Original Members 13 



science in England. Herschel, after a trial of the Law, devoted 

 himself to astronomical science, first working at optical and chemical 

 questions, and then ' taking up star-gazing ' in his father's observatory 

 at Slough. He was already an F.R.S., having read his first paper 

 while still an undergraduate, and received the Copley Medal in 

 1821, to be followed by a Royal Medal in 1836. The Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society also, in the foundation of which he co-operated, 

 gave him their gold medal. Meanwhile he carried on his father's 

 observations of double stars, publishing a catalogue including 380 of 

 them. During visits to the Continent in 1820 and the following year 

 he ascended the Pennine Breithorn, measured barometrically the 

 height of Etna, and made experiments on solar radiation from 

 the Puy de Dome. In 1825 he applied a telescope, devised by 

 himself and his father, with a reflector 20 feet from the object glass, 

 to the study of the nebulae. His catalogue (published in 1833, 

 and illustrated by 800 elaborate drawings) included 2307, nearly 

 a quarter of them discovered by himself. In 1830, after having 

 been Secretary to the Royal Society, he was strongly supported 

 for the Presidency, but a majority of its fellows preferred Royal 

 birth to scientific distinction, and elected the Duke of Sussex. Next 

 year, however, Herschel received the K.C.H. In 1834 he boldly 

 transported his great telescope and other instruments to the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in order to study the stars of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, and established an observatory near Cape Town. Before 

 his return in 1838, in which year he was created a baronet, he had 

 largely added to his discoveries of nebulae and double stars, and 

 had done much for the cause of education in the colony. In England 

 also he took an active part in public work, holding, besides other 

 positions, that of Master of the Mint from 1850 to 1855. To 

 enumerate even his more notable memoirs, articles, and books 

 would be impossible, for he worked indefatigably till his death on 

 May nth, 1871, when he was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the 

 grave of Newton ; like to whom, as was justly said, " he was 

 eminent for knowledge, simplicity, and humility." 



SIR JOSEPH D ALTON HOOKER, born at Halesworth, Suffolk, on 

 June 3oth, 1817, is another instance of a son inheriting a father's 

 talent. After taking the degree of M.D. at Glasgow in 1839, he 

 at once joined Sir James Ross' Antarctic expedition as assistant- 

 surgeon on the Erebus, thus obtaining, during the three years' 

 voyage, the materials for his three volumes on the Flora of the 

 Antarctic, New Zealand, and Tasmania. From 1847 to 1851 he 

 investigated the botany of part of the Himalayas, and during a 

 journey in Sikkim * was taken prisoner, ill-treated, and in danger 

 of being murdered. During this journey he obtained materials 

 for valuable memoirs on the rhododendrons of Sikkim and on the 



1 See Section II. 



