The Anatomy of Ants. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart. 123 
encouraged him in his scientific tastes. He was, moreover, the 
youngest of the family, and his elder brothers shared and fostered 
his love of natural history. One of them indeed — Edwin — is said 
to have possessed remarkable ability, and would probably have done 
much in science, had he not unfortunately died early. He was 
for some time lecturer on botany at the London Hospital, and may 
be regarded indeed as the founder of the Microscopical Society. 
In their boyish rambles he appears to have been the botanist of 
the party, while Edward devoted himself to ornithology, and John 
was the entomologist. Accompanied by their sister Eliza, their 
inseparable companion on such excursions, they had many a pleasant 
day along the banks of the Parret, in the rich meadows of Lang- 
port, and among the woods and ruins of Muchelney. Thus they 
gradually filled their father’s house with treasures, recently pre- 
sented by Mr. Edward Quekett to the Somersetshire Archaeological 
Society, and placed in the Museum of Natural History at Taunton. 
In fact, birds and flowers and insects seem to have been to John 
Quekett what games are to many children. He is described as 
“ strangely sedate, careless of his appearance, heedless of conven- 
tionalities, and unattracted by the ordinary amusements of children.” 
Like many other men with similar tastes, he never seemed quite 
young, and never grew old. 
Microscopes in those days were not so common as they have 
happily become ; Quekett is said to have constructed one for him- 
self out of a roasting-jack, a parasol, and some fragments of brass ; 
and with the assistance of this remarkable instrument to have 
given, when still only sixteen, a course of lectures at Langport. 
Soon afterwards he was apprenticed to his brother Edwin, then 
practising as a surgeon in the east of London. He studied at the 
London Hospital, became a licentiate of the Apothecaries’ Company, 
and subsequently a member of the College of Surgeons. In 1840 
he obtained there the Studentship in Human and Comparative 
Anatomy, then recently established. This appointment he held for 
three years, during which time he formed a large collection of 
histological preparations, which were subsequently purchased by the 
College. In 1844 he was nominated Assistant-Conservator of the 
Hunterian Museum, and on the retirement of Professor Owen in 
1856 he was elected his successor, and also Professor of Histology. 
The rest of his life was spent at the College of Surgeons, and he 
died at Pangbourne, after a useful, though quiet and uneventful 
life, on the 20th August, 1861, at the early age of forty-six, 
leaving behind him four sons. 
Professor Quekett’s principal works were the illustrated Cata- 
logue of the Hunterian Museum, to which he devoted five years 
of earnest application ; * Lectures on Histology ; ’ and ‘ Practical 
Treatise on the Use of the Microscope.’ 
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