Annual Report of the Council. xxxix 



In person, Dr. Buchan was tall and slight, with a flowing 

 beard and pleasant genial features, which well expressed the 

 character of the man. Among his friends he was conimonly 

 called " the Clerk of the Weather," and his almost invariable 

 habit of wearing a long overcoat and carrying an umbrella led 

 to the remark that he must have a profound distrust of the 

 elements to whose study his life was devoted. 



The esteem in which he was held by the scientific world is 

 shown by the honours conferred upon him. He was made an 

 Honorary LL.D. of Glasgow in 1887 ; from the Royal Meteoro- 

 logical Society he received the first award of the Symonds 

 Memorial Gold Medal, and from the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 the Makdougall Brisbane, and Gunning prizes. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1898, and an Honorary Member 

 of this Society in 1886. 



He passed away on May 13th, 1907, after a brief illness, 

 leaving to science a mass of brilliant and useful work, to his 

 pupils and colleagues an example of single-hearted devotion, and 

 to his friends the memory of a gifted and lovable personality. 



W. E. H. 



Lord Kelvin. — In the following lines no attempt is made 

 either to summarise Lord Kelvin's work, or give any estimate of 

 his place among the leaders of scientific thought. But in one 

 branch of research. Lord Kelvin has had a deeply interesting 

 connexion with this Society : for Lord Kelvin's early recognition 

 of the labours of Joule, and the intimate friendship and 

 collaboration which sprang from that recognition, are part of 

 the history of Thermodynamics. I shall only touch on this side 

 of his work. 



Joule had begun his great work in 1838 by constructmg an 

 electro-magnetic engine after Sturgeon's design, and determining 

 the weight it would raise through one foot in a minute. In 

 1839, he had added a galvanometer of his own device and 

 construction, and discovered the law connecting the attraction 



