Geological Society. 523 



a parcel of most exact impressions, taken from a photographic 

 drawing, transferred to stone by the process above mentioned. 



NOTICE OF DECEASED MEMBERS. 



In Mr. Richard Bright, of Ham Green, near Bristol, the Society 

 has lost one of its first members. He was both a patron and cul- 

 tivator of geology and mineralogy in a generation earlier than our 

 own. Born in 1751', he died in 1840, at the age of 86. 



Throughout the more busy years of his life he was an intelligent 

 merchant, much engaged in promoting the commercial improve- 

 ments of his native city. Honest, warm, and disinterested, he won 

 early and maintained steadily, during a period of more than sixty 

 years, the universal love and respect of his neighbours ; and the best 

 proof of this lay in that most enviable power he had acquired of 

 conciliating and guiding men of all sects and opinions in the pursuit 

 of objects of public utility, and the perfect confidence with which 

 his friends resorted to his judgement and advice in the more deli- 

 cate affairs of private life. 



Upwards of sixty years ago Bristol possessed many zealous and 

 intelligent individuals who understood the value of science and had 

 cultivated it ; and several had already made good pi-ogress in form- 

 ing valuable geological collections ; Catcott bad bequeathed a large 

 and interesting collection of minerals and organic remains to the 

 Bristol Library. Bristol was then the cradle of English geology ; 

 Townsend, Richardson, and Smith resided in its immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, and there Smith commenced his most important genera- 

 lizations. 



A love of chemistry acquired in youth under Priestley and Aikin, 

 a personal intimacy with Whitehurst, and a commercial connexion 

 with mines of Cornwall, made Mr. Bright an early collector, and 

 William Smith and Richard Phillips lent him their willing assist- 

 ance. 



Though the metropolis was never his place of residence, he availed 

 himself of frequent visits thither in earlier years to acquire an ex- 

 tensive and accurate knowledge of the pursuits of men of science. 

 Before he had reached the age of manhood in 1774, we find him 

 interested in the best construction of chemical furnaces, and study- 

 ing Dr. Black's ' Tables of Double and Single Attractions.' In 

 1780 he was a member of a private Philosophical Society in London, 

 composed of names* which are to this day almost all held in re- 

 spect or reverence. It met once a fortnight, on Friday evenings, at 

 the Chapter Coffee House, from seven till nine. 



When Davy quitted Penzance for Clifton and assisted Dr. Bed- 

 does in delivering chemical lectures, Mr. Bright's attaclimeut to 

 the science revived witii double force. He attended these lectures 

 with eagerness and deligiit; established a well-appointed laboratory 



* Dr. Hunter, Dr. Crawford, Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Kier, Dr. 

 Cleghorrie, Dr. Quin, Dr. Wells, Messrs. Nairne, Aubert, Whitehurst, 

 Horsefall, Jones (afterwards Sir William), Howard, Bolton, Kirwan, Black- 

 hall, Bright, Bunjamiu Vuughan. 



