Introduction. 



XI 



North China. Blyth' s name was put forward as that of a naturalist readily 

 available and eminently qualified for the post of naturalist to the expedition. 

 Replying to Lord Canning's objections that scientific observations in a hostile 

 country would have to be carried on at much personal risk, our Council,* while 

 urging the importance of the mission in a scientific point of view, stated on 

 Blyth' s behalf that " he was quite willing to encounter the danger, whatever 

 it might be." The application, however, failed: no naturalist was appointed. 

 This result was to be regretted, as it affected Blyth personally, for his health 

 was failing, and the sea-voyage, with the stimulus afforded by so interesting 

 a mission, would have been most beneficial to him, and would probably have 

 averted the utter breakdown which was now at hand. It is doubtful whether 

 he was equal to the more laborious task which he offered to undertake in the 

 following year, when the scientific expedition into Chinese Tartary was pro- 

 jected by the Government. 



Blyth was a staunch adherent of Darwin's views, and an opportunity of 

 thus declaring himself offered at our November meeting in 1860, when Mr. 

 H. Blanford read his paper on the well-known work of Dr. Broun on the 

 laws of development of organized beings. The value attached by Darwin to 

 Blyth's observations is shown by the frequent reference made to them, more 

 especially in his ' Animals and Plants under Domestication.' His first cita- 

 tion of Blyth in the latter work describes him as an " excellent authority," 

 and the many quotations that follow in these interesting volumes show how 

 carefully he read and noted all that fell from Blyth, even in his contributions 

 to sporting journals. 



In 1861 Blyth's health fairly gave way, and in July of that year a second 

 memorial was submitted to Government! with a view to obtaining a recon- 

 sideration by the Secretary of State for India of his claims to a pension. 

 Lord Elgin, the new Viceroy, took up the subject warmly, and pressed it on 

 the attention of the Home authorities as a special case :{ "the case," as he 

 observed, "of a man of science who had devoted himself for a very small 

 salary to duties in connexion with the Asiatic Society, a body aided by and 

 closely identified with the Government of India, from which the public have 

 derived great advantage." After describing Blyth as "the creator of the 

 Natural History Museum, which has hitherto supplied the place of a public 

 museum in the Metropolis of India, and which will probably soon be made 

 over to Government as part of a national museum," and referring to the 



J. B. A. S. xxix. p. 82. f J. B. A. S. xxxL 6Q a 



X Idem. xxxi. 430. 



