1 86 Annual Report of the Council. 



Royal in 1835, but the details must be sought elsewhere. 

 In mathematics Airy was a prolific, clear and profound 

 writer. We are now in some danger of underrating his 

 work by comparing it with that of the succeeding generation 

 of brilliant men, with whom his great age made him 

 contemporary ; but it is probable that later generations will 

 recognise him as the forerunner of the men who have 

 revolutionised mathematical science in this century. An 

 accidental fall at his country house resulted in internal 

 complications, which necessitated a severe surgical operation. 

 From this he never completely rallied, and he died on 

 January 2nd, 1892, in his ninety-first year. Sir George Airy 

 was elected an honorary member of the Society on 

 April 1 8th, 1843. 



John COUCH Adams was born at Lidcot, near Laun- 

 ceston, on June 5th, 18 19, and graduated at Cambridge as 

 Senior Wrangler in 1843. Already, in 1841, while still an 

 undergraduate, Adams had determined to attempt the 

 explanation of the irregularities of the planet Uranus in its 

 path, irregularities which were not accounted for by the 

 attraction of known planets. The story of the successful, 

 simultaneous, and independent solution of this problem by 

 Adams and Leverrier, and the consequent discovery of the 

 planet Neptune, is well known, and need not be retold here. 

 This discovery has, by its pre-eminence, swamped in the 

 general mind the steady and unremitting scientific work 

 which only terminated with his death. For one year Adams 

 held the Professorship of Mathematics at St. Andrews, but 

 returned to Cambridge in 1859 as Lowndean Professor of 

 Astronomy and Geometry. As professor, his lectures were 

 prepared and written with extraordinary care, which indeed 

 distinguished all his work. Besides the works which he 

 published on the Theory of the Moon and of the November 

 Meteors, which are perhaps the best known, Adams was 



