OBITUARY NOTICE OF THE
Dr. Kidd, at Oxford, lie studied geology and other branches of science with great ardour ;
but the chief department of natural sciencc to -svhicli his attention was directed was
Entomology, in which branch, I may be permitted, without fear of contradiction, to say,
he was the most highly qualified of his day. I state this upon no less an authority than
that of the late Rev. W. Kirby, F.R.S., who gave to me personally this character of my
friend. I could state many circumstances in proof of this assertion, but I will content
myself with recording one which occurred to me at a time when I was paying much attention
to the processes of embalming adopted by the ancient Egyptians. In the examination
of one of the mummies—that of which I have given a representation and particular description
in my work on this subject, published in 1834—1 met with a quantity of cUhris that
had simply the appearance of so much dirt mixed up with minute fragments of wings,
legs, and other most diminutive parts of insects. I placed this mass before him in the
presence, I recollect, also of our distinguished associate and vice-president, Sir J. Gardner
Wilkinson, F.R.S.; and Mr. Hope immediately, without being apprized whence it had been
obtained, pronounced the mass to be composed of insects whose natural food was animal
matter, which he deduced from the apparent structure of the mandibles, and the formation
of the limbs. It was, in fact, the remains of insects which had been feeding upon the
ancient Egyptian during his embalmment, and whose labours, together with their existence,
had been brought to an end by the heat and medicaments employed in the conservation of
the form of a human mummy. What Baron Cuvier and Professor Owen have been able to
accomplish in the building up of a mammal, or a bird, or other animal fl-om a single bone,
Mr. Hope could do with a portion of wing, or limb or wing-case of an insect. I always
derived much assistance from his vast entomological knowledge, on the occasion alluded
to as well as in other objects of pursuit; and in examining some heads brought for me from
Egyi^t by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, we found contained within the skull of one, a number of
insects in various stages of tlieir existence, that had most probably first drawn their vitality
within the head, where the ova had been, during the process of embalming, deposited, and
the whole being afterwards bandaged up and all exit closed, there they were born, passed
the short period of their life, exhibited themselves in different states of their progress, and
became ultimately embalmed within the skull, which formed for them the cradle of their
birth and the tomb for their dead remains. Mr. Hope was able to mark all the distinguishing
appearances of these insects; and as although the genera to which they belonged
was known, yet not the precise species, we agreed to name them, from the peculiarity of
their situation and circumstances, Necrohia mumiarum and Dermestes pollinctus. The
present Professor of Zoology at Oxford, J. 0. Westwood, Esq., made a drawing of these in
their natural and magnified forms, their larva, ova, etc., which I now lay before you, and
which I had engraved in the worii before alluded to, and I offer it as an evidence of Mr.
Hope's intimate acquaintance with entomology.
It is not remarkable that Mr. Hope should have been eariy admitted into the fellowship
of the Linneean Society and many other societies abroad established for the promotion
BEV. FREDERICK WILLIAM HOPE.
of natural history. These connexions led him to a very extensive correspondence with
eminent professors and other distinguished persons ; and being hajipily endowed with ample
means to indulge in-any pursuit of which he might make choice, he readily obtained from,
I may say, almost every part of the world, specimens which led him to form a cabinet which
Avas the envy of many, and the delight of all. I well recollect this lich collection as deposited
in Seymour Street, and witnessed with wonder the variety and splendour of this
department of animated nature. In this museum were to be found assembled and associated
naturalists not only of this but of many foreign countries, and conversazioni held of
the most interesting character. This rich museum is now, by the liberality of Mr. Plope,
deposited at Oxford. It was given to the University in 1849 ; and upon occasion of laying
of the first stone of the New University Museum, in 1855, Mr. Hope was justly distinguished
by having conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L. To this collection he may
be said to have continued to make additions up to the time of his decease, although the
latter years of his life were passed under sufferings of ill health of a very severe description.
But his mind was of too vast a character to limit his researches to one department ; he
made collections in all the branches of natural history, and he i)urchased large and entire
collections, among which may be mentioned Mr. Hubbard's, of Orkney birds ; Professor
Bell's, of reptiles and crustacea; Mr. Westwood's, of insects, books, and drawings ; and
Mr. Wollaston's, of the insects of Madeira. These vast accessions have all been added to
his munificent gift to the University of Oxford, rendering the entire collection unrivalled,
if we except those in the national collections of London, Berlin, and Paris. Mr. Hope was
acutely sensible that, however valuable and desirable such collections must be to the
students of his Alma Mater, yet that their value and importance would be very greatly
diminished unless a professorship should be established specially devoted to their consideration.
Hitherto there existed no chair for the teaching of zoology. With his collections,
therefore, he endowed a professorship of £400' per annum, by which his name will be
handed down to posterity as a great benefactor to his university and his country. The
nomination of the professor was left to Mr. Hope during his life, and as the first occupant
of the chair he nominated Mr. .J. O. Westwood, a name well known to all naturalists, and
one, also, with which archaiologists are in no little degree acquainted. Mr. Hope also
appointed Mr. Westwood the Curator of the Museum.
Mr. Hope was a good scholar, and his Latin compositions were elegant. That his tastes
' [' For this purpose Mr. Hope endowed tlie Professorship of Zoologj' witli the capital sum of £10,000 New 3 per
Cent. Annuities. Mr. Hope died in the early part of 1862, and shortly afterwards his widow, in fulfilment of his
intentions, transferred to the University a seeoml sum of £10,000 iu the same Stock, and assigned one-third of the
ihvidends to the Professor iu augmentation of his stipend. Mrs. Hope assigned another third part of the dividends as
a. stipend for the Keeper of the Hope Collection of Engraved Portraits, and dii-eoted the remainder to be applied in
e(pial portions in keeping up and increasing the two Hope Collections. In Decemher, 1864, Mrs. Hope gave a further
sum of £1066 13s. 4d!., in the same Stock, to augment tlie stipend of the Keeper of the Engravings, for the purpose of
enabling him to employ an Assistant, and to meet expenses incidental to his duties.'—¿-Kiraci from the Oxford Unmrsily
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