224 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1881, and died on the 10th 

 of May, 1891 , at the age of seventy-four. 



The name of Becquerel has been famous in science since the days 

 of Biot, Davy, De La Rive, Faraday, Ampere, and Arago. I well 

 remember going to the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, in January 

 1845, with an introduction from Professor James Forbes to Antoine 

 Cesar Becquerel, who, even at that remote time, was a veteran in 

 physical science ; and finding him in his laboratory there, assisted 

 in work regarding electrolytically deposited films on polished 

 metallic surfaces and their colours, by his son Edmond, a bright 

 young man who had already commenced following his father's 

 example as an active worker in experimental physics. He had been 

 associated in 1839 with his father and the still older veteran, Biot, in 

 experiments on phosphorescence produced by electric currents, a 

 subject the profound importance of which is more appreciated now 

 than it was then. Through fifty years of active and fruitful work in 

 many departments of physical science, that subject of phosphor- 

 escence remained a speciality with Edmond Becquercl ; and his son 

 Henri, who survives him, has, in his turn, taken it up and given im- 

 portant contributions to knowledge regarding it. Edmond Becquerel 

 was elected Foreign Member of the Eoyal Society in 1888, and died 

 on the llth of May, 1891, at the age of seventy-one. 



Wilhelm Eduard Weber, of Gottingen, the second of three sons of 

 Michael Weber (Professor of Positive Divinity at the beginning of 

 this century in Wittenberg), of whom two were Foreign Members of 

 the Royal Society and all three active workers for the advancement 

 of natural knowledge, was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society 

 in 1850, and died on the 24th of June, 1891, at the age of eighty-seven. 

 He was colleague of Gauss in the great work on magnetic measure- 

 ment and on terrestrial magnetism of which they gave fruits to the 

 world in the ' Resultate aus den Beobachtungen des Magnetischen 

 Vereins.' The system of absolute measurement which Gauss intro- 

 duced for magnetism in general, and applied practically to terrestrial 

 magnetism, was nobly followed up by Weber, in extending it to 

 electrornagnetism and electrostatics, a truly epoch-making work in 

 physical science. On it is founded the splendidly valuable system of 

 practical measurement, in absolute units, of electric resistance, of 

 electromotive-force, and of electric current, which, after a first intro- 

 duction into this country in the year 1851, and a forty years' 

 struggle, has, since the last Anniversary Meeting of the Royal 

 Society, become definitively legalised for England through the action 

 of the Board of Trade, advised by a Committee to which the Royal 

 Society, the British Association, and the Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers were invited to send, and sent, representatives. 



The Royal Society, since the last Anniversary Meeting, have been, 



