Memoir of W. H. Harvey, M.D., F.R.S. (Bell and Daldy.)—No
one will feel disposed to find any fault with the resolve which has given this memoir, intended originally for private friends of the deceased, to the public. It may seem, perhaps, over-long for those days of many books, yet we can easily believe that the editor found it difficult and even pain- ful to reduce it to its present proportions, and that to many readers it will seem too brief. Dr. Harvey, who was for many years connected either as Botanical Curator or as Professor with the University of Dublin, was, indeed, a man of singularly attractive character, the charm of which makes itself felt in this volume in a most uncommon way. The editor puts in nothing of his own beyond what is absolutely needed to connect the story together, but lets his subject speak for himself. He could not have done better, for Dr. Harvey was one of the few men who can describe themselves without a particle of vanity or self-consciousness. The letters, which make up nine-tenths of the volume, are beautifully simple and fresh, letters which no one can read without loving the writer. He was enthusiastically devoted to his science, but he had many interests beyond it. The religions side of his life, for instance, was of no common character. Born a Quaker, he attached himself in after life to the Church of England, and he passed through the change without any narrowing of his sympathies. A genial, single-hearted man, with no small share of shrewdness and humour, who saw a great deal of the world, for his travels were very extensive, and who had a gift of graphically describing what he saw, he has left behind him, apart from whatever scientific work he did, a memorial of himself which tho world is distinctly the richer for possessing.
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