Ceylon Nudibranchiate Molluscs, and, Zoophytes. 85 



since I returned to Ceylon, and I have every reason to feel 

 thankful, that my residence in Trincomalie has enabled me 

 to prosecute researches in more than one unexplored field 

 of Natural History. I had for my guide the example of 

 those great and good men, who deign to look upon even my 

 labours as worthy of encouragement, and who do not consider 

 the pursuit of the Naturalist as incompatible with the duties 

 of a Military Surgeon. Dr. Johnson, himself a successful 

 Medical practitioner and zealous Naturalist, (in his celebrated 

 work on British Zoophytes,) observes, in his remarks on 

 Doctors who are also Naturalists, that (( that very activity of 

 mind and perspicacity which originated and upheld their sa- 

 gacity and success as practitioners, were sure to carry them 

 far in whatever side-path the natural bent of their taste led 

 them, for the occupation and entertainment of the leisure 

 hours which the busiest must have, or may create. Idleness has 

 no leisure. * * * There never was a time when it was ne- 

 cessary to vindicate, to any but the ignorant, the erratic ex- 

 cursions of medical men into the fields of science and litera- 

 ture, for assuredly the rank which the profession, as a body, 

 has taken and holds in public estimation, depends for its pa- 

 tent, in part at least, on the scientific and literary character 

 of its professors ; and by continuing to support that character 

 they will best secure it from the vulgarity of a common 

 mercature, or the selfishness of a venal quackery. " 



My earliest researches, since my return to Ceylon, were 

 directed (with the aid of the microscope) to those minute forms 

 of animal and vegetable life called animalcule, and Dioto- 

 macese. I have already communicated to another channel the 

 observations I have made among these interesting microsco- 

 pical creatures, found in fresh and sea water. In this paper, 

 I propose to communicate to the Ceylon Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, my researches among some of the least known * 

 but most interesting, species of marine animals. 



