OBITUARY. 



235 



tatious educational centre, by the leisured classes, which was appa- 

 rently less prominently the case half a century or so ago, especially 

 during the Cuming era, when everybody of consequence considered it 

 the correct thing to be in possession of at least a few examples of 

 ornamental exotic shells. Now this is entirely changed, and the 

 half-pay and retired officers who at the present time constitute a con- 

 siderable proportion of the principal private residents of Cheltenham 

 do not seem to possess either the means or inclination for pursuits of 

 a purely scientific character. As, however, to my knowledge, there 

 is nobody in connection with the College who is practically interested 

 in Conchology, all the boys being as usual more or less attracted by 

 football and other sports, I should not be surprised if many of the 

 specimens are not in consequence eventually consigned to the dust- 

 bin ; while, had the "pearls" been presented to the Town Museum, 

 they would have been available for those who could appreciate them. 



The deceased was a member of the Conchological Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, as well as formerly of the Malacological Society 

 of London, and served for a time on the Committee of the Concho- 

 logical Club at Leeds. His entire library of conchological books, 

 pamphlets, and reprints has been purchased by Messrs. Chamber- 

 lain & Co., of Gloucester. — W. Harcourt-Bath. 



William H. Edwards. 



This well-known American naturalist passed away at his home in 

 Coalburgh, West Virginia, U.S.A., on April 14th, in his eighty-eighth 

 year. He was born in Hunter, Greene County, New York, on March 

 15th, 1822. Graduating from Williams' College in the Class of 

 1842, he was admitted to the New York Bar in 1847. The year 

 previous to this he made a voyage up the Amazon River to collect 

 objects of natural history, and published • A Voyage up the Amazon ' 

 (1847). He will, however, be best remembered by his 1 Butterflies of 

 North America,' in three volumes, commenced in 1868 and completed 

 in 1897, a standard work of great merit. He was also the author of 

 ' Shaksper, not Skakespeare' (1900). 



