235 
on QWemoriam. 
WILLIAM REE'D-. 
In the death of Mr. William Reed, of York, which took place on 
the oth May last, the geological department of the Yorkshire 
Philosophical Society has lost its greatest benefactor, and, indirectly, 
the loss must be mourned by the scientific men of the county at 
large, as through the energy and free-hearted liberality of the 
deceased gentleman the geological collection preserved in the 
Museum at York has become one of which not only the county, but 
even the kingdom, may justly be proud. Mr. Reed was born at 
Malton, on the 21st December, 1810. Educated at York and at 
the Grammar School of Thornton, near Pickering, he subsequently 
selected the medical profession as the sphere of his life’s labours, 
and, in accordance with the usage of the time, was apprenticed to 
Mr. Ness, of Helmsley, under whom he served for six years. Thence 
passing on to Leeds, he studied at the School of Medicine there 
during 1835-6, and the two following years were spent at St. George’s 
Hospital, London. Whilst in London, Mr. Reed attended four 
courses of lectures and demonstrations on chemistry at the Royal 
Institution, under the celebrated Michael Faraday. In 1838 he was 
enrolled a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and 
of the Apothecaries’ Society. From 1839 to 1842 he was house 
surgeon of the York County Hospital at York, and towards the close 
of the latter year he proceeded to Paris and attended lectures in the 
Faculté de Médecine of the Université de France, paying special 
attention to the study of diseases of the eye. ere, also, he 
remained during the following year. Returning to England in 1843, 
he commenced a country practice at Whitwell, and it is probably at 
this period of his life that he entered upon the systematic study of 
palzontology, and in the oolitic quarries of the neighbourhood, 
hammer and chisel in hand, formed the nucleus of a collection 
destined to attain historic importance, and to find a final resting- 
place in the Museum at York. Country practice, however, was too 
monotonous to satisfy the energy of one who, during the course of 
long life, knew not what it was to spend an idle moment, and in aa 
short time he removed to York, rightly judging, as events proved, 
that there he would find a wider field for his labour 
After working in his profession for some time alone, he entered 
into partnership with Mr. Benjamin Dodsworth, with whom he 
remained about five years, and at the expiration of this time again 
took K up general Practice on his own account. For the next thirty 
August 1 1892. 
