OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. 



AKCHIBALD SMITH, only son of James Smith, of Jordanhill, Renfrew- 

 shire, was born on the 10th of August, 1813, at Greenhead, Glasgow, in 

 the house where his mother's father lived. His father, \vho also was a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, had literary and scientific tastes with a 

 strongly practical turn, fostered no doubt by his education in the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow and his family connexion with some . of the chief 

 founders of the great commercial community which has grown up by its 

 side. In published works on various subjects he left enduring monu- 

 ments of a long life of actively employed leisure. His discovery of 

 different species of Arctic shells, in the course of several years' dredging 

 from his yacht, and his inference of a previously existing colder climate 

 in the part of the world now occupied by the British Islands, con- 

 stituted a remarkable and important advancement of Geological Science, 

 In his ' Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul/ a masterly application of 

 the principles of practical seamanship renders St, Luke's narrative nigre 

 thoroughly intelligible to us now than it can have been to contem- 

 porary readers not aided by nautical knowledge. Later he published a 

 ' Dissertation on the Origin and Connexion of the Gospels ;' and he 

 was engaged in the collection of further materials fpr the elucidation qf 

 the same subject up to the time of his death, at the age of eighty-five. 

 Archibald Smith's mother was also of a family distinguished for intel- 

 lectual activity. Her paternal grandfather was Dr. Andrew Wilson, 

 Professor of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, whose specula- 

 tions on the constitution of the sun are now generally accepted, especially 

 since the discovery of spectrum-analysis and its application to solar 

 physics. -Her uncle, Dr. Patrick Wilson, who succeeded to his father's 

 Chair in the University, was author of papers in the 'Philosophical 

 Transactions ' on Meteorology and on Aberration. 



Archibald Smith's earliest years were chiefly passed in the old castle of 

 Roseneath, In 1818 and 1819 he was taken by his father and mother to 

 travel on the continent of Europe. Much of his early education was 

 given him by his father, who read Virgil with him when he was about 

 nine years old. He also had lessons from the Roseneath parish school- 

 master, Mr. Dodds, who was very proud of his young pupil. In Edin- 



A-OL. xxn. 



