92 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



Club," as this was its jubilee. The sands, however, of its 

 separate life were in reality running low. 



The November meeting (on the i8th) failed to attract a 

 quorum, and one was not obtained till January 20th, 1898, 

 when Professor Meldola was elected into the vacancy made 

 by the resignation of Mr. D. Sharp. 



PROFESSOR RAPHAEL MELDOLA was a member of a Jewish 

 family, bora in London on July igth, 1849, and trained at the Royal 

 School of Mines, who became Professor in the Finsbury Technical 

 College and then of Organic Chemistry in the University of London. 

 He had charge of the Eclipse Expedition to the Nicobar Islands, 

 made many scientific discoveries in regard to coal-tar dyes, wrote 

 much on these and similar chemical subjects, including photography, 

 on entomology, and the Essex earthquake of 1884. Elected F.R.S. 

 in 1886, he was awarded the Davy Medal in 1913, and was an honorary 

 doctor of St. Andrews and Oxford, and ended his busy life on 

 Nov. i6th, 1915. 



1898. At the Anniversary Meeting on April 28th, Pro- 

 fessor W. G. Adams became Treasurer in the place of Sir 

 W. Crookes, and Mr. Thornycroft was elected into the 

 vacancy made by Sir R. Strachey becoming an honorary 

 supernumerary member. 



SIR JOHN ISAAC THORNYCROFT, naval architect and engineer, 

 was born at Rome in 1843, his father and mother both being sculptors. 

 In the important shipbuilding works which he founded at Chiswick, 

 he has introduced many improvements in naval architecture and 

 engineering, especially in obtaining high speed, and is still engaged 

 in adding to the efficiency of the British Navy. He was elected 

 F.R.S. in 1893, and knighted in 1902. 



On November i7th, the transference of Mr. Francis Galton 

 to the honorary supernumerary members made a vacancy, 

 which was filled by the election of Professor J. J. Thomson, 



SIR JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON, the recently appointed Master of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, was born near Manchester on Dec. i8th, 1856, 

 and graduated in 1880 from that College as second wrangler and 

 second Smith's prizeman. He was elected to a fellowship in the 

 same year, and Professor of Experimental Physics in 1884. His 

 success as a teacher and his researches into electricity, magnetism, 

 and the ultimate nature of matter, have made his name so famous 

 that it need only be said that he was elected F.R.S. in 1884, and 

 became its President in 1915, after having received the Copley, 



