28 
OBITUARY. 
Latterly we have all known him well as a member of our Council 
and Editor of our Journal. He was elected a Fellow in 1868, and 
became Editor of the ‘Monthly Microscopical Journal ’ when it was 
first established in 1869. 
He continued to perform the editorial duties until his death, on 
the 4th of October, 1877, in his thirty-seventh year, and his removal 
from us has led to the entire discontinuance of that 'Journal, and to 
the resolution of the Council to publish our own ‘ Transactions.’ 
James Scott Bowerbank, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., was born in Sun 
Street, Bishopsgate, Loudon, on the 14th July, 1797, and received 
his early education from the then celebrated Dr. Kelly, of Finsbury 
Square, London. 
About the age of fifteen he entered his father’s distillery, where in 
subsequent years, and in conjunction with his late brother Edward, 
the business was carried on under the name of Bowerbank and Sons. 
At this early period his scientific tastes began to develop, leading 
him to the study of astronomy, chemistry, botany, geology, anatomy, 
and physiology, which occupied every available moment of his time 
not devoted to business, which he pursued with ardour, but made it 
available whenever possible for his scientific studies. 
About the year 1820 he joined the old Mathematical Society 
meeting in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, where he attended the lectures 
of a Mr. Wilson, a name famous at that time. In this Society he was 
subsequently appreciated as a lecturer on geology, botany, anatomy, 
and physiology, and his diagrams and botanical models were used at 
one of the metropolitan hospitals for some years in their lectures. 
As a member of the London Clay Club he investigated the 
fossil fruits and seeds from the Isle of Sheppey, and in 1840 began 
their history ; but this publication was not continued. 180,000 
fruits and seeds are now in the British Museum as a result of his 
industry in collecting. Out of this gathering of earnest workers came 
the “ Palceontographical Society"' in 1847 — a Society which has done 
so much to make known the richness of the fossils of our own country, 
having figured 22,754 specimens, and described 4444 species in 30 
volumes. 
For many years Dr. Bowerbank was its Hon. Sec. ; for ten years, 
and at the time of his death, its President. 
Entomology was a favourite study of his in early days. He wrote 
a valuable paper in the Entomological Magazine, 1833, on “ the 
Structure of Scales on the Wings of Lepidopterous Insects.” He had 
also observed the circulation of the blood in the larvae of Ephemera 
marginata, and many other matters too numerous to mention here. 
The microscope was his especial delight and study, and by its use 
his investigations into the structure and habit of sponges, both recent 
and fossil, have been greatly facilitated, and brought to a state of 
comparative completeness. 
Bowerbank was one of the originators of the Eoyal Microscopical 
Society^ and had filled the office of President. He was also a contributor 
to its ‘ Transactions,’ and in the Journal for June 1st, 1870, may be 
