SHAW, GEORGE, an eminent British naturalist, was born at Bieston in Buckinghamshire, where his father was vicar, on the 16th December 1751. In 1765 he entered Magdalene Hall, Oxford, and in 1772 he took his degree_ of M. A. Although he was ordain ed deacon in 1774, and performed his duties regular ly at two chapels, yet he quitted the clerical profes sion, and went to Edinburgh, where he studied medi cine for three years. Upon his return to Oxford, he was appointed by Dr. Sibthorp, deputy botanical lec turer, and on the death of that gentleman he would have succeeded to the chair, had it not been a law that no person in holy orders could be elected. After taking his degree of bachelor and doctor of medi cine, in 1787 he went to London to practise as a phy sician. On the establishment of the Linnean Soci ety, he was made one of the vice-presidents, and he afterwards contributed various papers to its transac tions.
In 1789, Dr. Shaw began the Naturalist's Miscel lany, a monthly publication, which he Continued to superintend till his death. In the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London, and in 1791 he was appointed deputy-keeper of natural history in the British Museum.
Between the year 1792 and1796, he published the different parts of a work, entitled MuswiLeveriani Ex plieatio .iIngliea et Latina opera et studio Georgii Shaw, 111. D. F. R. S. .ddduntur figurm eleganter seulptie et eolorotx. lmpensis Jacobi Parkinson. He also pub
lished in " the Zoology of New Holland," and a work entitled " Cimelia Physica," "Descriptions of the Quadrupeds, Birds, Stc." of which Miller had pub lished the drawings in 60 large plates.
In the year 1800, Dr. Shaw began his principal work, entitled " General 'Zoology, or Natural History, with plates from the best authorities, and most select specimens." Of this work nine volumes were pub lished in the author's lifetime, and the ninth was left ready for publication.
In 1807, Dr. Shaw published in two vols. 8vo. a course of Zoological Lectures which he had delivered in 1806 and 1807. Upon the death of Dr. Gray in 1807, he was promoted to the situation of keeper of natural history in the British Museum, an office which he filled till his death. When Dr. Hutton and Dr. Pearson projected, in 1809, an abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions, Dr. Shaw undertook the department of natural history. In the discharge of this duty he abridged 1500 distinct articles, in which he inserted the Linnean and specific names with occa sional annotations and frequent references. This was the last separate work in which our author was en gaged. An illness, which lasted but for a few days, carried him off on the 22d July 1813, in the 62d year of his age. See the Gentleman's Magazine, 1813, p. 290, and our article 1\IAzoLoGv.