Obituary — Mr. F. E. Edwards. 571 



OBITTJAIiY. 



FREDERICK ERASMUS EDWARDS, F.G.S., 



BORN OCTOBER 1, 1799, DIED OCTOBER 15, 1875. 



Some five-and-thirty years ago, a little society was founded by a 

 few London geologists, namely, Dr. J. S. Bowerbank, F.K.S., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S.,' Searles V. Wood, F.G.S., Jobn Morris, F.G.S., Alfred 

 White, F.L.S., Nathaniel T. Wetherell, F.G.S., James de Carle 

 Sowerby, F.L.S., F.Z.S., and Frederick E. Edwards, F.G.S., for 

 the purpose of illustrating the Eocene Mollusca, and entitled 

 "The London Clay Club." 



Who would have supposed that this society, so small and unpre- 

 tentious in its outset, should have given birth to one of the most 

 useful and valued scientific societies in London ? the Pal^onto- 

 graphical Society, which has now existed for twenty-nine years, 

 and numbers more than 350 members ! A society which has pro- 

 duced 28 huge annual quarto volumes, containing 7840 pages of 

 letterpress, and illustrated by 21,773 figures of 4273 species : not 

 confined, like the original enterprise, to the illustration of the London 

 Clay Mollusca, but aiming eventually to accomplish the task of 

 illustrating all the fossil remains found in the British rocks ! 



Of the seven geologists who founded the old " London Clay Club," 

 five still survive, namely : 



Dr. J. S. Bowerbank, F.E.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., Pres. Pal. Soc. ; 

 Searles V. Wood, F.G.S., Treas. Pal. Soc. ; Prof. Morris, F.G.S. ; 

 Alfred White, F.L.S. ; Nathaniel T. Wetherell, F.G.S. 



James de Carle Sowerby died in 1871, l and we have now the sad 

 task to record the loss of another of these early workers in paleon- 

 tology, that of Frederick E. Edwards, the historian of the Eocene 

 Tertiary Mollusca. 



Brought up to the profession of the law, and filling the responsible 

 post for more than forty years of chief clerk to Masters Wingfield 

 and Blunt, and to Yice-Chancellors Kindersley and Malins, he de- 

 voted his entire leisure time to the collection and study of the Mol- 

 lusca of the Eocene Tertiaries of England. 



1. His earliest contribution appeared in the " London Geological 

 Magazine," for September, 1846, edited by E. Charlesworth, F.G.S., 

 " On the Eocene Tellina" and at a later date, at intervals, in the 

 monographs of the Pal^eontological Society appeared : 



2. In 1848, " The Eocene Mollusca," Part I. Cephalopoda (with nine plates). 



3. In 1854, „ „ „ Part II. Pulmonata (with six plates). 



4. In 1854, ,, ,, „ Part III. No. 1, Prosobranchiata 



(with eight plates). 



5. In 1855, „ „ ,, Part III. No. 2, Prosobranchiata 



continued (with four plates). 



6. In 1858, ,, , „ „ Part III. No. 3, Prosobranchiata 



continued (with six plates). 



1 See Obituary Notice of Mr. Sowerby, Geol. Mag. 1871, Yol. VIII. p. 478. 



