THALASSIDEOMA BULLOCKII. 103 



F.L.S.j &c., born at Plymouth, 1790. This physician became Curator at the 

 British Museum about 1817 ; he was much overworked, often not being in 

 bed all night. He published the ' Zoologist's Miscellany/ among other 

 things, and, having retired from his Curatorship from illness, died at 

 S. Sebastiano, in Piedmont, August 25th, 1836. 



An accomplished ornithologist of the present day, living in the broad 

 glare of scientific intelligence, perhaps deeply versed in " the struggle for life, 

 the adaptability and the hereditivity of organisms," might feel inclined to 

 look back on such a man as Bullock with a feeling of pity, akin to contempt. 

 But when he reflects upon what museums were in former times, and the 

 gross ignorance which prevailed among all classes, it is only fair to allow 

 a considerable amount of credit to a man who certainly was at some pains to 

 raise the curtain of science, and who was more than a vulgar showman. 



Take the period of the two Tf adescants, father and son (both John). I 

 extract out of ^Museum Tradescantianum' (^^a collection of Rarities preserved 

 at South Lambeth, neer London," 1656), at the head of whose '' Principall 

 Benefactors to the precedent Collection " stood '' King Charles, Queen Mary, 

 George Duke of Buckingham, Lady Katherine Dutchess of Buckingham, 

 Wilham Laud Archbishop of Canterbury, &c." Look now at the kind of 

 scientific pabulum put forth under their sanction : — 



" Divirs sorts of egges from Turkic : one given for a Dragon's egge. 



'' Two feathers of the Phoenix' tayle. 



''Claw of the bird Rock; who, as authors report, is able to trusse an 

 Elephant, &c., &c. 



" Dodar, from the Island Mauritius ; it is not able to flic, being so 



big." 



Would that we had this Dodar ! The rest we could spare. 



We may gather from ' Museum Leverianum ' (published 1792) and the 

 accounts of Sir Ashton Lever's Museum in the Blackfriars- Bridge Road, 



p 2 



