Biographical Notes 43 



gravitation ; in fact, his range on the borderland of mathematics and 

 physics was exceptionally wide. Elected F.R.S. in 1859, he was 

 one of its Secretaries from 1854 to 1885, and President from the 

 latter year to 1890, receiving the Rumford Medal in 1852 and the 

 Copley in 1893. Besides honorary degrees and other marks of 

 appreciation, he sat in Parliament from 1887 to 1891 as a member 

 for his University, was created a baronet in 1889, and was elected 

 to the mastership of his College a few months before his death on 

 Feb. ist, 1903. In addition to his wide range in science, he took 

 much interest in theological questions, as is shown by his Gifford 

 Lectures and other writings. To celebrate his jubilee as Professor, 

 many eminent men of science from all civilized countries gathered 

 at Cambridge. 



PROFESSOR JOHN TYNDALL, a lecturer exceptionally distinguished, 

 was born on August 2nd, 1820, at Leighlin Bridge, Carlow, where 

 his father owned a little land. After working on the Ordnance 

 Survey and as a railway engineer, he accompanied Frankland to 

 Marburg, where he obtained, after only two years' study under 

 Bunsen, the degree of Ph.D., proceeding afterwards to Berlin. On 

 returning to Queenswood College in 1851, his increasing reputation 

 obtained him after two years the professorship of Natural Philosophy 

 at the Royal Institution. His investigations on slaty cleavage and 

 the veined structure of glaciers led him to become one of the most 

 energetic of Alpine climbers. His laboratory investigations on 

 radiant heat in relation to gases and on the effects of minute dust 

 on light, and incidentally on the question of spontaneous generation, 

 were all highly valuable. For seventeen years he was scientific 

 adviser to the Trinity House, and made important experiments 

 on fog-signalling. His address as President of the British Association 

 at its Belfast meeting excited much criticism from its anti-theological 

 character. After giving up work at the Royal Institution he 

 resided at Hindhead, where he died on Dec. 4th, 1893. 



The Committee, to whom a proposed alteration in the 

 bye-law about elections was referred on Jan. 25th, reported 

 that it was not prepared, at present, to recommend more 

 than the first clause in the proposal, namely, that the 

 elections in future should be held twice in a year, viz., on 

 the anniversary and on the first meeting in November. 

 This recommendation was put to the meeting and adopted. 

 The Committee left for further consideration the second 

 clause, that two-thirds of the votes should constitute election. 



Col. Sabine announced that Sir R. I. Murchison (unavoid- 

 ably absent) had mentioned the juxtaposition of societies 



