xlii 



PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



is there called "burgher" parentage; that is to say, descended 

 from the early Dutch colonists, a race that of late years, under 

 the liberal government of Ceylon, has produced many individuals 

 of merit in the professions of law and medicine. His father was 

 employed in the military medical department, and the son was 

 thence afforded favourable opportunities of acquiring the rudiments 

 of science. In these studies he was much encouraged by the late 

 Henry Marshall, Deputy Inspector- General of Hospitals, and from 

 whose precepts and example he derived the habits of study and 

 arrangement by which he was distinguished. Early in life he visited 

 England to prosecute the study of medicine and surgery, and 

 having obtained his diploma, he was, in 1841, appointed Staff As- 

 sistant Surgeon in Her Majesty's Forces. Being stationed in this 

 capacity at Gibraltar, he diligently collected and arranged the 

 plants of that singular promontory. The results of these labours 

 appeared in 1846 under the title of " Flora Calpensis, or Contri- 

 butions to the Botany and Topography of Gibraltar ;" a small 

 and unpretending, but highly meritorious and useful work. 



Dr. Kelaart subsequently returned to Ceylon, and for several 

 years busied himself with the Fauna of that magnificent island. 

 He also published an extended catalogue of its productions, which 

 forms a valuable addition to the knowledge of its natural history. 



His impaired health constrained him on two occasions to return 

 to England, and on his last return to Ceylon in 1856, he was en- 

 gaged by the late Governor Sir Henry Ward in observing and 

 investigating the Natural History of the Pearl Oyster, the 

 fishery of which is of considerable importance in the revenue of 

 the island. Some of the results of this investigation have appeared 

 in an ' Introductory Report on the Natural History of the Pearl 

 Oyster of Ceylon, ' published at Trincomalee in 1857. 



He had also previously published at Columbo, in 1852-4, a 

 * Prodromus Fauna? Zeylanicso,' of which he presented the first, and 

 the first part of the second volume, to our Library. 



Being subsequently recalled to England, he died suddenly of dis- 

 ease of the heart, during the passage, on the 31st August, 1860, in 

 his 42nd year. 



Frederick Perkins, Esq., F.O.S. Sf U.S., the head of the emi- 

 nent firm of brewers in South wark, died on the 10th of Octo- 

 ber. I860, in Id's 81st year, at Chipstead Place, Kent. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Society on the 13th of March, 1816. 



Francis Vlomley, M.I)., was a physician of considerable repute 

 at Maidstone, where lie died, alter a long illness, on the 9th of 



