142 Presidentship of Sir John Pr ingle 1778 



course of the summer he let it be known that he contemplated 

 soon resigning his Presidency of the Royal Society, and 

 consequently would no longer fill the chair at the dinners 

 of the Club. He retired from the Presidency on St. Andrew's 

 Day this year, when at the annual election Joseph Banks 

 was chosen to succeed him. Another change in the mem- 

 bership of the Club arose from the election of Paul Henry 

 Maty as one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society. Mr. 

 Banks, already a member of the Club, took the Chair as its 

 President on December 3rd, and Mr. Maty was introduced 

 on the 15 th of the month as one of the e% officio members. 



Among the foreign guests entertained at the Club during 

 this year were Prince Gonzaga di Castiglione, Count Colonna, 

 and Baron Nolcken the envoy from Sweden, who had been 

 elected into the Royal Society on 8th May 1777. Dr. 

 Ingenhousz reappeared in the winter and dined several 

 times. Mr. Alstrcemer, also, was again a guest. But per- 

 haps the most interesting visitors from abroad were two 

 Italians who had been sent by their Government on a mission 

 to study museum arrangements and other scientific matters. 

 The elder, Padre Felice Fontana, noted as a naturalist, was 

 Professor in the University of Pisa and author of various 

 contributions to physiology. It was on his appointment 

 as Director of the Museum of Natural History at Florence 

 that he was deputed to gain information in France and 

 England. His companion, the Baron Fabroni, was then a 

 young man of six-and-twenty. He was commissioned by 

 the Grand Duke Leopold to study the discoveries which in 

 the west of Europe were so augmenting the domain of science. 

 Though not himself a discoverer, he made himself conversant 

 with the state of different branches of science, and had such 

 a faculty of exposition that he could at any time discourse 

 with clearness and charm upon any subject to which he had 

 given attention. 



Among the English visitors James Boswell again appears. 

 There occurs also the name of Admiral Campbell. He was 

 probably the same who was this year promoted to be vice- 

 admiral, and who had sailed round the globe with Anson 



