Hv Annual Report of the Council. 



Combined with a complete absence of self-consciousness, 

 two great personal characteristics of Dr. Sorby were modesty 

 and an immovable love of truth. The characteristic last 

 named somewhat dimmed the brilliancy and lucidity of his 

 papers, since in an enunciation he could never bring himself to 

 omit any possible or even improbable qualification concerning 

 the accuracy of the particular theory he happened to be 

 formulating from his observed facts. 



As a speaker, Dr. Sorby could not claim to be an orator, 

 but he had, nevertheless, a style all his own, by means of which 

 he fully conveyed his meaning to his sympathetic audiences. 

 Dr. Sorby belonged to a past generation of men of science, the 

 like of whom the world will do well to breed again. He loved 

 science for her own sake, but so far from holding the view that 

 science applied was science degraded, his almost child-like 

 pleasure on hearing that some of his discoveries had been of 

 practical use in the great work-a-day world was good to see. 

 Dr. Sorby was not a family man. and though in easy circum- 

 stances, he laboriously devoted his life to scientific research. 



E. F. L. 



Charles Agustus Young was born at Hanover, New 

 Hampshire, on Dec. 15th, 1834. In 1849, after private tuition, 

 he entered Dartmouth College in which his father was Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy, and graduated in 1853. From 1854 to 

 1856 he was undermaster in Classics in Phillips' Andover 

 Academy. In 1857 he became Professor of Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy in Western Reserve College at Hudson, 

 Ohio. Turning his attention to Astronomy, he acted during 

 three summer vacations, as Astronomical Assistant on the survey 

 of the North and North-West Lakes. In the latter part of 1862 

 he joined a company of Volunteer Students, and served for 

 four months during the Civil war. In 1866 he became Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at Dartmouth College, to 

 which was attached the directorship of the Shattuck observatory. 

 He was a member of the Expedition sent to observe the total 



