56 
obituary. 
GEOLOGY. 
Analysis of a Mineral Substance from a Calcareous Rock near 
Ghasni, in India. —This mineral is a clammy, semi-transparent mass, of a 
brown colour, containing fragments of flint, and particles of a deep brown or black 
hue. The smell is slightly nauseous, the taste acrid. It dissolves with difflculty 
in water. Calcareous fragments, and a coarse black powder, resembling half 
decomposed excrements of birds, remain on the filtre. This singular substance is 
supposed to be the product of the sojourn of some kind of bird in a calcareous 
cavern communicating^with the fissure whence it was obtained; the decomposi¬ 
tion of the excrements of these birds undoubtedly forming the nitrates of soda and 
lime which it contained. 
OBITUARYL 
John Latham, M. D., F. R. S., F. L. S., F. A. S., celebrated over the whole 
civilized world for his ornithological works, expired Feb. 4, 1837, at the very, 
advanced age of 97. He was born, June 27, 1740, at Eltham, in Kent, and 
was the son of John Latham, a surgeon and apothecary of that place. The 
degree of M.D. was, unsolicited, conferred upon him by a foreign university, in 
1795. In 1796 he retired from his professional duties with a handsome fortune, 
his fame as a medical man having been very considerable. He had enjoyed a 
leisure of upwards of 20 years in affluence, when a series of calamities left him 
almost destitute at the age of eighty; at this time he retired with his second 
wife to the house of his son-in-law, W. N. Wickham, Esq., at Winchester, 
where he remained till his death. In his eighty-second year this indefatigable 
man commenced his General History of Birds (his other works being the Gen. 
Sj/n, and loid. Orn.j, 10 vols. 4to., in the hopes of deriving pecuniary ad¬ 
vantage from its publication. In 1835 he, for the first time, began to feel the 
failure of his sight. Infirmities gradually increased on him ; but he w^as still 
an active and cheerful man, taking his daily walk alone, and scorning the as¬ 
sistance of an arm. Four days before his death he exhibited unusual vivacity; 
this was followed by a failure of understanding, and he fell into a deep sleep, 
in which he expired without a pang. Dr. Latham was the founder of the 
Linnaean Society; and although only known to the world as an ornithologist, 
was greatly attached to antiquarian pursuits.—An interesting memoir of this 
amiable and excellent man will be published in The Analyst^ No.xx., for July, 
1837, to \^hich we beg to refer our readers for further particulars. 
