15 
Andrews and the Red Head, were first geologically described by 
Fleming. 
Gradually, however, his attention during the hours he could spare 
from his professional duties became concentrated in the study of 
animals; and the results appeared in 1822 in his C£ Philosophy of 
Zoology,” a laborious and still most serviceable work, which instantly 
obtained for him a high reputation as a philosophical naturalist. 
This was followed by another work of equal labour. “ On British 
Animals,” in which he exhibited their descriptive characters. Fle- 
ming also contributed to the Encyclopaedia. Britannica some important 
papers on sections of the Animal Kingdom, particularly one on the 
Mollusca. 
Throughout these and all his other labours as a man of science, 
our departed associate never ceased to sustain his earnest and con- 
scientious character as a minister of the Gospel. It is stated of him 
that, on being translated in 1832, from comparatively light duty at 
Flisk to the parish of Clackmannan, where he had pastoral charge 
of a populous flock, he deliberately locked up his cabinets, until 
familiarity with his duties should enable him to open them at a more 
convenient season. 
In 1834 he was relieved altogether from his labours as a minis- 
ter of the Word, by accepting the chair of Natural Philosophy in 
King’s College, Aberdeen. It is to be regretted that a more con- 
genial position in a University did not at this time open to him ; 
for, in a chair of Natural History, he could not have failed to confer 
lustre both upon himself and upon his University ; whereas, in a 
chair of Physics, entered on not till the 45th year of his age, he 
never could have risen beyond the level of a diligent teacher. At 
length a more suitable position was attained by him in 1845, when 
he undertook the Professorship of Natural Science, in the Free Church 
College of Edinburgh. Here his object more especially was to give 
the future pastors of the Free Church a general acquaintance with 
Natural Science, so as to prepare them in some measure for the dis- 
cussion of the various questions on which it is now so frequently 
brought in contact with religion. It is generally acknowledged, 
that in this field of exertion, Dr Fleming proved of the greatest 
utility to the communion of which he was the ornament. He had 
that object always much at heart, and when assured that his chair 
