THE LATE MR. JONATHAN COUCH, F.LS.
&c., OF POLPERRO.

One of the most eminent naturalists of the present
century bas recently passed from amongst us. The
name of Jonathan Couch, of Polperro, is well known
wherever natural history ia cultivated, and-especially
where ichythology is studied.

Endowed with a large amount of learning and varied
attainments he used them for the advancement of
science. Secluded in his native village, he was well
known by his writings to the learned throughout
Europe.

He was born at Polperro, a fishing village on the
south coast of this county, in 1788, and educated at the
Grammar School, at Bodmin, where he remained for
seven years.   He acquired considerable classical know-
ledge, and all through life could read Latin with ease.

He then became a medical pupil, and went to the
united hospitals of St. Thomas and Guys, where he
manifested more than ordinary ability in his professional
studies, and is marked in the ‘'Medical Register” as in 
practice before 1815.

His parents being in easy circumstances induced him
to settle down in the place of bis birth, where be re-
mained during the rest of his life, and thus had oppor-
tunities for those habits of investigation and observa-
tion, which became the basis of a long and honourable
scientific career.

He edited the annotated translation of “ Pliny'’s
Natural History," published by the Werner club; and
also sent an occasional article to the Imperial Magazine,
of which his old friend, Mr. Samuel Drew, became the
editor.

He also became a member of the Royal Institution of
Cornwall, and of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic So-
ciety, and on the 16th March, 1824, was elected a Fel-
low of the Linnaean Society.

When Bewick proposed to bring out and illustrate the
‘Natural History of British Fishes,’ he secured Mr.
Couch to furnish materials for the literary portion of
the work; and they continued to be on terms of the
closest intimacy till Mr. Bewick’s death, in 1828.

Seven yours afterwards, Mr. Yarrell began his great
work, entitled “ The History of British Fishes,” in which
Mr. Couch took so large a share, and had it not been for
his aid, it is doubtful if the work could have been pro-
duced at that time.

In the midst of his professional and self-imposed
studies, Mr. Couch found time to cultivate other
branches of learning. He became a proficient in the
Hebrew language, could read the ancient Syraic, and
was well versed in the French and several other modern
languages, in order that he might judge for himself
what ancient and foreign writers had said on the sub-
jects of his research.

In 1843, be published parts i. and ii. of “ ‘The Cornish
Fauna,” which is a rich addition to county lore; and in
1847 published his work on “The Illustrations of In-
stinct,” which is one of the most instructive of its class
and time. It was, in fact, to natural history and anti-
-quities, and occasionally to geological science, that he
devoted the greater part of his leisure. His papers on
these subjects, of which the catalogue of the Royal
Society enumerates 56,and a very large number have
escaped their notice, were contributed to the scientific
publications of the day, or to the learned societies to
which he belonged.   His last work, “The History of
the Fishes of the British Isles,” published from 1860 to
1865, and for which he had made observations during
the greater portion of his life, contains more than 250
plates from his own drawing and colouring, and is at
once his masterpiece, and greatest contribution to
natural history.

Within the last few years Mr. Couch contributed many
articles to the Intellectual Observer, and so late as last
month sent a paper to the Zoological Society, of which
he was elected a corresponding member in 1866, de-
scribing a new species of “ Aplysia,” or sea-hare, ob-
served at Polperro, and which he proposed to call
A. melanopus.

Mr. Couch was not less instructive in his practical
recommendations of fishing than on the instincts of fish.
More than a quarter of a century ago, when legislation
was thought to be necessary for the better regulation of
fishing, he held an important correspondence with the
Earl of St. Germans, and did not forget the claims of
the fishermen.   The proposed bill was then dropped, and
when within the last few years the subject was brought
before Parliament again, Mr.Couch was the means of
getting a very important clause inserted, viz.: that the
seine boats should be allowed to fish from sun-rise to
sun-set, and the drift boats from sun-set to sun-rise.

At the International Pisicultural Exposition, held at
Havre, in 1848, Mr.Couch was awarded a gold medal
for a paper on “‘ The economic uses of fisheries.”

After Her Majesty's visit to Cornwall, in 1846, Dr.
Couch, and his late accomplished son,   Mr. Richard
Quiller Couch, of Penzance,  had each the honour to be
presented by the Queen with a copy of the Natural His-
tory of Deeside, a work privately printed for Her Ma-
jesty, doubtless as a token of Her Majesty’s approval of
their acquirements.   We believe only one other copy
was sent into Cornwall, viz., to the Royal Institution.

As a scientific enquirer, nothing could exceed his care
in forming an exact and truthful account of whatever he
took in hand, and the world is indebted to him for many
new discoveries in Natural History.

His skill in dissecting the various specimens of rare
fish, noting the circumstances under which they were
captured, and, with pallet in hand, making coloured
drawings of the object of his enquiry, even before it had
ceased to live, thus securing a perfect representation,
has made his work on Fish to be universally valued ;
and it has been pronounced by M. Milne Edwards, of
the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, to be the most valu-
able work of its kind.

He lost no opportunity of adding to his own personal
information, which was, in fact, adding to the intelli-
gence and instruction of the world.

It was the simplicity of his character, and the
honesty of his convictions, which gave such an air of
truth to all he wrote.   He had no theories to build up,
no fixed opinions to uphold, and his highest pleasure
was to be a learner and a student.   He was a patient
worker ;  a builder up of facts of science rather than a
great thinker or originator.   His papers were always
welcomed by the learned, though they might not in-
variably be exhaustive treatises on every subject he
took in hand.

He lived in perfect quietude in his native village ;   to
the inhabitants of which, it may be truly said, he was
their doctor, guide, philosopher, and friend, such as few
places are blessed with, and must take many years to
replace.   He was full of years, yet with a mind go clear
and vigorous, his loss will be severely felt.

Alone, in the seclusion of a country village, unin-
fluenced by the crowds that cheer men on to great exer-
tions, self-reliant, and full of inward energy, he never
flagged in his onward career till death put an end to his
loving toils on Wednesday, April 13, 1870, in the 83rd
year of his age,