xxu 



came most anxious to complete a work the materials for which had been 

 accumulating during a series of years. This was a complete Treatise on 

 Frictional Electricity, to which he intended to add biographical notices of 

 the leading electricians of the past. lie had also prepared a minute ac- 

 count of the history of the Leyden jar. The first portion of this work was 

 completed, under the supervision of the author, at the close of 1866, when 

 Sir William was seized with his last illness, which ended fatally on the 

 evening of the 22nd January 1867. He bore his sad calamity during five 

 years and a half with the greatest patience, calmness, and fortitude, and was 

 never heard to murmur. 



Dr. William Henry Harvey was born near Limerick, on February 5, 

 1814. Educated at Ballitore School, Kildare, his youth was spent in his 

 father's office at Limerick ; but a love of natural history very early deve- 

 loped itself, and even while engaged in business he found time to pursue 

 botanical studies with ardour and success, contributing in 1832 and 1834 

 articles on "Algse" to Sir WilUam Hooker's 'British Flora,' to the 

 * Botany of Beechey's Voyage,' and to Mackay's ' Flora Hibernica.' 



His scientific zeal led him in 1835 to accompany his brother to the 

 Cape of Good Hope, to which colony the latter had been appointed Trea- 

 surer and Registrar-General. The results of his botanical studies during 

 his stay there he embodied in numerous contributions to periodical litera- 

 ture, and in his * Genera of South A-frican Plants,' a work the second edi- 

 tion of which was nearly ready at the time of his death. He came home 

 from the Cape in 1839, but returned again in the following year to fill the 

 place of his brother, who had died on the voyage home. 



In 1844 he returned to Ireland upon being appointed Keeper of the Her- 

 barium to the University of Dublin. He also received the honorary degree 

 of M.D. of that University, and was soon after elected Professor of Botany 

 to the Royal Dublin Society. His botanical zeal and energy manifested 

 itself by the commencement, in 1845, of the publication of his * Phycologia 

 Britannica,' a magnificent work, the numerous plates of which were drawn, 

 lithographed, and coloured by himself. 



Upon the occasion of being invited to deliver a course of lectures on 

 Algse before the Lowell Institute, Boston, U.S., he travelled in North 

 America during 1849-50, carefully exploring the coast from Halifax to 

 the Keys of Florida, and collecting material for a large work, the ' Nereis 

 Boreali-Americana,' which was published by the Smithsonian Institute. 

 During 1853-56 he made a long tour in the Southern Hemisphere, the 

 University of Dublin continuing to grant him his full salary, and Professor 

 Allman delivering his lectures to the Royal Dublin Society. Visiting 

 Ceylon, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Friendly and the Fiji 

 Islands, he investigated and collected the algse of these countries, and on 

 his return home published a part of his results- in his ' Phycologia Aus- 

 tralis.' 



