Anniversary Address of H. R. H. the late President. 63 



placed over one of the interior gateways of the college. He possessed 

 a most accurate knowledge of the theory and use of astronomical 

 instruments, and was a most scrupulous and skilful observer ; and he 

 is known to have left behind a very large mass of observations, par- 

 ticularly of occultations, most carefully detailed and recorded. Mr. 

 Catton was a man of very courteous manners and most amiable 

 character, and possessed of a very extensive acquaintance both with 

 literature and science. He died in the month of January last, in the 

 eightieth year of his age, deeply regretted by the members of the 

 college in which he had passed the greatest part of his life. 



Mr. Henry Earle, one of the Senior Surgeons of St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital, was the son of one very eminent surgeon. Sir James Earle, 

 and the grandson of another, Mr. Percival Pott. He was the author 

 of many valuable articles in different medical journals, and likewise 

 of two papers in our Transactions ; one detailing the result of a 

 very novel and difficult surgical operation, and the other on the 

 mechanism of the spine, which were published in 1822 and 1823. 

 Mr. Earle was considered to be one of the most skilful and scien- 

 tific surgeons of his age, and was justly esteemed by his professional 

 and other friends not merely for his great acquirements, but for his 

 kindness of heart and upright and honourable character. 



John Lloyd Williams, formerly British resident at Benares, was 

 the author of three short papers in our Transactions in the year 

 1793 ; two of them upon the method of making ice at Benares, by 

 means of extremely porous and shallow evaporating pans of unglazed 

 eartheuM^are, placed upon dry straw or sugar-cane ; and the last fur- 

 nishing additional descriptions of the great quadrants and gnomon 

 in the observatory at Benares, which had been described in a paper 

 in our Transactions in 1777 by Sir Piobert Barker. 



The Foreign Members whom the Society has lost during the last 

 year, are Dr. Nathaiiiel Bowditch, of Boston, in America ; Messieurs 

 Dulong and Frederic Cuvier, of Paris ; and Dr. Martin van Marum, 

 of Haarlem. 



Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts 

 in Ameinca, was born at Salem, in the same State, in 1773: he was 

 removed from school at the age of ten years to assist his father in 

 his trade as a cooper, and was indebted for all his subsequent acqui- 

 sitions, including the Latin and some modern languages and a pro- 

 found knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, entirely to his own 

 exertions unaided by any instruction whatever. He becanu^ after- 

 wards a r-lcrk to a ship-chandler, Avhere his taste for astronomy first 

 showed itsi-lf, and was sufficiently advanced to enable him to master 

 the rules for the calculation of a lunar eclipse ; and his subse(]uent 

 occupation as supercargo in a mercliant vessel sailing from Salem 

 to the East Indies, led naturally to the further develofjenu'iit of 

 liis early tastes, by the active and assiduous study of those depart- 

 ments of that great and comprehensive! science; wliicli are most im- 

 mediately sul)servicnt to the purposes of navigation. It was owing 

 to tlie reputation which lie lia<l tlius acquired for liis great knowledge 

 of nautical astronomy, that he was employed by the booksellers to 



