146 Eminent Living Geologists — Thomas Davidson, F.E.S. 



des Mines, and College de France, the Frencli Government defray- 

 ing all expenses. 



In 1832 the study of Sir Charles Lyell's " Principles of Geology," 

 as well as the intimacy which had sprung up between Constant 

 Prevost and Davidson, led the latter to bestow greater attention npon 

 the sciences of geology and paleontology, so much so that at fifteen 

 years of age he had already, under the guidance of Constant Prevost, 

 explored the larger portion of the Basin of Paris, and formed a 

 remarkably good collection of its rocks and fossils. 



In 1835 Davidson matriculated at the University of Edinburgh, 

 followed the lectures of Prof. Jamieson, and the chemical class of 

 Dr. Eeed ; he also accompanied and assisted Mr. E, Cunninghame 

 in his geological survey of the three Lothians. 



In the winter of 1836 he returned to the Continent, and, hammer 

 in hand, and chiefly on foot, explored a large portion of France, 

 Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. 



Soon after 1837 Mr. Davidson became acquainted with Baron von 

 Buch, and was strongly iirged by that distinguished Prussian geo- 

 logist to undertake a minute and searching study of the recent and 

 fossil Brachiopoda, and especially so as that important division of 

 the Invertebrata was then very little understood. He likewise 

 pointed out to him the great advantages geology might reap from 

 a sxiccessful elaboration of the class. Davidson therefore set to 

 work in good earnest, and gradually assembled all that might tend 

 to elucidate their characters, classification, history, and their geo- 

 logical and geographical distribution. From 1837 to 1870 he has 

 devoted all his powers (and without any pecuniary reward) to 

 advance that portion of paleontology, as well as to stimulate re- 

 searches upon the same subject by others. 



Mr. Davidson also indulged to a considerable extent his taste for 

 the fine arts, and was during four years an attentive and favoured 

 pupil of Paul Delaroche. He exhibited a cartoon at Westminster 

 Hall, and pictures at different exhibitions. He studied also for two 

 years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and there received instruction 

 from Horace Vernet and other distinguished French Academicians. 

 Indeed, he was urgently solicited by Paul Delaroche and others to 

 abandon the pursuit of science, and to give himself up entirely to 

 the art of painting, and with that intention spent the winter of 

 18-11 in Eome ; but the early implanted love for scientific researches 

 at last predominated, and he subsequently made use of his knowledge 

 of drawing as a most important auxiliary to his scientific labours. 



In 1846 and 1847 Mr. Davidson devoted much time to a careful ex- 

 amination of a large portion of Sir E. Murchison's Silurian District, 

 and after a short sojourn in Paris in 1848 (having been present at 

 the Eevolutions of 1830 and 1848) he was requested by Professors 

 E. Forbes, J. Morris, S. P. "Woodward, and Dr. Bowerbank to 

 prepare a monograph of British fossil Brachiopoda for the Palaeon- 

 tographical Society. The publication of the first portion of that 

 monograph was commenced in 1850, and terminated in 1870. The 

 work is composed of three thick quarto volumes, and is illustrated 



