26 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



June 5th, 1865. He was elected F.R.S. in 1825, and received a 

 Royal Medal in 1856, and the degree of LL.D. from Dublin in 1857. 

 In 1846 he was knighted and in 1850 created C.B. 



ADMIRAL WILLIAM HENRY SMYTH was born in Westminster on 

 Jan. 2ist, 1788, entered the Navy and saw much service in Indian, 

 Chinese, and Australian waters, after which he made valuable charts 

 of the North Sea, French, Spanish, and Mediterranean coasts, till he 

 retired from active sea life as a post-captain in 1824, and devoted 

 himself to science, being elected F.R.S. in 1826. At an observatory 

 which he had established in Bedford, he carried out systematic work 

 on the stars, publishing the results in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 and made various contributions to scientific periodicals. Attaining 

 the rank of rear-admiral in 1853, he became full admiral in 1863, 

 and died at Aylesbury, to which place he had removed, on Sept. gth, 

 1865. 



SIR WILLIAM ROBERT GROVE, whose name is inseparable from the 

 history of the Philosophical Club, was the son of a Glamorganshire 

 landowner, born at Swansea, July nth, 1811. He graduated from 

 Brazenose College, Oxford, in 1832, having already become a student 

 of Lincoln's Inn. Ill-health at first impeded his career at the Bar, 

 so he devoted himself to science and especially electricity, inventing 

 the particular form of battery which bears his name. In 1840 he 

 was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institu- 

 tion and elected F.R.S. In both capacities he soon manifested his 

 powers, producing some most important papers and working for 

 reform in the latter body, from which he received a Royal Medal 

 in 1847, having published in the previous year his great treatise, 

 The Correlation of Physical Forces. His health had now greatly 

 improved, so that he resigned his chair at the Institution and resumed 

 active work at the Bar, quickly acquiring a large practice, especially 

 in patent cases. In 1853 he took silk, and was appointed a judge and 

 knighted in the winter of 1871, being transferred to the Queen's 

 Bench, about nine years afterwards. Late in 1887 he retired and 

 was made a Privy Councillor, when he returned with zest to his 

 scientific studies. He received honorary degrees from Oxford and 

 Cambridge, was noted as a man of remarkable energy and originality 

 of mind, and died at his house in Harley Street on Aug. ist, 1896. 



We now proceed to give an outline of the history of the 

 Philosophical Club, with short biographical notices of its 

 new members, 1 and of its efforts to promote the interests 



1 As the list of these overlaps the beginning of the present century, 

 many on it must be well known to all readers interested in science, so 

 that I have written much shorter notices of them than of the original 

 forty-seven. 



