143 



Memoir of Dr. T. C. Jerclon. By Sir Walter Elliot, 

 K.C.S.I., F.L.S., Wolfelee. 



When the Club met at Cockburnspath in July last year, I 

 bad the satisfaction of proposing a member, whose scientific 

 reputation would have added to the credit of the Club, while 

 his biological knowledge would, I hoped, have enriched the 

 pages of its Proceedings. These expectations were not 

 destined to be realised. Elected at the annual meeting 

 in September following, he died within nine months after- 

 wards on the 12th of last June (1872). 



Thomas Caverhill Jerdon, eldest son of the late Archibald 

 Jerdon, of Bonjedward, was born on the 12th October, 1811, 

 at Biddick House, in the county of Durham, where his 

 mother was on a visit to her own family. His father, 

 although not a scientific naturalist, was a diligent observer, 

 and early imbued his sons (of whom the younger still ranks 

 as one of the most active botanists of the Club) with habits 

 of observation ; thus implanting the germs of those pursuits 

 which they afterwards prosecuted with such success. 



He was educated first at Bishopton Grove, near Ripon, 

 and subsequently at Bawtry, near Doncaster, where, and in 

 the neighbourhood, the late Dr. P. Inchbald for many years 

 conducted a school of some reputation in its day. In 1828, 

 he entered the University of Edinburgh as a literary student, 

 attending among other classes, Professor Jameson's lectures 

 on natural history. On the 23rd June, 1829, he joined the 

 Plinian Society*, an association of young naturalists who 

 made occasional excursions during the session, meeting 

 afterwards to discuss the results of their observations. In 

 1829-30, he matriculated as a medical student, and during 

 that and the two following sessions attended the classes 

 connected with the profession he had chosen. Repairing to 

 London in 1834, he prosecuted his medical studies for 

 upwards of a twelvemonth, until he obtained an assistant- 

 surgeonship in the East India Company's service, on the 

 establishment of Fort St. George. His appointment bears 

 the date of 11th September, 1835, and he soon after sailed 

 for India, arriving at Madras on the 21st February, 1836. 



* A notice of this Society was given by Mr. Hardy in the President's 

 Address of 1868 ( Proa, v., 404), in which he refers for details to the " Life 

 of the Eev. John Baird," its founder, and also one of the originators of the 

 Berwickshire O.ub ; and also to Professor Balfour's "Memoir of Dr. Cold- 

 ttream." See too, Trans. Botanical Soc, Edinburgh, Vol. xi., p. 16, 



