OBITUARY. 
29 
found his account of the early improvements made in the microscope 
in 1828 by Tully, and afterwards by Boss, Powell and Lealand, Smith, 
and Beck ; also on the methods of mounting objects by the use of 
Canada balsam. 
Indeed, so many eminent men came at this time to his house in 
order to examine their specimens by his instrument, that he was com- 
pelled to fix one night in the week for their reception, and thus origi- 
nated the celebrated “ Monday Night Meetings” where so many eminent 
men used to assemble, and always received a kindly greeting and 
welcome, whether in the New North Road, Park Street, Islington, or 
in his capacious museum at Highbury Grove. 
A Fellow of the Geological Society as early as 1838, he wrote a 
paper in the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History ’ on “ Organic 
Remains in the Flint of Chalk,” and in ‘ Trans. Geol. Soc. ’ vol. vi. 
1841, on “Siliceous Bodies of the Chalk, Greensand, and Oolites.” 
He also formed a large collection of fossils, very many of which 
now enrich the national and other collections. 
Dr. Bowerbank was one of the originators of the Zoological 
Society, and for many years a member of its Council. 
In his museum at Highbury Grove the first idea of an aquarium 
was started. A small glass jar was used to keep Ohara translucens 
for microscopical purposes, to which were afterwards added some fish 
and animalcules, until at length the idea was worked out by Mr. N. 
Ward, Mr. Warrington, Mr. M. Marshall, and others, and brought 
to its present state of development. 
As a Felloiv of the Royal Society he in 1857 contributed several 
papers on the “ Anatomy and Physiology of the Spongiadm ; ” but as 
a member of the Ray Society, which, with the late Dr. Johnston, he 
assisted in founding, and of which he was for many years Treasurer, 
he will be best known and remembered for his “ Monograph of the 
British Spongiadoe.” 
It was in the year 1841 when occurred a fortunate opportunity 
which gave a bias to his future studies of the sponge, and then first 
began his really great work. 
At Brighton a storm had thrown upon the beach vast quantities 
of seaweed and sponge as far as .the eye could reach. Although dead, 
they were filled with the soft matter of the sponge. He selected the 
most promising specimens, placing them in glass jars filled up with 
strong spirit, and had them immediately conveyed to London for 
systematic examination, and from these he derived more information 
than from many times their number of dry specimens. 
Having agents on many parts of the coast collecting fossils, he 
now also employed them in collecting sponges. 
Friends in different parts of the world made consignments which 
were of the utmost value to him in his investigations. His general 
instructions were, “ Only remove as much of the watery matter as 
will prevent the sponges from rotting on the voyage ; but do not 
send me clean specimens, as if intended for the bath.” 
The accumulations of years, numbering very many hundreds, are 
now in the British Museum. 
