152 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



Mr. Meldrum's chief work, at first, was the extraction of meteoro- 

 logical observations from the log of every ship touching, at Mauritius, 

 and from this source he amassed a store of facts which he knew well 

 how to utilise. Part of this was employed in the preparation of the 

 cyclone tracks for the South Indian Ocean, a work subsequently 

 published by the Meteorological Council. 



Mr. Meldrum will chiefly be known by the persistent energy with 

 which he studied the connection between the sun-spot period and the 

 recurrence of the cyclones which too frequently devastate the waters 

 round the shores of Mauritius. He early established a system of 

 warnings for the cyclones approaching the island, and these were 

 speedily found to be of value and were implicitly trusted in the 

 port. 



Mr. Meldrum received the degree of LL.D. from his own 

 university. He was elected into this Society in 1876, and received 

 the honour of C.M.G. in 1886. He was for ten years a Member of 

 the Government Council of the island. In 1896 he returned to 

 England in very failing health, and after four years of suffering he 

 was at last released in August of this year (1901). 



E. H. S. 



GEORGE FEANCIS FITZGEEALD. 18511901. 



A thorough attempt to estimate the scientific value of FitzGerald's 

 life and work cannot yet be made : a summary of his published 

 writings can be given, and an indication can be added of the high 

 estimation in which he was held by scientific men in these islands. 

 To the foreigners and to men who have not been brought into 

 immediate contact with him his reputation may seem hardly intel- 

 ligible ; and, indeed, we are often constrained to plead guilty to a 

 sort of family affection existing among British Physicists, and a 

 sympathetic understanding running through our appreciation of 

 them, which tempts us occasionally to be unduly inattentive to some 

 of the first-class work of Physicists outside. It is not a fault on 

 which we pride ourselves : it is one which we lament : it is one 

 which may shortly cure itself, as death removes one after another of 

 those countrymen of the last generation whom we have held in such 

 high honour. The time will doubtless come when with our eyes 

 opened by bereavement, we can estimate in a manner less hampered 

 by intimate insular knowledge the equal achievements of foreigners ; 

 but meanwhile we must plead as excuse the extraordinary personal 



