94 Ohitnanj—Dr, Thomas Wright, F.B.S. 



Dispensary, for upwards of twenty years Surgeon to the General 

 Hospital ; and for many years President of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Association, during which period he delivered, iu different 

 sessions, courses of lectures on Comparative Physiology, Natural 

 History, and Palgeontology. 



Dr. Wright strongly advocated the teaching of Natural Science in 

 colleges and schools, and was always ready to help in the cause of 

 popular education. He frequently lectured in Bristol, Bath, Worcester, 

 and elsewhere, on scientific subjects which he made his life-long 

 study. Daring the early days of his professional career he devoted 

 much time to microscopical research, but his eyesight suffering 

 from too close an applicatiou to these investigations, he turned 

 his attention to Palseontology, in the pursuit of which the Oolitic 

 rocks of the Cotteswold Hills around Cheltenham afford such rich 

 materials. He made in his leisure hours a large collection of 

 fossil Echinoderms from these and other Oolitic formations, and read 

 a series of Memoirs to the Cotteswold Field Club on the minute 

 anatomy of this class, which appeared in the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History. These papers attracted the attention of 

 Professor Edward Forbes, F.R.S., who spoke in high terms of 

 their merit, and proposed to Dr. Wright that they should publish 

 a joint Monograph on the British Fossil Echinodermata for the 

 Pal^outographical Society. It was finally settled that Professor 

 Forbes should describe and figure the British Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary species, and that Dr. Wright should describe and figure the 

 Oolitic forms. But that accomplished Naturalist died, just when he 

 had obtained the ambition of his life, the chair of Natural History iu 

 the University of Edinburgh, and before he had done anything to his 

 portion of the work ; so that on the completion of the Monograph on 

 the Oolitic Echinidae, and the Monogi'aph on Oolitic Asteriadge and 

 OphiuridfB, the Council of the Palceontographical Society requested 

 Dr. Wright to undertake that part of the work which Edward 

 Forbes had left unfinished. Dr. Wright commenced (in ISGO) the 

 description, with figures, of all the Cretaceous species, and for more 

 than twenty years he devoted all his leisure to this work, which is 

 now completed, and forms a large volume of 390 pages quarto, with 

 87 magnificent plates. 



In 1875 Di'. Wright commenced another extensive Monograph 

 on the " Lias Ammonites of the British Isles." He had been collect- 

 ing materials for this work during his long residence in Cheltenham ; 

 and had succeeded iu securing a rare and beautiful series of these 

 Cephalopods, many of his specimens having been carefully and judici- 

 ously selected to show the remarkable morphological changes 

 through which Ammonites pass in the process of their evolution. 

 This work, happily now completed, consists of 480 pages of text 

 and 90 plates. His palasontographical labours fill four large 

 quarto volumes, and comprise 242 plates, accompanied by 1568 

 pages of descriptive letterpress, every species having a full detailed 

 description given of the form, with its affinities and differences from 

 congeneric species carefully pointed out, also the locality from 



