XXV11 



By the death of Philip Henry Gosse the Society has lost not oily 

 a many-sided and experienced naturalist, but one who did more than 

 almost any of his scientific contemporaries to popularise the study of 

 natural objects. 



Mr. Gosse was born at Worcester in 1810 — his father, a miniature 

 painter of some note in his day. He was educated, in part at least, 

 at the Blandford Grammar School, and at seventeen was sent out to 

 Newfoundland as a clerk in a business house. After eight years of 

 commercial life he settled in Canada as a farmer, bat the venture did 

 not prove successful, and he returned to England. In 1838- he went 

 south through the United States, and was engaged, as a schoolmaster 

 in Alabama ; subsequently he resided 1 for some time in Jamaica as a 

 professional naturalist, and then, having definitely adopted natural 

 history and literature as a profession, he returned to settle in 

 England. The roving life of his earlier years afforded wide oppor- 

 tunities for natural history pursuits, and his early works show 

 evidence at least of acute powers of observation.. ' The Canadian 

 Naturalist ' (1840) and ' The- Birds of Jamaica ' (1851) were 

 perhaps his most important contributions during this period, but lie 

 had published also a number of zoological manuals and other books 

 of more popular character. 



From this time, however, Mr. Gosse devoted himself more particu- 

 larly to the British marine fauna and flora. He was an assiduous 

 collector and, simultaneously perhaps with the late Mr. Warrington, 

 devised the marine aquarium, as a means of observing the habits and 

 economy of marine shallow- water organisms. The idea was taken up 

 by the Zoological Society, who, in 1853, constructed tanks on a con- 

 siderable scale in their gardens in Regent's Park. ' A Naturalist's 

 Rambles on the Devonshire Coast,' a little handbook to ' The 

 Aquarium ' (1853-4), and other works of similar bearing published 

 about the same time, attracted much attention and, as a practical 

 result, aquaria became common, and the collection of objects for them 

 a popular sea-side amusement. Of greater importance from a scientific 

 point of view was his 'Manual of Marine Zoology' (1855-6); two 

 small volumes, copiously illustrated with outline drawings — a work 

 extremely useful in its day. 



Mr. Gosse's subsequent contributions to scientific literature were 

 less frequent but of more original character. His name will probably 

 be best remembered as the author of the ' Actinologia Britannica,' a 

 history of the sea-anemones and corals of the British Islands, which 

 still, after the lapse of nearly thirty years, maintains its authoritative 

 position. Of later times his attention was more particularly directed 

 to the Rotifera, and the results of his observations up to 1886 were 

 embodied in an important monograph of the group, published con- 

 jointly with Dr. C. T. Hudson. The Society's ' Catalogue of 



