§2 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Jan. 



Article X. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



On Saturday, Nov. 30, being St. Andrew's Day, the Royal 

 Society held their anniversary meeting at Somerset House. A 

 great number of members were in attendance at 12 o'clock, 

 when the chair was taken by the President, Sir II. Davy, Bart. 



In the course of business, Sir Humphry announced the names 

 of the Fellows lost to the Society by death since the last anni- 

 versary; among whom were Sir H. C. Englefield, Bart.; SirW. 

 Herschel, Dr. Marcet, Rev. Mr. Vince, Plumian Professor of As- 

 tronomy at Cambridge, Dr. C. H. Parry, Sir C. Pegge : and among 

 foreign members, M. Delambre, the Abbe Haiiy, and Count 

 Berthollet. He gave a new interest to this ceremony, by enter- 

 ing into a brief but elegant and discriminating tribute to the 

 scientific merits of these distinguished individuals. He prefaced 

 his eulogies by observing, that the occasion was a particular 

 one — that the Society had never before lost in one year so many 

 distinguished fellows— that the respect paid to the memory of 

 the illustrious dead might, he hoped, awaken a feeling of emu- 

 lation among the living ; and that although he was unable to do 

 justice to their respective merits, yet he trusted that in all he 

 should have to say, the judgment and the feelings of the 

 Society would be in unison with his own. 



Sir H. C. Englefield, said he, was an accomplished gentleman, 

 gifted with a great variety of information, and possessing con- 

 siderable talents for physical research. His knowledge of 

 astronomy was evinced by his early work on Comets : he was a 

 clear writer — a learned antiquarian — eminently distinguished 

 for conversational powers — a truly honest man — and an orna- 

 ment to that class of society in which he moved. 



Of Sir William Herschel it was observed by Sir Humphry, 

 that the progress of modern astronomy was so connected with 

 his labours, that his name would live as long as that science 

 should exist : his happy and indefatigable spirit of observation 

 was spoken of as proved by his discovery of a new planetary 

 system, and of a number of satellites before unknown — his 

 inductive powers of reasoning, and bold imagination, as shown 

 in his views of the stellar systems in the heavens — and his 

 talents for philosophical experiments, as proved by the disco- 

 very of the invisible rays in the solar spectrum. He was a man, 

 continued the eulogist, who, though raised by his own efforts — 

 by the power of his own intellect, to so high a degree of emi- 

 nence, was spoiled neither by glory nor by fortune ; and who 



