DEATH OF A GREAT NATURALIST.

Evening Star, Issue 10932, 15 May 1899, Page 2

DEATH OF A GREAT NATURALIST.

Press Association—By i'elefcrapb— Copyright • r;- : ] ■■ ■; yMELSoIrftNE, May 15. The death ,is announced of Sir Frederick M'Coy, Professor' of Natural Science at the university of Melboiime.

[Pressor ui t Frtderiok M'Ooy, K.OMG, 1V1.A., IXto {, an ab ). F.R..5., son of Dr Simon M Coy, MD.,.was bom in Diibiin in 1823,-and eduoat; d original y for thn urt-dical profession, *ttei:ding lectures, hospital praotioe, etc., in Dublin.and Cambridge. While yet too youne to be admitted to : the profession, he devoted hum* fei.tir.dy to the study of various branches of naiural soience, classifying the co'.leotionß of tho Geographical and Kojal Societies of Dublin, ~wi:h the object of applying recent zoology to paleontology as the baeiß of stratigraphical geology. He then accepted the offer of Sir Richard Griffith to make the paljconto.oglcal investigations required for the geological map of Ireland for the boundary survey, publishing the results in a large quarto vo.um.j hi 13*4 with numerous plates of several hundud utw h j, jdit-s, entitled 'Synopsis of the Carbounr.ms 1,:,m-,toim Kcstilß of Ireland ' and a MtiUe-, „,.,. ;:, 1316. 'Sjnopsisof the Mluru.i 1. s in ~f i..- ;,.„! • lit- was then invi ed n C..mi i•ir M. ■!> .7..mis. P.E, and ■' '■'"'■'' ,v l,v t j ■', tho Impf-rial ..01.g.cl Mirvj .f .jv.a...|.' . . was ap-i.n,t-,j by ir ob rt i.. T- «... v , in.nt one of tho far-t pivtexors of the Que.-ifs University in .. .r" V l !* clmil ' of gc " l ' B> v,,u ' l mineral.gy at l.clfast being a signc ito him. About th's tune ho undertook, m conjunction wi hj 1 rofessor -e.lgwick. a large wurk on rocks •an I fossils, ba3 d on tlw m;vto:i,irs in the Wood war ian collection at •am ti.ige, and mado a critioal exanii.ati.rn t.f tho great jenes of fooyils of tho older formations brought together by Profe sor k, ti. rennts-of »h«8 laboißb<jj ; g d, era d worthy of publication by the syi.de. of the University I r. ss of Cambridge in a larg*. quarto volume, with numerous plates of new discoveries in th>ca'bonjferou'., Devonian, silurian, and CambreanfoimationH, issu d in 1852 as the sec u d volume of a proposed, joint work (of which the hrst volume, to hav. been on the rocks by lVof MorNcdgwloV, was never p'.Minhe-.l) entitled liriti-h I'a xz 10 Huuh* «,i, K sails,' b Professor .Se Lw c< ami f -of—or 41* oy. He was thin ..pn.ii.tet ..y. -u-"J.-Horßchel and thKoyal (ir (J.. B Mrv) as tlie professor of rta'.ural tcience in the I niversity. of Melbourne, where, having t*kenp»rtiu t.,e formation'of tho university he lwetured on chemistry. / and mineralogy, b > any, comparative anatomy and zoology, and «e.il. g and pa re .utology for upwards of thirtj j oar.. He al.o established the National Mu-tum of Natura,! History and Geology in Melbourne, of which he was director, raising it t.) a d'Stingubhe.l position, by tho extent of the collections and tho "perfection of the olas ifioatioo; Ho was ohairraan of the first royal Commission on the Goldfields of Victoria, a member from the fitat <f the Royal Commission on 1 echnical instruction, a member of the Royal <'ommission on »ducation, and of the various, Hoyal Commissions for In ernational and utercolonial Exhibition-i of Viotoria. Uc was appointed Govcn.metit Palreoutokgist at the early s nge of the geological survey, detctminti.g the ages of the various traots d-pictul on the maps. For over thirty years he had prepared, and continued to publish in decades, at short intervals, two woika for tho Government of Victoria - one entitled 'Prodmmu. of the Zoology of Victoria' (with colored fLrnrrs from the life) and another lrodromus of the Palaeontology of Victoiia ' He was eleoted a Fellow of the' Koval Society of London m 1880, created, one of the first Doctors ot .Scif ape (honoris causd) by the University of Cambridge, and the.. Royal University of Ireland alßo conferred .on him their highest degrees in arts and sciences. He was created Y a knight or chevalier of the Royal Order of the Crown of Italy by King Victor Fmanuel, and has been? offered similar distinctions by other foreign sovereigns in reooKnition of hir Bdentlfle work, arid in 1886 received the decoration of O.ai.G. from Her Majesty, bemg promoted to be K.O.M.G. in 1891 He also reoeiTed the Emperor of Austria's great gold medal for arts and sciences, the Murchison medal from the Geological feociety of London, and other similar distinctions. He was elected one of the few (only thirty British subjects being eligible) honorary members of the (.'ambridge Philosophical ■ ooiety. He ha* published about a hundred memoirs on every branch of xoologv and pa asontology in the 'Annah of Natural History' and other periodicals. Menneb's ' Australasian Biography.']