LIXNE.IN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 3 1 



WiLLUAii Francis, Ph.D. (Giessen, 1842), F.R.A.S. (1851), F.G.S. 

 (1859), became an Associate of the Chemical Society in 1841, a 

 Fellow of that Society in 1842, and a Fellow of the Physical 

 Society in 1876. Bnt of all the learned Societies to which he 

 belonged our own claimed him for the longest portion of his pro- 

 tracted life. The Linneau honoured him with the Associateship 

 on the 21st of February, 1837, and as he was born Feb. 16, 1817, 

 he must have been elected when only a few days over twenty 

 years of age. On Jan. 16, 1844, he was elected to the Fellowship 

 of this Society, which he held for over sixty years, dying on 

 Jan. 19, 1904.' 



As a student of Chemistry and Entomology, as a translator of 

 scientific writings, as partner ia a printing firm famous for its 

 polyglot accuracy, as joint founder, editor, and publisher of learned 

 serials \Ahich enjoy a world-wide reputation and a large measure 

 of perennial value. Dr. Francis may be said to have devoted prac- 

 tically his whole life to the service of science. He learned printing 

 under Eichard Taylor, who himself adopted the profession of a 

 printer " principally at the suggestion of Sir James Edward Smith, 

 the founder of the Linnean Society, and a very intimate friend of 

 his parents " (Journ. of Proc. L. S. p. xxxvii, 1859). E. Taylor, 

 on the 18th of May, 1803, at the age of twenty -two, established 

 himself in partnership with his father. It was not till ] 852 that 

 he took into partnership his former apprentice, W. Francis, who 

 has so recently left our ranks. But between them, without a 

 break, these two eminent scientific printers, Taylor and Francis, 

 have had a business career all but completely synchronising with 

 the corporate life of this Society from its original Charter at the 

 opening of the nineteenth century down to the Supplemental 

 Charter of to-day. Of the serials whicli they jointly planned and 

 vigorously maintained the one most widely known is probably that 

 which began its course in 1838 as the ' Annals of iS'atural History.' 

 Charles Darwin, at a time when the state of his health to a great 

 degree debarred him from the study of books, says, in a letter to 

 J. D. Hooker, " I confine my reading to a quarter or half hour 

 per day in skimming through the back volumes of the ' Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History,' and find much that interests 

 me " (Life and Letters, edited by his son, Francis Darwin, vol. iii. 

 p. 40). Among zoologists, iu particular, there can indeed be very 

 few who will not from time to time be almost under a necessity of 

 consulting these volumes, very few who will not, beyond the 

 immediate necessity, find something woi'th studying and recalHng 

 to mind in this long record of research and controversy, embracing 

 in a manner at once liberal and judicious the almost innumerable 

 branches of their subject. It is true that in maintaining the 

 standard of the magazine Dr. Francis was associated with succes- 

 sive groups of co-editors greatly distinguished for their several 

 attainments. He «as their wortliy colleague. 



