President's Address. 301 



He also devised an extremely delicate method (based on the inter- 

 ference of light) of determining the coefficients of thermal expansion 

 of small bodies, such as crystals. The instrument he designed has 

 been carefully studied by the Bureau International des Poids et 

 Mesures, with very satisfactory results. 



On account of these and other researches, M. Fizean has, for nearly 

 half a century, occupied a conspicuous position among European 

 physicists. He was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1866, and 

 became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1875. 



Our distinguished Foreign Member, Professor Hubert Anson 

 Newton, Senior Professor of Mathematics at the Yale University, 

 New Haven, died at his home in New Haven on the 12th of August 

 last. He was born at Sherbourne, in the State of New York, in 

 1830 ; studied at Yale College, where he graduated in 1850, and was 

 called to the Chair of Mathematics in the University at the early 

 age of twenty-five. 



On the organisation of the Observatory of the University in 1882, 

 Professor Newton was appointed Director ; and though he resigned 

 this position in 1884, the whole policy and success of the Observatory 

 ever since, and, indeed, its very existence, are in no small measure 

 due to his warm interest and untiring efforts. 



Professor Newton's name will ever remain associated with his 

 important researches on Meteor Astronomy, beginning as early as 

 1860, and with his inquiry into the possible capture of comets by 

 Jupiter and other planets. His historical investigations, and discus- 

 sions of the original accounts, showed that the phenomena of meteor 

 showers are of a permanent character, and come within the range 

 of Celestial Dynamics, and that predictions of returning meteoric 

 displays are possible. 



Professor Newton was President of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science in 1885, and was for many years an 

 Associate Editor of the 4 American Journal of Science.' He was a 

 man of noble character, held in universal esteem, and greatly beloved 

 by all those to whom he was persqnally known. 



The death of August Kekale will be felt as a severe loss to 

 chemical science all over the world. Not only did his great activity 

 in original research enrich organic chemistry with many new and 

 interesting compounds, bu^ his announcement of the tetradic valency 

 of carbon, and, especially, his theoretical conception of the benzene 

 ring, gave an impulse to the study of structural chemistry which has 

 introduced order into the vast array of organic compounds, both of 

 the alcoholic and aromatic types, and has not, even yet, expended 

 itself. In recognition of his life-long work, the Council of the Royal 

 Society awarded Professor Kekule the Copley Medal in 1885. 



Another Foreign Member who has passed away from us during 



