XXX MEMOIR OF THE LATE AVM. TnOMPSOX, ESQ. 



" At a special meeting held in tlie Museum, on the lOtli March, 1852, a 

 series of resolutions was unanimously adopted, expressive of the feelings enter- 

 tained by the members as to the great loss they had sustained by the death of 

 their late president, Wm. Thompson, Esq. A committee was then appointed 

 to consider the most suitable mode of doing honour to his memory. This com- 

 mittee, after careful consideration, reported that the most appropriate memorial 

 of Mr. Thompson would be a separate room to be added to the Museum, and 

 be called the ' Thompson R )om,' in which should be placed the private collec- 

 tions which he had bequeathed to the Museum. This method of testifying the 

 Society's estimation of Mr. Thompson would have the double advantage of per- 

 petuating his name within the Museum, and of preserving for reference a large 

 portion of those specimens to which he alludes in his writings on the Natural 

 History of Ireland. This report of the committee was unanimously agreed to, 

 and the council were authorized to have it carried into immediate effect." 



The necessary funds were speedily subscribed, and the " Thompson 

 Room " erected accordingly. 



A striking likeness of Mr. Thompson appeared in 1849, in the series of 

 scientific portraits, published at the expense of Mr. George Ransome, at 

 that time Honorary Secretary to the Ipswich Museum. By the kind per- 

 mission of that gentleman, the frontispiece of the present volume has been 

 copied from the former portrait, by the same talented artist by whom the 

 original had been taken. 



Several of the leading naturalists of the day have at different times 

 marked their estimation of Mr. Thompson's character and labour's, by 

 dedicating to him some undescribed species of animal or plant. The 

 touching yet appropriate words employed by Professor Bell, when giving 

 to a small marine animal, taken in Belfast Bay, the name of his departed 

 friend, may form an appropriate conclusion to this little Memoir : — * " I 

 have a melancholy gratification in dedicating this species, by name, to a 

 gentleman who, for many years, was justly considered as the representative 

 of the Zoology of Ireland, and whose acute discrimination and persevering 

 enthusiasm in his favourite jjursuit were only equalled by the liberal and 

 unselfish feeling with which he placed his treasures in the hands of his 

 fellow-labourers, whenever he believed the interests of science would be 

 thereby furthered. The specimen from which the above description is 

 taken was placed in my hands, by my lamented friend, only a very few 

 days before his untimely death deprived the science of Ireland of one of 

 its most distinguished ornaments, and society of as kind and true-hearted 

 a man as ever lived." — p. 373. 



* The species is Pagurus Thompsoni, dredged at 50 fathoms, entrance of Bel- 

 fast Bay, by Mr. Hyndman. Vide Bell's " History of British Stalk-eyed Crus- 

 tacea." 



