one of the earliest of English chroniclers, flourished in the thirteenth century, and is supposed (as his surname seems to imply) to have been born or educated in the capital of France. Although a poor Benedictine monk in the monastery of St Albans, he appears to have attained to note in public life. Henry III. held him in great favour and esteem; and the Pope employed him on a mission of reformation to the monasteries of Norway. Still higher was his position as a man of varied acquirements. He was well versed in history, theology, and the general learning of his age; and he was adorned with the accomplishments of an architect, a painter, an orator, and a poet. But it was in the character of a historian that his greatest fame was achieved. Indefatigable in his search after the fullest historical accounts, he embodied in a condensed form all the substance of former chroniclers, and was careful to add all the possible information regarding his own time. His principal work, entitled Historia Major, consists of an emended copy of Roger of Wendover's Flores History, carrying the narrative as far as 1235, and a supplement continuing the story down to 1273. It was first printed by Archbishop Parker in 1571, and it has been frequently reprinted both in London and Paris. An English translation, by the Rev. J. A. Giles, forms 3 vols. of Bohn's Antiquarian Library.

To his chief work Matthew Paris wrote an abridgment, entitled Historia Minor, and a supplement containing Lives of the Two Offices, Kings of Mercia, and of Twenty-three Abbots of St Albans, and Additamenta. The former exists only in manuscript, the latter is printed in the edition of the Historia Magna by Dr William Watts, fol., London, 1640.

Paris, John Ayrton, an eminent physician, was born at Cambridge in 1785. His educational career was marked by uncommon devotion to learning. At an age as early as fourteen he began the study of medicine under Dr Bradley of London. Entering Caius College in his native town in 1803, he made himself familiar with the classics, and dipped into chemistry and botany. Then he studied medicine at Edinburgh, and took his degree of M.D. at Cambridge, with so much credit, that in his twenty-third year he was appointed physician to the Westminster Hospital. After staying for a short time in London, Dr Paris settled at Penzance in Cornwall; and there a new field of study was opened up before his active mind. The physical character of the county induced him to devote his leisure hours to the pursuits of the geologist. He published several papers on geology, wrote a geological Guide to Mount's Bay and Land's End, and founded the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, one of the earliest societies of the kind in the kingdom. He also invented the "tamping-bar," an iron implement covered with copper, which miners can use without incurring the danger of striking fire from the rock, and igniting gunpowder or inflammable gas. In 1810 Dr Paris, returning to London, entered upon a long career of professional and scientific industry. His duties as a physician were performed with all the cheerful ardour of one who loves his calling for its own sake. At the same time, he laboured with the pen to promote medical science. His Pharmacologia, his Treatise on Diet, his Elements of Medical Chemistry, and his Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, written in conjunction with Fonblanque, were all produced amid the hurry of numerous engagements. The great eminence of Dr Paris was recognised with the high- est honours. He was a D.C.L. of Oxford, and a fellow of the Royal Society and other learned societies in London. He was also president of the London College of Physicians, a position which he held from 1844 till his death in December 1856. Dr Paris was the author of an anonymous work entitled Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, and of an excellent biography of his friend Sir Humphry Davy.