VI 



Encke's Comet in its predicted place on the 2nd of June, 1822, when, 

 owing to its position in the heavens at its perihelion passage, it could 

 not be seen in Europe ; and the determination of the length of the 

 pendulum at Paramatta. Speaking of the observations of the places 

 of Southern Stars, the same pre-eminent authority characterizes them 

 as forming one of the most interesting and important series which 

 has ever been made, and considers that they must ever be regarded 

 as marking a decided era in the history of southern astronomy ; and 

 he concludes his address in the following words: "It is for this 

 long catalogue of observations, whether scattered through the journals 

 of Europe, printed in our own memoirs, or deposited as a precious 

 charge in the care of a Body so capable of appreciating their merits, 

 but still more for the noble and disinterested example set by him in 

 the establishment of an Observatory on such a scale in so distant a 

 station, and which would have equally merited the present notice 

 had every observation perished on its voyage home, that your Council 

 have thought Sir Thomas M. Brisbane deserving of the distinction 

 of a medal of this Society." It may be added that this distinction 

 was not the less deserved, although it has been since found that from 

 causes which Sir Thomas could not well have obviated, the Catalogue 

 of Stars has turned out to be a less valuable result of the Australian 

 Observatory than its enlightened and munificent founder had reason 

 to anticipate. 



On his return from New South Wales, Sir Thomas founded an 

 Astronomical Observatory at Makerstoun, a residence he possessed 

 near Kelso; and he subsequently established at the same place a 

 Magnetical Observatory, which he furnished with the best instruments, 

 and appointed with a staff of able assistants, at his own charge. The 

 magnetical observations made at this observatory since its erection 

 in 1841, up to 1849, have been published in three quarto volumes, 

 and a fourth, containing the later observations, is now in the press. 

 The copyright of these volumes has been presented to the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, and they now form part of the record of the 

 Society's Transactions. For these magnetical observations, the 

 Society awarded Sir Thomas the Keith Medal in 1848. 



Sir Thomas Brisbane became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 

 1810 ; he was also a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society. He entered the Royal Society of Edinburgh as a 



