Anniversary Address. 203 



his professional life, was much greater than generally falls to the 

 lot of the young practitioner in medicine, he nevertheless found 

 many hours unoccupied; but to him leisure did not create 

 idleness : he at once began to investigate the natural history of 

 the neighbourhood; and how sedulously and actively he had 

 employed his time became apparent when, in 1829, he published 

 the first volume of the ' Flora of Berwick/ and two years after- 

 wards the second, containing the Cryptogamia. During the 

 same period he had been quietly turning his attention to the 

 anatomy and habits of the invertebrate animals found upon the 

 coast, and the fruits of his discoveries appeared at various times 

 in the then popular < Magazine of Natural History/ conducted 

 by the late Mr. Loudon, his clear and correct descriptions being 

 at the same time illustrated by the faithful pencil of Mrs. John- 

 ston. But no department of natural history was overlooked by 

 him ; he carefully noted what he thought worth recording, in 

 whatever branch it might occur, thereby being afterwards able 

 to give satisfactory answers to the numerous queries that were 

 asked of him, when his name became so intimately associated 

 with European naturalists. In the first volume of the ( Trans- 

 actions of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Natural History Society/ 

 appeared what may be called the first edition of his work on the 

 ' British Zoophytes*/ a class, since the days of Ellis in 1755, 

 almost entirely overlooked. This was soon after followed, in 

 1838, by his ' History of British Zoophytes/ the work which he 

 has made almost peculiarly his own. The beauty and fidelity 

 of the descriptions, enhanced as they were by the faithful figures 

 that illustrated them, naturally turned the attention of many 

 who had opportunities to the investigation of what they had 

 previously looked upon as ocean's flowers, but now found to be 

 living creatures. A second enlarged and much improved edition 

 appeared in 1847, and it is now recognized as the text-book on 

 the subject throughout the world. Between the editions of 

 1838 and 1847, his active mind found no rest. The unattractive 

 sponges and lithophytes (for to him nothing in nature was 

 mean, but he saw that in every object some beautiful provision 

 of nature existed) excited his attention and investigation, and 

 the result was known by the appearance of * The History of the 



* Which he named a ' Catalogue of the Recent Zoophytes found on the 

 coast of North Durham.' 



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