40 PKOCEEDIJTGS OP THE G-EOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



graph on the British Brachiopoda, occupying three quarto volumes, 

 with very numerous plates, all drawn by the author's own hand, 

 was completed. Many men would now have been content to rest 

 from their labours, and to repose upon their well-earned reputation. 

 Not so with Davidson. As he had passed onwards from formation 

 to formation, new material, through the zeal of collectors, had con- 

 tinued to accumulate in the fields which he had left, and the re- 

 searches of Mr. Maw and others in the Wenlock Shales, had pro- 

 vided fresh opportunities of ascertaining the internal structure of 

 the earlier Brachiopoda. So a supplementary memoir was begun, 

 the first part appearing in the volume of the Palseontographical 

 Society for 1873, the last in that for 1885, the whole forming three 

 volumes, similar in form to the original work. But the volumes 

 of the Palaeontographical Society were not the only outlet for 

 the results of Dr. Davidson's industry. Frequent contributions, 

 commonly relatiug to the Brachiopoda, but sometimes to more 

 general questions, often beautifully illustrated by the author's own 

 hand, appeared in our Journal, the Geological Magazine, the Trans- 

 actions of the Linnean Society, and the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History, not to mention other publications, British and 

 foreign. His latest work, unpublished, but happily completed at 

 his death, was a Memoir on Eecent Brachiopoda, which will appear 

 in the Linnean Transactions. Mr. Davidson was elected a PeUow 

 of this Society in 1852, and was for two years one of its Honorary 

 Secretaries, receiving in 1865 the Wollaston Medal ; in 1857 he 

 was elected a Pellow of the Boyal Society, and in 1870 was awarded 

 one of the Eoyal Medals. He was also a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society, and an honorary member of numerous Societies, British and 

 foreign. In 1882 the University of St. Andrews conferred upon 

 him the honorary degree of LL.D. 



By the town of Brighton, where of late years he chiefly resided, 

 he will long be remembered for his exertions on behalf of science 

 and his gifts to the Museum. With that large-minded liberality 

 which distinguished him throughout life, he has bequeathed to the 

 National Museum at South Kensington his magnificent collection of 

 Brachiopoda, together with his books illustrative of the study. 



His health had been failing for some time before his death, but he 

 was able to continue his scientific labours almost to the last. In him 

 we have lost one of those accomplished specialists who, though 

 they have selected a limited field for their labours, have dealt with 

 it in so philosophic a spirit that they have aided largely in the 

 progress of science. It will be so long before the work of Thomas 

 Davidson is forgotten by geologists and biologists that he might 

 have ventured to apply to the volumes which were the chief work 

 of his life the well-known Horatian verse 



" Exegi monumentum sere perennius." 



On November 10th, 1885, a lamentable accident deprived our 

 Society of one of its most eminent members, Dr. William Bei^jamin 

 Caepentee. Born at Exeter in the year 1813, he was educated at 



