*LATHAM, ROBERT GORDON, a distinguished living philologer and ethnologist. He was born in the county of Lineolnahire, and received his early education at Eton. From thence he was entered a student at King's College, Cambridge, and in 1833 was made B.A. He was subsequently made a Fellow of his college, and took the degree of 3I.D. Shortly after obtaining his fellowship he travelled in the north of Europe, and published a short account of his travels. From an early period the bent of his genius was towards a philoso phical study of language, and at Cambridge he was known for the extent of his knowledge, not only of the classical languages exclusively studied there, but for bis acquaintance with European languages, and their relations to each other.
Shortly after the establishment of University College, Loudon, ho was appointed Professor of English Literature in that college. The course of study which he pursued here led him especially to investi gate the history and structure of the English language, and resulted in the publication of a series of works, which have placed him at the head of the philosophical investigators of our native tongue. His most important work on this subject is his English Language,' a work which has gone through several editions, and is at present a standard book in all our educational institutions. This has been accompanied by the following works, all of which are used more or less generally where a systematic study of the English language is considered a point of importance An Elementary English Grammar, for the use of Schools;' 'An English Grammar, for the use of Ladies Schools;' The History and Etymology of the English Language, for the use of Classical Schools; "A Grammar of the English Language, for the use of Commercial Schools.' Dr. Latham's extensive knowledge of languages, combined with his medical studies, naturally led him to the study of the relations existing between the languages spoken and the structure of the various races of men. He early took an interest in the proceedings of the Ethnolo gical Society of London, and in 1850 he published a work on the Varieties of Mankind.' This work is in many respects the most
valuable contribution to the science of ethnology made during the present century. The author has not only attempted to simplify the classification of ethnologists, but from his extensive original researches into the nature and relations of language, has ventured to differ from those who had preceded him with regard to the relations of various large branches of the human race. This book has been followed by a series of works, in which he has carried out iu detail the views he had previously sketched. Such are his 'Ethnology of the British Colonies,' published in 1851, and his 'Ethnology of Europe;' Ethnology of the British Islands ;' aud 'Man and his Migrations.' These last works consist principally of courses of lectures which had been delivered before various scientific societies in Great Brit sin.
Dr. Latham has frequently contributed papers at the meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to his contributions may be mainly attributed the establishimeut of a section devoted to the discussion of ethnology at the meetings of this Associa tion. When the directors of the Crystal Palace at Sy denham deter mined to devote a certain portion of their building to the illustration of ethnology, Dr. Latham was consulted, and the arrangement of this department was committed to his care.
Although Dr. Latham has for the present resigned the active duties of the medical profession, he has nevertheless secured its highest honours and held most important medical appointments. He is a Licentiate and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London. He was appointed physician to the St. George's and St. James's Dispen sary, and subsequently obtained the post of assistant physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In the medical school of this institution he held the appointment of lecturer on medical jurisprudence. In 1848 he translated and edited the works of Sydeuham for the Sydeuham Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Vice-President of the Ethnological Society, and member of many learned societies in America and on the Continent of Europe.