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edited the Annals of Anatomy and Physiology ; but as his health shortly 

 afterwards began to give way, the journal, after three numbers had been 

 published, was discontinued. In 1853 he was obliged to withdraw for a 

 year from active work ; and though after his return from the continent he 

 resumed the duties of his chair, yet he had to depute much of the work he 

 had at one time performed to an assistant. He still continued, however, 

 his original investigations, and in 1856 published a series of memoirs on the 

 morphology of the skeleton. The mechanism of the joints also attracted a 

 large share of his attention, and he has left behind him some manuscript 

 essays on this subject which will shortly be published in the collected edi- 

 tion of his writings. The paralytic affection from which he suffered gra- 

 dually impaired the vigour of his constitution. At the close of 1866 he 

 could no longer attend to the duties of his class, and he died at Wardie, a 

 suburb of Edinburgh, on the 6th of March, 1867. The retired life he had 

 led for many years before his death gave him much time for private study, 

 and his extensive knowledge of modern languages, as well as the excellent 

 library he had collected, made him well acquainted with the progress of 

 anatomy in all its departments. He worked at his science in a high-toned, 

 philosophic, and most honourable spirit ; and in his scientific and personal 

 relations he strove to be candid and just to all men. 



William Gravatt was born at Gravesend in 1806. His father, 

 Colonel Gravatt, havhig been appointed Inspector of the Royal MiUtary 

 Academy, settled with his family at Woolwich ; and here William Gravatt 

 acquired his first practical knowledge in military and civil engineering. He 

 was sent in due time to the establishment of Messrs. Donkin and Co. to be 

 prepared for his future profession of civil engineer, and soon secured the 

 good opinion of Jiis masters as well as the regard of his fellow pupils. 

 During his engagement with Messrs. Donkin he was employed for some 

 time at the Thames Tunnel, and was twice instrumental in saving the lives 

 of men who were working there. His first independent employment was 

 in 1832, when he was appointed Engineer to the Calder and Hebble Navi- 

 gation at Halifax. In 1833 he removed to London, and was elected a Fel- 

 low of the Royal Society. About this time he invented the level which 

 bears his name, and introduced the system of reading the staff with 

 the telescope, instead of trusting to the staff-bearer— a method of working 

 which has long superseded all other modes of observation. Mr. Gravatt 

 also contrived another instrument, which he called a Nadir, of great value 

 in carrying out a system of levels in cases when there were obstacles to the 

 employment of a regular staff of assistants. When M. Scheutz brought 

 over his calculating machine to this country in November 1 844, Mr. Gra- 

 vatt announced its arrival to the Royal Society, and took a lively interest 

 in it. He further undertook to explain the mechanism and operation of the 

 machine to men of science and others who chose to inspect it, and after- 

 wards proceeded with the machine to Paris for the same purpose. He 



