PREFACE 
IX 
relations with him of any kind—a man so loving 
and so beloved! His loss to science too—quietly 
progressive and evolutionary as he was in his views 
—even before the days of Darwin, who can 
estimate ? 
The putting together of the pages that follow 
has been truly a work of love to me, although not 
without a feeling of deep regret that something 
much more worthy of the subject had not been 
undertaken by one or other of his devoted Aber¬ 
deen friends, who had seen so much of him during 
the last eleven years of his life—several of whom 
could have done it much better than I have been 
able to do. All or almost all of these friends have 
since his death followed him into the eternal 
silence, and he who now holds this pen has reached 
an age which brings the time near when he also 
will have joined that company. 
I feel it a pleasant duty to express my grateful 
thanks to those friends who have encouraged and 
assisted me in putting together this short memorial 
tribute to my distinguished namesake; and the 
first of them all to whom I am most indebted is 
Professor J. Arthur Thomson, who now holds, with 
so much distinction, the position in Aberdeen 
University which MacGillivray occupied in his day. 
His contribution of Chapter VI. of this book— 
“MacGillivray s Scientific Work—an Appreciation” 
—is a complete and admirable summary of all that 
MacGillivray was and accomplished as a scientist: 
and it was on reading it when he sent it to me, 
