136 
DR. T. SPENCER COBBOLD. 
by agricultural selection and treatment. Coarse hair-like 
wool and liorns are both objected to by the careful flock- 
master, who is constantly striving to suppress the tendency 
to reversion to those and other features prominent in wild 
sheep, and even in those which are in a semi-wild state on 
our mountains. I therefore suggest as an answer to the 
question conveyed in this chapter, that organs are produced 
or suppressed, not by an inherent tendency to produce or 
suppress, but solely by a prolonged and increasing necessity 
for such changes, such necessity being caused by modifications 
of environment due to climatic variations, which again are 
caused partly by terrestrial disturbance but mainly by changes 
in the form of our path round the sun. 
The foregoing remarks are intended to refer to Chapters 
VIII., IX., and X., but were intentionally written before read¬ 
ing the two last mentioned, for the reason that I preferred 
thinking out for myself an answer to the first to acting simply 
as an echo, even to Mr. Herbert Spencer. By reading to you 
a few extracts from Chapters IX. and X. you will be well 
able to decide to what extent, in dealing with the question 
propounded in Chapter VIII., I have taken lines of thought 
parallel to those of Mr. Spencer. 
DR. T. SPENCER COBBOLD, F.R.S., F.L.S. 
It is with sincere regret we record that this distinguished 
Naturalist and Helminthologist passed over to the great 
majority on Saturday, the 20th of March last, at the com¬ 
paratively early age of 58. Dr. Cobbold came of an old 
Suffolk family, his father being the Rev. Richard Cobbold, of 
Wortham, in that county, who was possessed of considerable 
literary ability. Dr. Cobbold was born in the year 1828, and 
was educated at the Charterhouse in London. After serving 
a three years’ apprenticeship with Mr. Crosse, an eminent 
surgeon of Norwich, he proceeded, m 1847, to the University 
of Edinburgh, where he matriculated. His early talent was 
soon recognised, even as a student, in dissecting, in the 
preparation of specimens, and also as a draughtsman, and he 
was honoured by Professor John Goodsir with the appoint¬ 
ment of Prosector. Under the influence of this great 
anatomist, and of the genial and accomplished Professor 
Edward Forbes, it was only natural that he should be 
attracted from his profession of medicine to the more 
absorbing study of animal morphology, and he soon after 
received a gold medal from the Medical Faculty for an essay 
