MEMOIR OF DE. BOWBBBANK. XV 



and afterwards by Ross, Powell and Leland, and Smith 

 and Beck. 



The microscope was his especial delight and study, 

 and by its use his investigations into the structure 

 and habit of Sponges, both recent and fossil, were 

 greatly facilitated and brought taa state of comparative 

 completeness. 



His microscope being of very excellent construction 

 so many eminent men came to him in order to 

 examine their specimens by his Instrument, that he 

 was compelled to fix one night in the week for their 

 reception ; and thus originated the celebrated Monday 

 Evening Meetings. On those occasions both old fi-iends 

 and students always received a kindly greeting and 

 welcome both at his house in the New North Road, 

 and at his after residence. Park Street, Islington, and 

 finally in his capacious Museum at Highbury Grove. 



In 1832 he was elected a Fellow of the Oeological 

 Society, and soon afterwards wrote a paper for that 

 Society entitled "An Account of a Deposit containing 

 Land Shells at Gore Cliff, Isle of Wight" (' Geol. Soc. 

 Proc.,' ii, p. 449, 1837) ; this memoir was followed by 

 others on the " London and Plastic Clay Formations " 

 C Trans. Geol. Soc.,' vol. vi, p. 168, 1842) ; on the 

 " Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensands and 

 Oolites " C Trans. Geol. Soc.,' vol. vi, p. 181, 1842), 

 and on " A New Species of Pterodactyl found in the 

 Upper Chalk of Kent " (' Geol. Soc. Joiirn,,' ii, 

 p. 7, 1845). 



He gradually amassed a large collection of fossils 

 very many of which now enrich the national and other 

 collections. 



Dr. Bowerbank was one of the founders of the 



