Royal Society. 141 



made at his house at Blackheath, with a four-feet transit circle, 

 which has acquired no small degree of celebrity from its being the 

 first instrument, after the Westbury Circle, to which Mr. Trough- 

 ton applied his method of division, which he has described in our 

 Transactions. Mr. Groombridge made many thousand observations, 

 which have been reduced by order, and published at the expense of, 

 Government, — a circumstance well deserving to be known by all 

 astronomers, as he was an able and faithful observer, and possessed 

 more advantages for making meridian observations, than are com- 

 monly enjoyed without the walls of a regular observatory. 



Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton was a very distinguished naval offi- 

 cer, who was employed in the service of his country for the greatest 

 part of his life, and who was for some time second in command to Lord 

 Nelson in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, and enjoyed his entire 

 confidence and esteem. He was one of the Lords of the Admiralty 

 from 1805 to 1812, a circumstance which brought him into frequent 

 communication with the Royal Society, and led to his election as a 

 Fellow in 1810. 



In our list of Foreign Members, we have to record the deaths of 

 Cuvier and of Chaptal in France, of the Baron de Zach in Germany, 

 and very lately likewise those of Oriani and of Scarpa in Italy ; 

 five celebrated names, which have long been intimately associated 

 with the progress of science. The limits of this address must con- 

 fine me to a very brief and imperfect notice of their merits and 

 their labours. 



The Baron Cuvier, the most illustrious naturalist of modern times, 

 was born at Montbelliard in Alsace, in 1 769, and died on the 13th of 

 May last, in the 63rd year of his age : it is not necessary for me to 

 detail any of the circumstances of the life of one whose name has 

 been long known and reverenced in every region of the globe which 

 has enjoyed the blessings of European civilization ; suffice it to say, 

 that he was honoured and even courted by every Government in 

 France from the period of the Convention to the present day ; that 

 he held the most lucrative and distinguished appointments which the 

 wise policy of that great nation has provided for the honourable sup- 

 port of its men of science and literature ; that after the death of 

 Laplace he was universally regarded by his countrymen as the most 

 illustrious of their men of science, and as one of the most distin- 

 guished of their men of literature ; that funeral orations were pro- 

 nounced over his grave by men of all political parties, however much 

 opposed to him during his life ; and mathematicians and naturalists, 

 geologists, historians and poets, all felt themselves impelled to pay 

 this last tribute of homage to the genius of one, who in so many ca- 

 pacities had done so much honour to his country. 



M. Cuvier was in every respect a most extraordinary man : his 

 very presence was calculated to command respect, his countenance 

 bearing that impress of a powerful intellect, which all men recognise 

 when seen, however difficult it may be to define its character : his 

 manners were dignified and polished, and his conversation possessed 

 that happy ease and subdued gaiety which characterized the best age 



