1 6 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



returned to that continent, went to Madeira and the Canary Islands, 

 and continued his excursions in Europe, this was the last of his long 

 wanderings for the study of Nature. Honours now came more 

 thickly. He was thrice President of the Geological Society, was 

 awarded its Wollaston Medal and the Royal and Copley Medals 

 of the Royal Society, was President of the British Association, 

 received honorary degrees and foreign orders, was made a knight 

 in 1848, and a baronet ten years later. Intimate with Charles 

 Darwin, he did not immediately accept his theory of the ' Origin 

 of Species,' but afterwards became a convert, for which he gives 

 his reasons hi his last great book, The Antiquity of Man, published 

 in 1863. So life passed in unflagging work till early in 1873 he had 

 the misfortune to lose Lady Lyell ; then his own health declined, 

 and on Feb. 22nd, 1875, he passed away, and was laid hi Westminster 

 Abbey near the grave of Woodward, one of the pioneers of British 

 Geology. His thirst for knowledge, with the singular openness 

 and perfect fairness of his mind, impressed all who knew him. Two 

 maxims regulated bis work, the one " Go and see " ; the other, 

 " Prefer reason to authority." 



DR. WILLIAM ALLEN MILLER, a distinguished chemist, was born 

 at Ipswich, Dec. I7th, 1817. Educated for the medical profession, 

 he passed through King's College, London, at which, after holding 

 a subordinate position, he was elected in 1845 Professor of Chemistry. 

 Notwithstanding his official duties and the preparation of his 

 important Elements of Chemistry, he spent the night hours in 

 investigating, with his neighbour at Tulse Hill, William Huggins, 

 stellar spectra, in which method of analysis he had already become 

 expert. Besides these he aided in a report on the London Water 

 Supply, and in a Kew Committee to provide for uniformity in 

 weights and measures, invented a thermometer for deep-sea sound- 

 ings, and was assay er to the Mint and Bank of England. He took 

 the degree of M.D. in London University in 1842, and received 

 honorary degrees from Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Oxford. " In- 

 defatigable in work, cautious but clear in judgment, and sincerely 

 religious," he died of apoplexy from brain fatigue at Liverpool 

 on Sept. soth, 1870, while attending a meeting of the British 

 Association 



SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, a leader in geological and geo- 

 graphical circles in London, was born on Feb. igth, 1792, at Tarra- 

 dale in County Ross ; a descendant of an old Highland family. 

 He lost his father early, and obtained a commission as ensign in 

 1807. Going with his regiment to Portugal, he was in the battle 

 of Vimiero and the retreat of Corunna. On returning to England, 

 it was kept at home, much to Murchison's chagrin, and after Waterloo 

 he married and retired from the army. He was already slightly 

 interested in science, but for the next two years paid much more 



