98 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. V. 



time, but it shall be despatched very soon. Meanwhile, 

 besides praise from many quarters, it has procured me the 

 Presidentship of the Physical Society. There are four 

 presidents ; I am the third. I was equal in votes with the 

 second, and above the fourth, an older member. In truth, 

 as I was almost the youngest member, and received the 

 chair without request or canvassing in the least, altogether 

 unexpectedly, I value the honour, and I expect to derive 

 from my place many benefits in my prosecution of science. 

 In virtue of my office, which is no sinecure, I have got the 

 pleasant task of drawing up a report of the recent progress 

 of chemistry and geology, besides inaugural addresses and 

 such like. As the Physical is a Royal Chartered Society, 

 including an elder and a superior class of students, and as 

 it reports its Transactions in the public newspapers, there is 

 more good to be gained from it than from any other of the 

 junior societies.* 



In the beginning of the year 1840 a bright spot becomes 

 visible in the horizon. "Two days ago I heard from a 

 young friend that Dr. D. B. Reid, the chemist, is to leave 

 Edinburgh for London at the end of this winter. This has 

 set me seriously thinking about beginning to teach chemistry 



* The work of this session comprised six papers read to the Royal 

 Physical Society on the following subjects : " The Motives which 

 prompt to the Study of Science ;" "The Photogenic Decomposition of 

 Water by Chlorine, Bromine, and Iodine;" "The value of Balard's 

 Hypochlorous Acid as a Bleaching Agent ;" " Report on the Progress 

 of Chemistry, in Two Parts Part I. On its recent Application to the 

 Arts ; Part II. On its Recent Application to the Production of Light 

 for Economical Purposes ;" "On the Decomposing Powers of Hydrogen 

 as a Metal, and its Relations to the Constitution of Haloid Salts;" 

 "On the Solution of Gases in Water, and its Relation to Pneumatic 

 Inquiries. " 



To the Royal Medical Society he also read a paper on the "Non- 

 electric Character of the Light of the Pennatula Phosphorea." 



