PBOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 229 



at a previous Meeting. The possession of such examples of early 

 Microscopes was of great value, not only to those studying the progress 

 of the science of Microscopy, but also to specialists in all branches of 

 zoology, as it was thus possible to see things practically with the same 

 eyes as the old pioneers in natural history. 



The vote of thanks to Mr. Rousselet was passed unanimously. 



The Chairman said it devolved upon him to perform a duty which 

 was a melancholy one, but one which at the same time he accepted,, with 

 a certain sense of satisfaction in the thought that it had fallen upon him 

 as a personal friend, to bring to the notice of the Society the loss that 

 England had sustained in the death of one of her greatest scientists, Sir 

 John Murray. Their Meeting that evening was the first Meeting of 

 any leading scientific society to take place since the tragic death of this 

 great man, and he thought it would not be inappropriate for their 

 Society to record their sense of the loss science had sustained, and at 

 the same time to convey through their Secretaries the condolence and 

 the sympathy of the Eoyal Microscopical Society with Lady Murray, 

 and with her little daughter, whose unconscious hand upon the wheel 

 of that motor-car hurried him to what, though he was 73 years of age, 

 must be regarded by anyone who knew the youthfulness of Sir John's 

 enthusiasm as, a premature death. 



John Murray was one of the most significant figures in science of 

 the present day. Born in 1841, he had studied in the schools of Scot- 

 land from his earliest years, and one saw him in Tait's laboratory in 

 Edinburgh, sitting side by side with Robert Louis Stevenson, and 

 again at the age of 27 — as keen then on oceanography as at the age of 

 73 — as naturalist on board a whaler going to Spitzbergen. But the 

 great work with which his name would always be associated was that 

 of the ' Challenger ' Expedition, and it was characteristic of the man 

 that but few were aware of the immense influence he had upon the 

 labours and the success of that historic voyage. 



The year 1871 was almost entirely occupied in arranging for that 

 wonderful journey, and students of every branch of oceanographical 

 science would appreciate how enormously important the year of pre- 

 paration for that voyage must have been, when they realized and 

 acknowledged the immense debt they owed Sir John Murray for the 

 results of the expedition, as set forth in his fifty great volumes of 

 reports. 



The years 1872-76 were passed upon the voyage, and it had been 

 the great privilege of Mr. Earland and himself to read the Private 

 Journals (or rather the Laboratory Notebooks) of Sir John Murray, in 

 which he had recorded from day to day the things he saw that came 

 from the surface and median waters and from the bottom of the sea. 

 The characteristic modesty of the man prevented the publication of 

 these journals as one of the many travel volumes which were the direct 

 outcome of the voyage, but they threw a brilliant light upon many 

 problems originating in the later reports upon that particular branch 



