165 
In January 1753 he went for a few months to Paris, in order 
still further to advance his professional studies. Extracts from 
letters to his family were read, giving vivid and interesting descrip- 
tions of men and manners, and especially of his various teachers ; 
of the insolence of the Parisian Perruquiers, and how they obstructed 
the other students ; and of the cost and worthlessness of the Rheims 
degrees of M.D., the possession of which was concealed by the owner 
like the commission of a crime. 
Dr Skene returned to Aberdeen in the summer of 1753, and on 
8th September of that year received the degree of M.D. from King’s 
College and University ; and settled permanently as assistant to his 
father in Aberdeen. 
From 1753 to 1765, he carried on his researches in Natural 
History without aid, except from such books as then existed.* No 
trace of scientific correspondence has been discovered, until his first 
letter to Mr Ellis, the well-known writer on corallines, in 1765. 
From that time to his death he kept up a close correspondence and 
interchange of specimens with Mr Ellis — discussing particularly, at 
great length, the whole question of the nature of zoophytes, sponges, 
and corallines ; the correspondence throwing much light on the state 
of natural science at the time. 
In the same year Skene commenced a correspondence with Lin- 
nseus ; and the original letters of Linnseus were laid on the table, 
with the scroll-letters of Skene. Skene wrote good Latin and 
frankly controverted the opinions of the illustrious Swede on the 
nature of zoophytes, — maintaining them to be animals, — the con- 
structors of their dwellings, and in opposition to the theory that the 
dwellings constructed the animals. 
During their correspondence, the twelfth edition of the Sy sterna 
Natures was in the press, and Skene is repeatedly given as authority 
by Linnseus. It is evident that he was much pleased with his only 
Scottish correspondent— “ Ubi preeter te nullum curiosum novi.” 
In 1769, Skene began to correspond with Pennant ; and a regular 
correspondence was maintained during the rest of his life. He is 
frequently quoted in the Fauna, prefixed to Lightfoot’s Flora Scotica. 
Several proposals were made to make Skene a professor in Aber- 
deen, and Glasgow, and Edinburgh, but he showed no great desire 
* The only instructions he had on any branch were during a few weeks’ 
attendance on Dr Alston’s Lectures, in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 
VOL. IV. y 
