William Elford Leach, an English naturalist, born in Plymouth in, 1790, died at San Se-bastiano, Piedmont, Aug. 25, 1836. As a boy he loved to make collections of natural objects, and in 1809 he became a student at St. Bartholomew's hospital in London, then under the care of Dr. Abernethy. Before the completion of his medical studies he became known as an ardent student in zoology; and from Edinburgh he was called to London to fill the post of curator of the natural history department of the British museum. Here he found time to prepare papers for publication in the " Transactions " of the chief scientific societies in Europe and America. One of the first and most important of these was that on " Crus-taceology " (1813), wherein he advocated the separation of the myriopoda, arachnida, and insecta from the Crustacea, which are all grouped by Linnaeus under insecta. His other most important works were the " Zoological Miscellany," a serial commenced in 1814 and completed in 1817, in 3 vols., and the first division of the " History of the British Crustacea," of which 17 parts appeared. His severe labors finally so affected his eyesight and his general health that he was obliged to resign his curatorship, and to abandon to a great extent the pursuit of his favorite studies.

In 1826 he visited southern Europe, where he made valuable collections of insects, which are preserved in the Plymouth institution and by the Devon and Cornwall natural history society. He died of cholera. His love of animals was excessive, and he had a peculiar faculty for subduing the most ferocious kinds. One of the most faithful and attached companions of his walks was a wolf which he had tamed.