90 PROCEEDINGS OF TKR 



And this extensive acquaintance Avith living beings has happily 

 been applied by you to the exposition and illustration of the 

 fragmentary remains of former tenants of our globe. You have 

 thus extended our knowledge of animal forms, and added greatly 

 to the intelligeiit apprehension of the history of life on the 

 Earth. 



In the wealth of works and memoirs which justify these observa- 

 tions, I would only refer S2)ecifically to your early work on Oceanic 

 Ilydrozoa, because of my own memories of it, when it opened to 

 me a new and rich field of investigation at a time when zoological 

 studies had a larger share in my thoughts than they have had 

 for many a year. 



I must also allude to tlie great services you have rendered to 

 Biology by yoiu' labours as a teacher, and to the still wider in- 

 fluence of the " Introductions " you have prepared for the use of 

 Students. 



In appreciation of your many and invaluable services to science, 

 I have the pleasure of presenting you, by authority of the 

 Council, with this Linuean Medal — the highest honour they can 

 confer. 



Prof. Huxley having expressed his gratification at the presen- 

 tation, the Senior Seci'ctary read the obituary notices of deceased 

 Fellow's, as follows : — 



Obituaut Notices. 



Ralph Fawsett Aiimswoeth was born in 1811, at Manchester, 

 where he spent his life, and died there at his residence, Cliff" 

 Point, Lower Broughton, on 6th of March, 1890. He was an 

 enthusiastic cultivator of Orchids, and took an active part in the 

 management of the Manchester botanic gardens at Old Trafford, 

 so far as his i^rofessional duties as a surgeon would permit. He 

 joined this Society on 21st Januai'y, 1869. 



John Ball was the eldest of the four sons of the Rt. Hon. 

 Nicholas Ball, Judge in the Irish Court of Common Pleas, and was 

 born at Dublin, 20th August, 1818. He early became attracted 

 to natural science, geology being his favourite study. He had 

 his first view of the European Alps, with which he had afterwards 

 so much to do, in the year 1825, and the following year he was 

 with his father at Ems. At thirteen years of age he was sent 

 to the Eoman Catholic college at Oscott, near Birmingham, his 

 family being of that fiiith. The British Association met at 

 Dublin at 1835, and Ball was present; after its meetings he 

 went on a trip to Galway and Counemara with Professor C. C. 

 Babington, who has printed an account of the excursion in 

 Loudon's 'Magazine of Natural History,' ix. 119, «&c. He then 



