266 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



In 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and 

 was one of the earliest recipients of the Gold Medal which was 

 founded to commemorate the centenary anniversary of that 

 Society. In 1862 his fame as a biologist led to his election as 

 President of Section D of the British Association, and eight 

 years later he was elected President of the Association itself. 

 In 1872 he became Lord Eector of Aberdeen University. After 

 serving for some years on the Council of the Royal Society, he 

 acted as Secretary to that learned body from 1872 to 1881, 

 and in 1883 was elected President, which distinguished position 

 he held until 1885. His eminence as a representative of science 

 in this country was acknowledged by his Sovereign, when in 1892 

 he was made a Privy Councillor, and thus became entitled to be 

 addressed as Right Honourable. 



Nor were foreign nations slow to recognise his extraordinary 

 talents. The honour of being a Corresponding Member of the 

 French Academy of Sciences in the subjects of anatomy and 

 zoology fell to him in 1879 ; and it may be mentioned as proof of 

 the world-wide spread of his reputation, that honorary degrees of 

 one kind or another were conferred on him by the universities 

 and scientific societies in most of the principal cities of Europe 

 and America, the United States showing its agreement in our 

 English estimate of his abilities by electing him a Foreign 

 Member of its National Academy. 



As pointed out by Prof. Haeckel (' Nature,' ix. p. 258), he has 

 made us better acquainted with several interesting members of the 

 class Vermes ; Sagitta, Lacinularia, and some lower Annulosa. 

 " He was the first to point out the affinities of Echinodermata with 

 Vermes. In opposition to the old view that they belong to the 

 Radiata, and on account of this radial type are to be classed with 

 corals, medusae, &c, he showed that the whole organisation of the 

 former is essentially different to that of the latter, and that the 

 echinoderms are more nearly related morphologically to worms. 

 Further, he has essentially enlarged our knowledge of the im- 

 portant group of Tuuicata by his researches on the Ascichans, 

 Appendicularia, Pyrosoma, Doliolum, Salpa, &c» 



"Many important advances in the morphology of the Mollusca 

 are also due to him. Thus, e.g,, he has greatly elucidated the 

 controverted subject of the homology of regions of the body in 

 the Mollusca. But it is the comparative anatomy and classinca- 



