1847.] Biograpkical Memoir, ^c, 18T 



Biographical Memoir of the late William GriffitHj Esq., F. 

 L. S., Assistant Surgeon, Madras Estahlishment. 



The cessation of this Journal for nearly two years has prevented 

 an earlier notice of the subject of the following Memoir. It is not 

 however too late to record a tribute to the private worth and public 

 fame of one, whose connection with this Presidency and service, we 

 have justly reason to be proud of. Genius confers glory not only 

 on its possessor but on all related to him, on his country — his fami- 

 ly — and on the community to which he more especially belongs- 

 Such an interest we feel entitled to claim in the memory of William 

 Griffith, who, unpatronised and unbefriended, zealously devoted him- 

 self to the study of nature and to a laborious course of physical re- 

 search, by which he achieved a reputation in the higher walks of 

 science, more readily appreciated by the philosophers of Europe* 

 than acknowledged (until loo late) by his countrymen in the East. 

 And this too, derived from the first fruits of his exertions only, — cut 

 off at the early age of 34, — before time was allowed him to reap the 

 rich harvest of his many toilsome journeys and patient investigations ! 



William Griffith was born at Ham in Surry sometime in March 

 1810, and entered the service of the East India Company as an As- 

 sistant Surgeon on the Madras Establishment on the 24th September, 

 1832. From his earliest boyhood he evinced a taste for Botany, the 

 pursuit of which was much encouraged in the family of the private 

 Tutor, where with his brothers, he received the first rudiments of his 

 education. When more advanced in years, he was in the habit of tra- 

 versing the country with a wallet at his back, in quest of plants, and 

 always returned with large additions to his herhoj'iiim. His more 

 mature studies were completed at the London University, where he 

 continued to display the same predilection for Natural History and 

 particularly for his favourite branch of it, which he cultivated under 

 the instructions of Robert Brown and Lindley, and obtained the Lin- 

 nsean Gold Medal of the Society of Apothecaries, in the Botanical 

 class of 1830. His first service after his arrival in India, was in 

 medical charge of the military post at Mergui, but he did not long 

 remain under the orders of his own Presidency. In 1835 he was de- 



* He was, "without any solicitation on his part elected a Member of the Imp. 

 Acad, of Bonn; of the Hoy. Acad, of Sciences of Turin; of the Roy. Botanical'So- 

 eiety of Katisbon, &c. 



