Memoir of Dr William Baird, by Dr F. Douglas. 403 



and the cordial greeting of Dr Baird — they can never more 

 gladden and encourage us, but they will take and retain a 

 place in the treasury of our pleasant recollections of good 

 men whom it has been our privilege to know and to 

 appreciate." 



Dr Baird's valuable services and contributions to the 

 science of natural history were rewarded by his election as a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Linnsean Society of 

 London. He was likewise a member of the Ray Society, and 

 of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club*. It is as an honored 

 member of the latter that our eloge is here presented to the 

 Club. Associated early in life in natural history pursuits 

 with his two elder brothers, with Dr Johnston, Mr Emble ton, 

 Mr Selby, and Sir William Jardine, it can be no matter of 

 surprise that Dr Baird became an enthusiastic student of the 

 beauties and mysteries of nature. He was one of the first of 

 British naturalists who called attention to the minute class 

 of Crustacea called Entomostraca. Before Dr Baird com- 

 menced his investigations, the known number of species to 

 be found in Great Britain amounted to sixteen only. In one 

 autumn's search in our Border district, he found no fewer 

 than thirty-eight species belonging to the order Branchiopoda 

 alone ; a number afterwards largely increased. These are all 

 described, and many delineated, in the first volume of the 

 Proceedings of the Club. Few who have read are likely to 

 forget the eloquent and highly poetic description which Dr 

 Baird contributed to our Proceedings of two brilliant displays 

 of Aurora Borealis, observed at Yetholm and Berwick, in 

 1835. 



During Dr Baird's connection with the Club, embracing 

 the long period of above forty years, he has never resided in 

 our district. His attendance at its meetings has therefore 

 been unfrequent ; and for many years his pleasant and 

 edifying companionship has been awanting. Other and 

 perhaps more important duties engaged him elsewhere, other- 

 wise his name would have long ago appeared among the 

 number of our most distinguished Presidents ; and we have 

 now only to mourn the loss of, alas ! almost the last of the 

 zealous and earnest founders of this Club, then only nine in 

 number, but presenting an array of names celebrated in the 



* Dr Baird was also a member of the Imperial and Royal Botanical 

 Society of Vienna. 



