Royal Society : Anniversary Proceedings, 1843. 207 



November 30. — Anniversary Meeting. — The President addressed 

 the meeting as follows : — 



Gentlemen, 

 In addressing you on the present recurrence of our Anniversary, I 

 have to make the same acknowledgment to the Council which has 

 assisted me during the past year, that 1 have had to make to their 

 predecessors. If your affairs have proceeded prosperously, it has 

 been mainly owing to their unremitted exertions. Since our last 

 Anniversary, there are not many events to which it will be my duty 

 to refer. The first that I shall bring under your notice is one of 

 the most gratifying description — the return of Captain James Clark 

 Ross, and the vessels under his orders, from the Antarctic regions of 

 the globe. This expedition, undertaken by the Government in a 

 great degree on the recommendation of the Royal Society, has re- 

 turned after almost entire success. 1 trust that the account of this 

 most interesting voyage will be given to the public by its gallant 

 commander, who has approached to both limits of the world. A 

 portion of its valuable scientific details has been already given to 

 our Society ; and the magnetic observations made by Captain Ross 

 and his officers, with so much assiduity and ability, will be the 

 enduring monument of their fame, as long as industry and science 

 are held in honour by mankind*. The magnetic maps of the South 

 Polar regions will be a result which all philosophers must hail with 

 delight, while the geographer will rejoice in the advancement of our 

 knowledge so far to the southward of all former navigation, and in 

 our acquaintance with a new polar volcano, compared to which 

 Hecla sinks into insignificance f. 



It is a great addition to our pleasure on this occasion, that so few 

 casualties have happened during the three years' absence of Captain 

 Ross and Captain Crozier from England, and that no officer or sailor 

 has been a victim to disease, except one seaman who died on the 

 homeward passage. This, when we reflect on the length of time to 

 which the expedition extended, and the severity of the climate that 

 it had to face, is no small tribute to the care of the commander of the 

 two vessels employed, and the skill of the surgeon, to whom the 

 health of those on board was committed. When we advert to the 

 dangers that the vessels were exposed to, from the icy barriers of these 

 new-found regions of the earth, we cannot be sufficiently grateful 

 to Divine Providence for having preserved lives so valuable to their 

 country, and so dear to every lover of science. 



During the last year the Society has lost few of its members. 

 Only one of its foreign ornaments has it lost, M. Bouvard, a distin- 

 guished astronomer. The number of those who contribute to our 

 Transactions is not at all lessened. We have, however, to lament 

 the death of an illustrious Prince, who for several years presided 

 over our body, and whose regard for us remained undiminished to 

 the last. On this occasion we felt it our duty to lay before the 

 throne the expression of our respectful condolence with our Royal 

 Patroness, on the death of her illustrious uncle ; and we also sus- 

 * See Phil. Mag. S. 3. vol. xxiii. p. 380. f Ibid. vol. xx. p. 141. 



