Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8Walker, William
History
Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8
Walker, William
Scientists -- Great Britain -- Biography
Of Mr. Brown's later publications the most important are, his
'Botanical Appendix to Captain Burt's Expedition into Central
Australia,' published in 1849; and his Memoir 'On Triplosporite, an
undescribed Fossil Fruit,' published in the Linnean Transactions for
1851. The pervading and distinguishing character of all these writings,
is to be found in the combination of the minutest accuracy of detail
with the most comprehensive generalization; and no theory is propounded
which does not rest for its foundation on the most circumspect
investigation of all attainable facts. Among the most important
anatomical and physiological subjects of which they treat, particular
mention is due to the discovery of the nucleus of the vegetable cell,
the development of the stamina, together with the mode of fecundation
in Asclepiadeæ and Orchideæ; the development of the pollen and of the
ovulum in Phœnogamous plants, and the bearing of these facts upon the
general subject of impregnation; also the origin and development of
the spores of mosses; and the discovery of the peculiar motions which
take place in the "active molecules" of matter when seen suspended in
a fluid under the microscope. Of structural investigations, the most
important are those which establish the relation of the flower to
the axis from which it is derived, and of the parts of a flower to
each other, as regards both position and number; the analogy between
stamina and pistilla; the neuration of the corolla of compositœ,
their œstivation and inflorescence; and the structure of the stems of
cycadeœ, both recent and fossil.
Mr. Brown was also strongly attached to the study of fossil botany,
and, with a view to its prosecution, he formed an extensive and
valuable collection of fossil woods, which he has bequeathed, under
certain conditions, to the British Museum.
After the death of Sir Joseph Banks, who bequeathed to him his house
in Soho Square, Mr. Brown continued to occupy that portion of it which
opened upon Dean Street; and it was in the library of that illustrious
man, the scene of his labours for sixty years, surrounded by his books
and by his collections, that Robert Brown breathed his last, on the
10th of June, 1859, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.--_Memoir
by John J. Bennett, F.R.S._, read at the Anniversary Meeting of the
Linnean Society, May, 1859.
SIR M. ISAMBARD BRUNEL, V.P.R.S., &c.
Born April 25, 1769. Died December 12, 1849.
This celebrated engineer was born at Haqueville, in Normandy, where his
family had for several centuries held an honourable position, numbering
among its members the eminent French painter Nicholas Poussin.
Brunel was educated at the seminary at Rouen, with the intention of
his entering holy orders, but he displayed so decided a taste for
mathematics and mechanics,[6] that by the advice of the superior of the
establishment he was removed to follow a more congenial career.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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