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Transactions of the 
Mr. Deane died suddenly at Dover on April 4, 1874, where he 
had been detained a day or two by stress of weather, on his way to 
visit his son in Hungary. Walking from his hotel to the boat, he 
was arrested by a sudden pain in the region of the heart, and in a 
few minutes expired. 
Mr. John Williams was born October 19, 1797, in London, 
and educated at the Charterhouse. At the age of twenty-two he 
became a schoolmaster, and held the mastership of the parochial 
schools of Spitalfields for several years. In 1822 he became a 
member of the Mathematical Society, of which he was afterwards 
Secretary. At this time he paid much attention to microscopical 
pursuits, in connection with Dr. Bowerbank, Mr. Page, and others. 
When the Mathematical Society was merged in the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society, he became Assistant-Secretary of the latter, a 
position which he held up to the time of his decease. On the 
formation of the Microscopical Society he held the same place in it, 
and served it with zeal and success until the period when the 
Royal Astronomical Society required the whole of his time, and he 
was reluctantly compelled to relinquish his position with the Micro- 
scopical. In token of respect he was recommended by the President 
and Council as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical 
Society, and was unanimously elected in November, 1867. 
He constructed more than one microscope out of odds and ends, 
which he put together with much skill and ingenuity. His earliest 
instrument was furnished with globule objectives, made by fusing 
small pieces of glass in thin rings of platinum wire, a process very 
liable to failure, but by which he succeeded in producing many that 
were very perfect of then kind. His most elaborate microscope 
was made with cardboard tubes and brass screw adjustments. It 
was furnished with an ingenious stage movement, believed to have 
been suggested by Mr. Page. This instrument, when supplied with 
objectives by Ross and others, contrasted favourably in point of 
utility with constructions of a more costly description. 
Amongst the papers he contributed to this Society will be found 
one on the Martin Microscope, and another on the occurrence of a 
Parasitic Rotifer in Volvox. He also devised a simple modification 
of the collecting stick. He possessed an interesting collection of 
ancient microscopes, which he was skilful in displaying at gatherings 
of the Society. 
He was a man of considerable literary attainments in classical 
and oriental languages, and succeeded in becoming an eminent 
authority in Chinese, although he did not commence studying it 
until he was fifty years of age. In 1871 he published ‘ Observa- 
tions on Comets by the Chinese.’ He was a good mathematician, 
and other multifarious occupations never lessened his interest in 
the progress of astronomy. 
