538 Royal Astronomical Society: Anniversary, 1844. 



years prevented him from mixing in society, he died at his residence 

 in Edinburgh on the 28th of April, 1 843, in the seventy-fifth year of 

 his age, respected by all, and sincerely regretted by a wide circle of 

 personal friends. 



The Fellows have been already informed of the resignation of 

 Mr. John Hartnup, the Assistant Secretary to this Society, in con- 

 sequence of his having been appointed Superintendent of an astro- 

 nomical observatory recently established at Liverpool; for which 

 situation Mr. Hartnup was well qualified, not only from his former 

 pursuits in a similar situation, but also from those habits of accuracy 

 and that zeal for the science which he has always shown. But, 

 although the Council must at all times lament the loss of an active 

 and intelligent officer, they congratulate the Society on having ob- 

 tained a successor in Mr. Richard Harris, whose able assistance, on 

 various occasions, at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, has been 

 highly spoken of by the Astronomer Royal, and augurs well for the 

 benefit and advantage which the Society is likely to derive from his 

 cordial co-operation. 



In the last annual Report, the Council stated that they had con- 

 sidered it advisable to alter the numerical typography, that had been 

 so long in general use, by a return to the adoption of the old method 

 of forming the Arabic figures, which had been so long laid aside. 

 That measure has now been fully carried into execution by the So- 

 ciety, and the whole of the figures in the ensuing volume of the 

 Memoirs will be formed in the manner suggested in that Report. 

 The whole of the figures also employed in printing the three large 

 catalogues of stars, now in the press, will consist of this new type ; 

 and it is hoped that these specimens of distinctness and legibility 

 will soon come into more general use with the public, and ultimately 

 tend to drive out the uncouth and scarcely legible figures that have 

 so long encumbered and deformed our numerical tables. 



Since the last annual Report, the Council have had the gratifica- 

 tion of accepting, on the part of the Society, and incorporating with 

 the Memoirs, Mr. Baily's volume of Catalogues, containing the 

 labours of Ptolemy, Ulugh Beigh, Tycho Brahe, and Hevelius, in 

 that department of astronomy. This volume, as the Fellows are 

 aware, is entirely the work of Mr. Baily, and is printed at his ex- 

 pense. The Council, in announcing this new obligation of the So- 

 ciety to Mr. Baily, feel that they only just need to remind the 

 meeting, that the munificence of the present, in a pecuniary point 

 of view, gratefully as it should be acknowledged, is not the point 

 to which our acknowledgements should be most specially directed. 

 Though the saving of expense has certainly prevented an unusual 

 pressure on the Society's funds (for the Council would have felt 

 bound to publish so valuable a communication, presented in the 

 ordinary way), yet the state of the accounts which you have heard 

 read today shows that the pressure would not have been unbear- 

 able. But the combination of knowledge and industry necessary to 

 face the formidable task of collating, revising, and annotating this 

 collection of catalogues, with perfect unity of purpose and plan, it is 



