72 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



the history of which, of diamonds, and of other minerals, he made 

 valuable contributions. Elected F.R.S. in 1870, he received the 

 Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society in 1893, an d was made 

 an Honorary D.Sc. at Oxford in 1903. In 1879 he succeeded to 

 the Basset Down estate, and next year resigned his post at the 

 British Museum, but retained the Oxford Chair till 1895, sitting 

 in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1892. He died after a 

 prolonged illness at Basset Down on May aoth, 1911. 



JOHN WILLIAM STRUTT, third Baron Rayleigh, as now Chancellor 

 of the University of Cambridge, needs only a brief introduction. 

 Born on Nov. iath, 1842, he was scholar and Fellow of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, being senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman 

 in 1865. From 1879 to 1884 he was Professor of Experimental 

 Physics at that University and of Natural Philosophy at the Royal 

 Institution from 1887 to 1905. Elected F.R.S. in 1873, he was 

 a Secretary for eleven years, and its President from 1905 to 1908. 

 He has received the Copley, Royal, and Rumford Medals, several 

 degrees and other distinctions at home and abroad, including the 

 Order of Merit. Perhaps the most notable of his many important 

 contributions to mathematical physics is the discovery of argon in 

 1894, in collaboration with the late Professor Sir William Ramsay. 



1879. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, it was 

 decided to add a clause to Rule IX. to make the proposal 

 of a member valid for five years only, counting from January 

 ist of the year in which it was made, and another to Rule XII. 

 instructing the Treasurer to remind any member who had 

 not attended a meeting during a year. A new Rule (XIII.) 

 was adopted, which enabled a member of at least twenty 

 years' standing to be transferred, at his written request, 

 to the list of Honorary Supernumerary Members, and defined 

 their position. 



As a result of this, Dr. Lloyd and Professor Sharpey were 

 transferred to that list, and these vacancies, together with 

 one caused by the death of Professor Clifford, were filled 

 by the election of Professor Duncan, Sir J. H. Lefroy, and 

 Mr. H. N. Moseley. 



Dr. Allen Thomson was elected Treasurer in the place 

 of Mr. Francis Galton, who presented a statement of attend- 

 ances in the last year of each ten from 1848-9 to 1878-9. 

 The totals were 150, 150, 139, and 120 ; the maximum 

 number in the first three periods being 22 and in the last 



