SKETCH OF SIB C. WYVILLE THOMSON. 697 



return, testimonials of appreciation of his services to science began to 

 come in from various quarters, lie had already been a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society since 1869. He was now knighted in June, 1876 ; then 

 he was awarded one of the gold medals of the Royal Society ; was 

 toasted by Professor Huxley at a scientific banquet given at Edin- 

 burgh in honor of the expedition ; was created by the King of Sweden 

 a knight of the Order of the Polar Star at Upsala, where he went with 

 Professor Balfour, as a representative of the Edinburgh Senatus, to 

 attend the tercentenary of the ancient university ; was made LL. D. 

 at Aberdeen, D. C. L. at Dublin, a Doctor of Philosophy at Jena, 

 D. Sc. and Fellow of various British and foreign societies. In 1877 

 he was appointed to deliver the Rede Lecture at Cambridge. In 1878 

 he presided over the Geographical Section of the British Association, 

 and took as the subject of his address, " The Advances which have 

 been made in Late Years in the Application of the Physical Sciences 

 to the Illustration of the General Condition of the Earth." He was 

 also Vice-President of the Jury on Raw Products at the Paris Exhi- 

 bition of 1867. He took the lead in organizing the School of Art in 

 Belfast, under the Science and Art Department, and was the chairman 

 of the first board of directors. He was a Conservative in politics, and 

 was a magistrate and Commissioner of Supply for the county of Lin- 

 lithgow. 



His health, never very vigorous, was not improved during his voy- 

 age on the Challenger. In June of 1879 he was attacked with paraly- 

 sis, and had to suspend the conduct of his classes in the university, 

 and lay aside the work of superintending the compilation of the Chal- 

 lenger's researches. He was never able to work steadily afterward. 

 He had a second attack about four months before his death, after 

 which he seemed to be getting along through the winter tolerably 

 well, till about two weeks before his death, when he got a severe chill 

 from exposure, from which he never recovered. 



Sir Wyville Thomson's principal literary works include "The 

 Depths of the Sea," containing the accounts of the expeditions of the 

 Lightning and the Porcupine, in which is given all that is known 

 as to the records of the existence of deep-sea life up to 1865 ; the 

 " Voyage of the Challenger. The Atlantic," in two volumes, giving a 

 preliminary account of the general results of the Challenger Expedi- 

 tion ; and his part of the work in the formal official report of the ex- 

 pedition, of which he lived to see only the first three volumes com- 

 pleted. At the time he was prostrated, he was preparing for the press 

 a narrative of the voyage, to appear in the official work, based on one 

 drawn up by Staff-Commander Tizard, the chief commanding officer 

 of the Challenger. He also delivered several public addresses before 

 scientific and popular bodies, which were marked by clearness of state- 

 ment and sustained interest. The departments of zoulogy to which he 

 devoted most attention were those which included the corals, cri- 



