202 Transactions of the Society. 



VIII. — The President's Address. By Lionel S. Beale, F.K.S. 



{Annual Meeting, Wth Ftbruary, 18£0.) 



My first duty this evening, Gentlemen, is to notice with regret the 

 losses we have sustained during the past year, in consequence of 

 resignations and deaths. Of our number seven Fellows have 

 resigned and ten have been removed by death. Among the latter 

 are some of our oldest friends, who have passed away full of years 

 and honours, and some who have died in the prime of life, while 

 they were at work. 



Samuel Charles Whithread, F.E.S., was elected a Fellow of 

 this Society in 1851, and for many years took great interest in its 

 proceedings and welfare. He was very active in forwarding the 

 interests of the Society, was in years gone by generally present at 

 our meetings, and was many times a member of the Council. 



Charles Broohe, M.A. Cantab., F.R.S., was also elected in 

 1851, and to the last was one of the most earnest and enthusiastic 

 members of our body. Many times on the Council, President on 

 two occasions, for the years 1862-64 and 1873-74, Mr. Brooke 

 was present at almost every one of our meetings till a short time 

 before his death, and frequently took part in the debates. He 

 contributed many memoirs on microscopical subjects, and had a 

 natural aptitude for scientific investigation. In designing, con- 

 structing, and arranging apparatus he was most ingenious. If I 

 mistake not, Mr. Brooke was the inventor of the first automatic 

 instruments for permanently registering variations in the ther- 

 mometer and barometer, and he constructed many pieces of 

 apparatus for the Microscope. He edited and greatly enlarged 

 Golding Bird's ' Natural Philosophy,' and was, I believe, the author 

 of some scientific articles in Encyclopaedias. Mr. Brooke was for 

 many years surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, but, partly per- 

 haps in consequence of his modest and retiring disposition, and 

 partly from lack of self-confidence, though much beloved by all who 

 knew him intimately, he never gained a very large private practice. 

 For the interests of science this was fortunate. Mr. Brooke was 

 strong and active, and when a young man was a very distinguished 

 skater. Through life he was opposed to materialist doctrines, and 

 took a very active part in the proceedings of the Victoria Institute. 

 In him we lose a zealous microscopist, a faithful friend, and one of 

 the most uniformly amiable and kindly of associates. 



Thomas Brand was elected a Fellow in 1856. John Curphy 

 Forsyth became a Fellow in 1860, and P. S. Mitchell, of St. 

 Leonard's-on-Sea, in the same year. 



F. T. Griffiths, M.D., who was elected a Fellow of the Society 

 in 1861, a Bachelor of Letters of the University of France, was 



