Watson (Roberto Boog)

An English doctor of laws and conchologist who studied the marine shells of Madeira between 1864 and 1874, while serving as a chaplain in one of the Protestant churches in Funchal. He passed away in 1921. He wrote a work entitled On the Marine Molusca of Madeira (Journ. Linn. Soc, XXVI, 1897), and in 1873, he addressed the same subject in the Memorias da Sociedade Zoologica de Londres. In his work published in 1897, Watson mentions 382 species of marine mollusks, describing 35 that he considered new. Like his compatriot Wollaston, Watson sometimes sought to belittle other naturalists in his work, which is not fitting for a man of science, let alone a priest, albeit a Protestant. Watson's shells now belong to the English malacologist Tomlin, as stated in a letter sent to this city (1921).