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volumes, has for its title u Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered 

 with reference to Natural Theology." As the testator had specified "the 

 effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion," and " the construction of the 

 hand of man," as instances of the "reasonable arguments" whereby the 

 collective work was to be illustrated, were departments assigned to other 

 writers, to be dealt with in separate treatises ; but with these exceptions, 

 Dr. Roget's province was to embrace nearly the whole of the physio- 

 logy of the two kingdoms of nature. Of the manner in which he performed 

 the task it is needless to speak at length here. As the prescribed purpose of 

 the work was the very object which he had set before him and retained in view 

 ever since his early efforts at Manchester, he naturally adopted the arrange- 

 ment which he had found best in his lectures, and he endeavoured to em- 

 body in the form of a compendium so much of the argument and such of 

 the illustrations as were adapted to every class of readers, and might 

 form a useful introduction to the study of Natural History. Since the time 

 of Roget the science of Comparative Anatomy has entered upon new phases, 

 then but dimly foreshadowed ; but still his Bridgewater Treatise may be 

 read with profit and delight by all, on account of the deeply interesting 

 nature of the subject, the lucidity of the argument, the variety of illustra- 

 tion, the pure religious tone which pervades it, and the admirable style in 

 which it is composed. Of the work in its original form three editions were 

 published — the first and second in 1834, and the third in 1840 ; and two 

 years before his death, the author superintended the passing through the 

 press of a fourth edition, published by Messrs. Bell and Daldy. Dr. Roget 

 was the last survivor of the authors of the Bridgewater Treatises. 



In the years 1834 and 1835 he held the office of Censor to the Royal 

 College of Physicians. In 1837 and subsequent years he took an active 

 part in the establishment of the University of London, of the Senate of 

 which he remained a member until his death; and in June 1839 he was 

 appointed Examiner in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, which office 

 he held for some years. In 1838 his pen was again employed by the editors 

 of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' to the seventh edition of which he con- 

 tributed the articles Banks (Sir Joseph), Phrenology, and Physiology. 

 The last two were published separately in two volumes. That on Phreno- 

 logy was, with some additions, a reprint of the article <c Cranioscopy " be- 

 longing to the former edition. In the original article he had expressed his 

 strong dissent from the conclusions of the phrenologists, and this had given 

 rise to answers on their part, particularly by Mr. George Combe, in " Essays 

 on Phrenology," Edinb. 1819, and by Dr. Andrew Combe in the 'Phreno- 

 logical Journal.' To these criticisms, which were at least a tribute to the 

 ability with which he had argued his case, Dr. Roget took this opportunity 

 to reply. The article "Physiology" was an entirely new and comprehen- 

 sive treatise, describing the various functions of the animal economy. That 

 which he had before written under the same title was confined to the phi- 

 losophical department of the subject, containing an analytical investigation 



