Amongst  others  I  remember  the  cydippe  and  the  beroe.  He
discovered  that  little  was  known  about  these  creatures,  and
even  while  still  quite  a  youth  he  identified  several  new
specimens,  one  of  which  I  recollect  he  called  after  Mr.  Patter-
son, Thaumantias  Pattersoni.    These  tastes  at  once  brought  him

44


Social  Life  in  Dublin

to  the  favourable  notice  of  my  father,  and  this  fact,  added  to
the  kinship  already  mentioned,  made  him  a  very  intimate  friend
of  our  family.  Eventually  he  became  assistant  secretary  to  the
Zoological  Society,  and  he  managed  to  push  himself  through
Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Before  he  was  of  age,  there  was  a
vacancy  in  the  Professorship  of  Biology  at  Queen's  College,
Cork.  To  the  astonishment  of  everyone,  he  was  appointed  to
this  important  post.  He  brought  out  two  books  on  the
"Protozoa"  and  "Coelenterata."  With  reference  to  the  latter
work,  he  used  to  say  with  delight  that  he  had  predicted  the
existence  of  a  certain  type  of  star-fish,  wTiich  was  afterwards
actually  discovered.  He  had  an  extraordinary  memory  and
a  wonderful  power  of  reading  up  a  subject.  He  had  made
no  special  study  of  botany  before  he  was  appointed  to  be  pro-
fessor at  Cork,  yet  botany  was  one  of  the  subjects  on  which  he
was  to  lecture  !  So  he  therefore  began  to  read  it  up,  and
studied  with  such  effect — at  all  events  so  far  as  book  knowledge
is  concerned — that  he  was  able  to  perform  feats  that  I  dare  say
few  expert  botanists  would  be  able  to  accomplish.  After  twenty
years  he  retired  on  a  pension,  and  lived  for  another  twenty  years
the  life  of  a  recluse  near  London.  He  still  read  enormously  in
very  miscellaneous  directions.  In  later  years  his  knowledge  of
Dante  was  at  least  equal  to  the  knowledge  of  Bentham's
"British  Flora,"  which  he  possessed  in  earlier  days.
