402 Memoir of Dr William Baird, by Dr F. Douglas. 



Dr Baird's qualifications as a zoologist were of a high 

 order ; and his published writings were numerous. They 

 consist chiefly of scattered papers in the " Edinburgh Phil- 

 osophical Journal," " Loudon's Magazine of Natural History," 

 " The Zoologist," the " Proceedings " of the Zoological 

 Society, the Ray Society, and the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club. His most important work was, however, the " Natural 

 History of the British Entomostraca," published by the Ray 

 Society in 1850 ; and containing a most admirable account 

 of the structure, physiology, and habits of these minute 

 Crustacea. In 1858, Dr Baird published a popular Cyclo- 

 paedia of the Natural Sciences, as also a valuable paper on 

 " Pearls and Pearl Fisheries." A bibliographical list of Dr 

 Baird's numerous contributions to the science of natural 

 history is in preparation by Mr Hardy, and will be appended 

 to this brief Memoir. During the later years of his life, the 

 attention of Dr Baird was principally directed to the study of 

 Entozoa, of which a catalogue had been drawn up by him 

 in 1843, and published by the Trustees of the British 

 Museum. At the time of his death he was engaged in pre- 

 paring a general catalogue of the Entozoa, for which he 

 possessed abundant materials. 



" But it is not by his publications only that his great 

 attainments must be judged ; his knowledge of every branch 

 of natural history was extensive and profound, and his readi- 

 ness in imparting it to others will be long remembered by 

 those who were in the habit of studying at the British 

 Museum. As a man of science Dr Baird was highly esteemed 

 by scientific men, and he was no less prized for his genial 

 and kindly nature by all who knew him. In private life he 

 was greatly beloved on account of the unvarying amiability 

 of his disposition, and the kindliness of his manner. 



" On the days of the week when the Museum is closed to 

 all but stdents, he was generally to be seen in the Concho- 

 logical Gallery, bending over one or other of the table 

 cases, patiently and carefully arranging and examining 

 specimens of shells ; and so closely is he associated in our 

 mind* with the scene of his duties, that when in future we 

 enter the gallery on such days, it will be long ere we cease 

 to look, instinctively, as of old, for the familiar skull-cap and 

 the gentle placid face beneath it, and the kind genial smile 

 * H. L. in "Land and Water." 



