Astronomical Society. 237 



should at length be able to justify the high expectations which had 

 been formed of the Observatory, and that his work would bear a 

 comparison in accuracy, though not in extent, with that of any other 

 establishment. 



But the labours of the Observatory were too much for a constitu- 

 tion already much enfeebled by previous illness. He had suffered 

 very severely from a coup de soleil soon after his arrival at the Cape, 

 while fixing the small transit; and, besides some less serious com- 

 plaints, experienced a dangerous attack of scarlet fever in the summer 

 of 1830, from which he seems never to have fully recovered. In the 

 beginning of 1831, his health was visibly impaired, but he could not 

 be induced to leave the Observatory before the equinox. Towards 

 the end of March, he became incapable of struggling any longer with 

 the disease, and went to Simon's Town ; but it was now too late, 

 and he breathed his last on the 25th July, 1831, in the forty-third 

 year of his age. 



To those who were acquainted with Mr. Fallows, it is unnecessary 

 to dwell upon the integrity and simplicity of his character, or the 

 depth and clearness of his understanding : as an astronomer, he had 

 few rivals. Perfectly acquainted with the practical and scientific 

 departments of astronomy, he carried into the Observatory the same 

 straightforward zeal and honesty which were the distinctive features 

 of his private character ; and if his life had been spared, would un- 

 questionably have realized the most sanguine expectations of his 

 friends and admirers. 



Mr. Fallows did not leave his observations completely prepared for 

 publication, but so nearly as to require very little additional labour. 

 His wish was to have had them printed under his own eye, after they 

 had been examined and approved of by competent judges in Eng- 

 land ; for wliich purpose, examined copies were transmitted by him 

 to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. They consist of about 

 3000 transit, and several hundred circle observations, with six mi- 

 croscopes, and some series with the invariable pendulum. The in- 

 strumental errors are ascertained, and the current reductions com- 

 puted, so that there will be no difficulty in presenting the results, 

 though not perhaps in the independent manner proposed by the 

 observer. It is to be hoped that these observations and reductions 

 will be speedily published, by the order of the founders and patrons 

 of the Cape Observatory ; and we are confident, that thev will be 

 found every way worthy of Mr. Fallows and of Ihe country which 

 committed that important and magnificent establishment to his charge. 



But though the loss inflicted upon science is thus severe, your 

 Council are happy to state, that the Government has not at all re- 

 laxed its zeal for the Cape Observatory. An assistant, Mr. Meadows, 

 was dispatched to aid Mr. Fallows, shortly before his decease : since 

 that time, Mr. Thomas Henderson (a gentleman known to you all, 

 as one of the most active and enlightened cultivators of astronomy 

 in this country, and one to whom this Society has, upon manv oc- 

 casions, thankfully acknowledged its obligations) has been appointed 

 His Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape. That this gentleman, tread- 



