. James Corson, Surgeon. By George 

 Don, Esq., F.L. S. With a Biographical Notice of Mr. Corson, by 

 the Conductor. 



Mr. James Corson was the son of one of those highly respectable 

 Scotch gardeners, who, on very moderate salaries, contrive to give 

 their children such an education as to fit them for qualifying 

 themselves, by subsequent self-instruction, for any station they 

 may be afterwards destined to occupy. He was born at Dal- 

 scairth in Dumfriesshire, where his father was gardener to a 

 family of the name of Douglas, and he was educated at the parish 

 school. Before he was twenty years of age, he was competent 

 to become usher in the school of Mr. Stockdale of Whitehaven, 

 where he remained till, in consequence of our advertising for an 

 amanuensis, he was engaged by us in that capacity in 1836, and 

 lie continued with us till the beginning of 1838. Having always 

 had an ardent desire to acquire a knowledge of surgery, he 

 attended the class of G. D. Dermott, Esq., of Charlotte Street, 

 Bloomsbury, in the evenings, and very soon became a great fa- 

 vourite with his instructor. His medical reading kept pace with 

 his practice in the dissecting-room; and so rapid was his progress 

 that in 1838 he was considered competent to fill the office of 

 surgeon to a South Sea whaler. He was accordingly engaged 

 by Captain Benson, the master of the Kitty, and sailed with him 

 from the Thames in the autumn of 1838. 



Nothing particular occurred in the voyage, except that one 

 man had his leg so mangled by the bite of a shark, that amputa- 

 tion became necessary ; and the operation was performed by Mr. 

 Corson in so satisfactory a manner, that the patient recovered com- 

 pletely in the course of nine weeks. On their way home, Mr, 

 Corson was unfortunately attacked by intermittent fever, which 

 carried him off in fourteen days, on the 16th of June, 184-1, in the 

 27th year of his age. His remains were interred in the Island 

 of Timor, in the Dutch burying-ground, where a stone was 

 erected to his memory by his captain, to whom, and to the whole 

 ship's crew, he had greatly endeared himself by his meek, affec- 

 tionate, and amiable disposition. 



The following; extract is from a notice of the death of Mr. 

 Corson, which appeared in the Cumberland Pacquet of February 

 8th, 1842 : — " We regret that we are unable, within our present 

 limits, fully to commemorate the excellence of this highly gifted 

 and meritorious young man. He was born at Dalscairth, in 

 humble circumstances, and by his own unaided efforts had gained 

 the position he last occupied, as surgeon of the above-named 

 vessel. His mind was of a very superior order, and his perse- 



3d Ser.— 1842. VII. b b 



