xlvi 



ALFEED MEELE NOEMAN, 1831-1918. 



The Eev. Canon Norman, M.A., D.C.L., Hon. LL.D. (St. Andrews), F.E.S. 

 F.L.S., began his long and energetic career on August 29, 1831, at Exeter 

 peacefully closing it at Berkhamsted, October 26, 1918. 



Of his routine education at Winchester and at Oxford, where he took his 

 degree from Christ Church, there is nothing special to record, though it is of 

 interest to know that he studied Entomology at school, and the Mollusca of 

 Oxfordshire while at college, and that in still earlier years his attention had 

 been directed to Botany by his elder brother, who subsequently met an 

 untimely death when Chief Justice of Bengal. 



The interval of two years before his ordination at the age of 25, was 

 spent at the island of C umbrae, and it was probably this that stamped upon 

 his future life a predominant, though not exclusive interest in Marine- 

 Zoology. For some years, indeed, his working hours must have been well 

 filled with the business of his profession. This he never neglected, although 

 in 1866 by becoming a rector he had thenceforth more the control of his 

 own time. In his coal-mining parish of Burnmoor there was opportunity for 

 interesting experiences, of which a sample is worth giving. Among the 

 miners of his congregation he asked an influential friend whether he could 

 not induce a particularly rough-looking mate to attend the services of the 

 church. The appeal was successful, and the recruit, though unable to read, 

 was seen to follow what he heard with earnest attention. Unfortunately, 

 some time later the devotee appeared in a very disordered condition, which 

 his neighbours attributed to his having had a drunken quarrel with his wife, 

 Norman expostulated with him and the man expressed sorrow at what had 

 happened. In time it turned out that it was the wife who had been drunken 

 and inflicted the damage, which the husband was too chivalrous to assign to 

 its true cause. Later on this good fellow was brought to his death-bed by a 

 colliery explosion, and his dying whisper was : " I waited patiently for the 

 Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling. He brought me also 

 out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay, and set my feet upon the 

 rock, and ordered my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, 

 even a thanksgiving unto our God." 



On the scientifiic side of his avocations we find Norman associated with 

 Gwyn Jeffreys, Professor Mcintosh, H. B. Brady, G. S. Brady, Hancock, 

 Spence Bate, and other naturalists of repute, not in holiday rambles, 

 but in resolute and sometimes very difficult and arduous work. From 

 1861 onwards his papers show him dealing with the results of dredging 

 in northern waters, so that in 1868, in the 'Shetland Final Dredging 

 Eeport,' Part II, his share is " On the Crustacea, Tunicata, Polyzoa, 

 Echinodermata, Actinozoa, Hydrozoa, and Porifera," invertebrate groups 

 which few specialists would care to tackle collectively. In those days, it is 

 true, the literature of all branches was not so crowded as it has since 



