44 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[February 



Physiology , and in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, a series 

 of contributions dealing with cranial nerves, which were of value at the 

 time, and formed the basis of other work in the same direction. The 

 result of these investigations was the completion of his great work, 

 "Vertebrate Embryology," which has only recently been published. 



Amongst his many papers may be mentioned the report on the 

 Pennatulida, the opportunity for the study of which was afforded through 

 the dredging operations conducted by the Birmingham Natural History 

 Society, off Oban, during the year 1881. The report appeared in the 

 Midla?id Naturalist for the year 1882, Vol. v., under the joint authorship 

 of himself and his father, and for which the Society awarded them the 

 Darwin Medal. He also assisted in preparing the reports on the 

 Pennatulida dredged during the Porcupine and Triton expeditions, and 

 in these he very carefully worked out the distinguishing characteristics 

 marking the various forms of zooids, &fc. 



The results of a short vacation spent in the Biological Laboratory at 

 Naples are given in his paper on the " Nervous System of the Antedon," 

 not to mention numerous papers read before the learned societies. He 

 was President of the Manchester Microscopical Society, a position to 

 which he had been elected successively for some years, and his addresses 

 were replete with instruction and interesting facts. For his last address to 

 the Society, delivered early in the month of February, 1893, he selected 

 the subject " Death," in the Protozoa, Metozoa, &c, dealing very 

 forcibly with the theories started by Weissman, Gotte, and Maupas. 



His experience as a teacher, the success he attained in bringing home 

 to the mind of the student, by simple means, the most difficult problems, 

 the power of a clear exposition of complicated details, and his concise- 

 ness, signalled him out as a competent writer of text books for students, 

 his work on the Frog and his " Practical Zoology " having passed 

 through several editions. 



His genial and urbane manner towards those who were brought into 

 contact with him at once removed any feeling of diffidence, and his 

 kindly disposition made him a cheerful companion ; while the stimulating 

 influence he brought to bear on those who worked under him, and the 

 enthusiasm he infused into them, cause his loss to be the more regretted. 

 He was in 1885 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was promoted 

 to the Council for the year 189 1-2. — S. 



DR. GEORGE GORDON. 



At the advanced age of ninety-two, Scotland has lost one of its most 

 enthusiastic supporters of Natural History, in the death of Dr. George 

 Gordon, who, after labouring over three-quarters of a century in the 

 cause of his science, died on the 12th December last. 



